Noe Cortez
Appearances
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
They continued to work it through the year, but as time went on, the tips just became lesser and lesser and the case became cold.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
March 24th of 1974, a young lady named Janet Taylor was visiting friends at Stanford University. Janet was the daughter of Chuck Taylor, who was associated to Stanford as the football coach, athletic director.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
The following morning on March 25th, 1974, a driver located a body at about 10.30 in the morning on the side of Sand Hill Road, which is actually San Mateo County. It's about a couple exits north of Santa Clara County.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
Janet Taylor, it seemed that had similar sexual assault indications. Her pants were ripped. She also appeared that she struggled with the perpetrator. And it was also determined that she was strangled to death. Her shoes were also removed and they were a distance away from her body.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
She was accepted to go to law school. She had recently moved back to live with her mother in the city of Los Altos. Her father had passed away six months prior. So she had been living with her mother, and she was also working in the law library at the Palo Alto Courthouse.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
When the Santa Clara County detectives learned of this case, they immediately contacted the San Mateo County detectives, and they both agreed that the cases were similar, and they believed that it was the same perpetrator. And they started to work on the case together.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
Arliss Ferry was the wife of a student at Stanford. She got in an argument with her husband late one evening and went to church. She was very religious, went to the memorial church on the campus.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
Ultimately, the next morning, the security guard found her deceased inside the church.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
I opened up the case and started to read it. There was hundreds of pages of police reports, numerous pages of evidence.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
When I reviewed the reports and I looked at the evidence, there was evidence that was collected from her person, from her body. The pubic hair, fingernail clippings, scalp hair, the scarf. Those items of evidence I determined could be tested for DNA since the technology with DNA was much improved in 2016. And so that's when I decided to send all those items to the Santa Clara County Crime Lab.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
She talked to her supervisor and wanted to leave right at 3 p.m., which was her normal time to leave work, because she wanted to go to the hills that were west of Stanford.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
There's a criminalist at the Santa Clara County Crime Lab, Kevin Kellogg, whose assignment is to work on evidence on cold cases. So I met with him and we determined these items should be tested.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
I believe it was in 2018 that he told me that we located an unknown DNA profile from the fingernail clippings.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
And so the DNA profile went into the CODIS database. The purpose is to see if there was an individual who had ever been arrested where their DNA profile was collected from the CODIS database. to see if there'd be a match.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
There was no connection to any DNA profile in the CODIS database.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
With Parabon Nanolabs, they take the DNA evidence and they enter it into the ancestry databases that are available, where the public, they put their DNA into these databases to see if there's a connection with other individuals to locate distant relatives and start a family tree.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
That person actually lived in Palo Alto at the time of the murder of Leslie Perlov. Not only that, he lived three and a half miles away from the crime scene. His name was John Arthur Getrue.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
They provided a lot of information about this person. One of the things that they did provide in the report, this person, John Getrue, was associated to a homicide in Germany in 1963.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
His father was in the army. They traveled a lot as a family in the army. They ended up in Germany in 1963, where John Getrue was going to high school.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
They stopped at a baseball field where they became intimate. But when Margaret Williams decided that she didn't want to continue, John Getrue sexually assaulted her and strangled her to death.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
There was witnesses. Some of the other students that were at the same function said that they walked away together. There was some other students that saw them near the baseball field. They interviewed him and he eventually admitted to what he did. So the. German authorities conducted their investigation along with a parallel investigation by the military police.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
And so he was convicted of the murder, the sexual assault and murder of Margaret Williams. And he was sentenced to 10 years in jail.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
I looked into his criminal record and what I found out was that in 1975, he was also arrested and convicted of a sexual assault of a 17-year-old girl in the city of Palo Alto.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
She drove to the intersection of Page Mill Road and Old Page Mill. She parked her vehicle at the entrance of an old quarry. And this would have been west of Stanford University in the hills between Stanford University and Highway 280. She parked her vehicle there sometime after 3 p.m. It would probably have taken her at the most 10 minutes from her work to that location.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
I found out that he was still alive and that he lived in the city of Newark, California, which was located just a few miles from San Jose and Palo Alto.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
The information that I received that he was possibly the person that that the DNA was associated to underneath Leslie Perloff's funerals. It's just an investigative lead. We have to confirm that this is the actual person. That's actually his DNA.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
