Mark Personette Gets Life for 1978 Murder of 15-Year-Old Marissa Harvey

Q: Why is Mark Personette eligible for parole after seven years in the rape and murder of 15-year-old Marissa Harvey?

Mark Personette is eligible for parole after seven years because California law generally sets seven years as the minimum parole-eligibility period for a life sentence when no longer minimum term applies. He was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life with the possibility of parole, not life without parole. Under California Penal Code section 3046, a person serving an indeterminate life term can be considered for parole after serving at least seven years, unless another statute requires more time. Reporting on the case described his sentence as the maximum available sentence of life with parole eligibility in seven years. That does not mean he will be released in seven years. It means he can ask the parole board to consider him then. The board can deny parole if it finds he still poses a danger, and Personette is already serving other life sentences tied to separate sexual-assault killings in Colorado and a prior case in Florida, which would also affect whether he could ever actually leave prison. So the seven-year figure reflects how California structures parole eligibility for this type of life sentence, not a guarantee of freedom after seven years.

Q: How did DNA from a 1978 San Francisco murder finally expose a suspect nearly half a century later?

He was identified through modern DNA testing and investigative genetic genealogy applied to evidence collected in 1978. Investigators eventually developed a male DNA profile from biological material left on Marissa Harvey’s clothing and, crucially, from a piece of dried chewing gum found stuck to her back. Early testing in the 2000s showed the DNA belonged to an unknown man, but the profile did not match anyone in standard law-enforcement databases, so the case remained unsolved. When San Francisco police reopened the cold case in 2020, they used more advanced forensic analysis and genetic genealogy techniques to compare that DNA with relatives found through genealogy databases. That work pointed detectives to Mark Personette as a likely suspect. Authorities then sought a direct comparison. FBI agents surveilled Personette in the Denver area and collected discarded trash he had thrown away in a Walmart parking lot. According to prosecutors, the trash contained personal hygiene items bearing his DNA. Testing showed his DNA matched the profile recovered from Harvey’s jeans, sweater and the dried gum. Investigators also found corroborating evidence in a search of his home, including 1970s maps of San Francisco and California license plates, undercutting his claim that he had never been there. Together, the genetic match and supporting evidence broke open a murder case that had sat unresolved for more than four decades.

3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Oct 1

Mark Personette, 80, was sentenced on Sept. 18 to life in prison for the 1978 strangling murder of 15-year-old Marissa Harvey in San Francisco; he will be eligible for parole after seven years.
A jury convicted him in November of first-degree murder, capping a case in which prosecutors said he evaded authorities for 43 years after Harvey was killed during an Easter holiday visit from Queens.
On March 28, 1978, surfers found Harvey’s body in Sutro Heights Park near the Pacific; prosecutors said she had injuries indicating she had been raped.
Assistant District Attorney Heather Trevisan called the sentence a relief, saying Personette had “an extra 48 years that Marissa never got,” underscoring the long-delayed resolution of the case.