We went to his house and set up surveillance on him. Our goal was to hopefully follow him somewhere and obtain some surreptitious DNA, something that he would discard, something that we can collect and compare. Any DNA that he left behind in this evidence item that he discarded to the DNA located under Leslie's fingernail clippings.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
And it was sometime around 12 o'clock in the afternoon that a female drove into the driveway. That's when I first saw John Getrue walk out of his house and get into his vehicle. We followed the female, which I later found out was his wife. and John Gettrude to a doctor's office.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
After he was done with his doctor's appointment, he walked to another part of this complex where there was stores, and I saw him buy a cup of coffee along with his wife, and eventually they walked into the pharmacy to get John Gettrude's medication.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
He said, I have my hand around your neck, and if you scream, I'll do you in.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
My partner, Sergeant Piazza, sat inside the pharmacy directly across from John Getrie as he consumed his coffee, and he observed him throw away his cup in a garbage can. As soon as John Getrie and his wife left, we collected both cups that were discarded, and I later submitted those cups to the Santa Clara County Crime Lab.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
I was notified by the crime lab that the DNA from the coffee cup that John Getru was drinking was the match to the DNA underneath Leslie Perloff's fingernails.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
He was 74 at the time of his arrest.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
We had him transported to my office, the sheriff's office headquarters in San Jose, and that's where I interviewed him for two to three hours.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
I asked him about Eddie had been arrested. He said no. And when I told him, well, I found out that something happened in Germany. And he said, well, looks like you did your homework.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
I'll let you know what's going on and why you're here today.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Before I let you know what's going on, I just want to get your personal information. Just confirm your name. Your full name is John Arthur. Getru. I started the interview with just the general information about himself. And so I slowly talked to him about himself, about his family, about his family's history, about where he lived.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
He made statements about being older and his memory wasn't that good anymore, that he couldn't remember certain details.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
Now, you mentioned that he had never been arrested, and I found out that something happened in Germany.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
And so we continued the interview, and eventually I also brought up the 1975 rape arrest and conviction of the 17-year-old female in Palo Alto. He said something like, oh, that was so piddly. They said I raped her, but he didn't want to go into details about that case. And then at some point, there was another accusation against you about a sexual assault from the Palo Alto Police Department?
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
Okay. Did you end up serving time for that? Do you remember?
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
A deputy on patrol saw her vehicle, which stood out. It was an orange Chevrolet Nova. He got out and checked the area around the vehicle, noticed that the vehicle was unlocked and there were a pair of women's shoes in the vehicle. Nothing else. Nobody was around the vehicle. So he decided to... Just come back later on to see if it was still there.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
You know, I did a little bit of research. I tried some of these.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
Yeah, yeah. I obtained the police reports from the Palo Alto Police Department about that rape. And something that stood out about that was when he was sexually assaulting this young girl. He said, I have my hand around your neck, and if you scream, I'll do you in.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
Eventually, I told him when I got to the investigation for Leslie Perlov's murder, I told him that I was investigating a death in the hills. that west of Stanford University. And I showed him a picture of Leslie Perloff. And this picture was the picture that was used back in 1973 by the sheriff's office as a flyer for any tips and leads. And he looked at the picture and he said, Stanford graduate.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
Why do you say she's a Stanford graduate?
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
I never mentioned to him that Leslie Perloff had graduated from Stanford or that she even attended Stanford. And at that point, I realized that he recognized her because at the time it was on the media that she was a Stanford graduate and that she was associated to Stanford University.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
He denied ever going up into the hills in that area. He denied hiking those hills or ever going up there. He was a Boy Scout leader, and he said that he would frequently hike in the hills, in the Santa Cruz hills, which would be further west of the location where Leslie was murdered.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
Yeah, yeah. Or killing a young woman? In this investigation, if your DNA was on this young lady, why would you think your DNA was on her?
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
Your DNA is on her. Yeah. Okay? I'm not trying to find out who did it. Mm-hmm. What I'm trying to find out is why you did it. Mm-hmm. And I think you know more than you're telling me.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
And I'm going to ask you, I mean, did you hurt this young girl?
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
My job is merely to find the truth in every investigation. And there's a lot of factors in that. A lot of it now, of course, is evidence. And the evidence that we have points to you. And the reason I wanted to talk to you is to give you the opportunity to tell me what happened.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
Yeah. And I was hoping that, you know, looking at these photographs, talking about your past, talking about the events of your past, learning, I learned a lot about you, the type of person you were growing up, becoming an adult, living your life. You know, I was hoping that you could help me out by just giving closure to this family who lost this young lady. Nope. No?
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
Can you give me an explanation of why your DNA is on her?
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
Straight denied that he did not know her. When I asked him, how would your DNA get there? He's like, well, I don't know. It's got to be a mistake. My DNA wouldn't be there. He just denied any connection to Leslie Provel.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
So after the interview concludes, we booked him into the jail for the murder of Leslie Perloff. I immediately contact Leslie's brother and sister. I think Leslie's brother, Craig, was shocked. And Diane Perloff was ecstatic about the arrest. And she wanted to know when the next court date was going to be because she wasn't going to be there.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
Both victims, there was an attempted sexual assault. They were killed by strangulation and both of them had their shoes removed and the shoes were quite a bit away from their bodies. And so I contacted the cold case detectives from San Mateo County and I informed them of the arrest.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
I asked them, you know, can you look at your evidence to see if there's any connection with John Getrue and the murder of Janet Taylor.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
She would go to work and be at work at 1030 in the morning. After work at 3 p.m., she would go straight home, be home by 3.30 p.m. to make dinner for her mother. If Leslie had something else to do after work, she would either call her mother or leave a note. On this day, she did not leave a note. She did not call her mother.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
Their criminalist was able to test Janet Taylor's pants. She noticed that there was a rip in the crotch area of Janet Taylor's pants. And she tested for DNA. And sure enough, John Getrie's DNA was found on the crotch area of Janet Taylor's pants.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
The investigators believe that John Getrie was trying to rip off Janet Taylor's pants during the struggle to sexually assault her. It's believed that she fought back. By all indications, she was trained as a brown belt, and her family and friends believe she fought for her life as well.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
He was found guilty less than an hour from when they received the case. So when the closing arguments ended immediately that same day, they came back with a birth of guilty evidence.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
Based on the evidence, I believe Leslie Perlov went, drove up to the hills to look for that scenery, to look for a location to have a painting done for her mother. Whether she was going to take a photograph of the scenery or somehow you get the artist to go up there and do a painting, that was never answered. But she went up there looking for a location.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
John Getrue either saw her getting out of the vehicle as he's passing by or was up in the area hiking on his own. That was never going to be answered. But at some point, he assaulted her.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
We later interviewed one of the Boy Scouts for him when he was a Boy Scout leader. And he informed us that the area where Leslie Perloff was located was an area that they frequently went. to search for mistletoe because part of them making money or raising funds for the Boy Scouts was to sell mistletoe. He said that they frequented that area to collect mistletoe.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
Diane Perloff made the impact statement and she went into great detail about how Leslie's life was taken away. She had so much potential. Smart was an advocate for justice and had her whole life ahead of her and was taken away by John Getrie. And Diane talked about how she could never wear a scarf because the scarf that was used to kill Leslie Perloff was actually Diane's scarf.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
And that she was always afraid to walk alone because of what happened for Leslie.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
Diane Perloff and Craig Perloff, they were grateful they were able to get answers about who did this to their sister. Diane Perloff told me that she missed her sister and was devastated because they were inseparable. And getting the answers of who did it was satisfying for her, but her sister was never going to come back.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
I later learned after his arrest that he had been molesting his stepdaughter from the time she was approximately eight years old to about 13 years old.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
There wasn't anything specific that they could look into other than searching the hills and
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
They did contact all the residents in the area to see if they saw or heard anything. And the detectives put it out for the media for any help, witnesses, for any leads.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
He was a police officer that was driving his family to a farm nearby and reported seeing Leslie's vehicle, which stood out, the orange Nova. And there was another beige or tan vehicle parked next to it with a male standing between the vehicles. That stood out to him because of the area being remote and with the information that was provided to the media.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
They did take her vehicle for testing, for processing, for evidence. And at the time, fingerprinting was the major way of collecting evidence. They also collected any fibers that were inside the vehicle. But nothing ever was connected to a specific person or a specific crime.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
Officers then rushed to that specific location. And when they arrived, they were shocked by what they found. It was a body of a young man who had shot himself with a shotgun. And so investigators focused on that individual as a possible suspect.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
They contacted numerous individuals that lived in the area. This young man was known to frequent the area to go hiking or just sit in his vehicle. His girlfriend told investigators that they would frequently go up to that old quarry to drink alcohol. And so he was very familiar with the area.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
During their investigation, they learned that at the time Leslie disappeared, he was at home, he was not anywhere near that location, and eventually ruled him out.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
It wasn't until Friday, February 16th, at approximately 10.40 in the morning, that a sheriff's mounted deputy reported that he had discovered Leslie's body.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
She was found partially unclothed with her skirt moved up past her waist, so her lower body was exposed, and she was face down underneath the oak tree.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
One thing that stood out was that her pantyhose and her underwear were stuffed down her mouth. And she had a scarf around her neck, which was eventually determined that it was the ligature used to strangle her.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
One thing that did stand out was that her rain boots were taken off her and detectives at the time located the rain boots 75 feet away approximately from her body.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
The assumption was there was an attempted sexual assault that Leslie fought for her life. And during that fight for her life, she sustained numerous blunt force trauma injuries and eventually was strangled to death by the perpetrator.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
They collected pubic hair, scalp hair, for evidence.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
They collected the fingernails for any signs of blood evidence or anything that could be tested.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
She had a boyfriend. He was actually going to the school in Utah. So they looked at the handle, but... When they did the follow-up investigation, he was in Utah at school and during the time of this incident.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
There were numerous reported individuals by general public. Anybody that seemed strange or out of place were reported to the sheriff's office and they did investigate or at least follow up with those tips.
Anatomy of Murder
Similarly Tragic (Leslie Perlov & Janet Taylor)
They weren't able to link any one person. to being in the area at the time Leslie was up in the hills or any reason for anybody to hurt her.