Nearly 40 years after the unsolved murder of a Daly City eighth-grader, a renewed state reward and advancing DNA technology may finally bring answers to a grieving family.
Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that the state is offering $300,000 in total reward money for information leading to the arrests of killers in six unsolved cases. Of that total, $50,000 has been set aside for the 1987 homicide of 13-year-old Michele Matteucci.
Michele left school by bus and set out toward her home in Daly City on Nov. 10, 1987, just 12 days after celebrating her 13th birthday. Daly City police state that she was found strangled to death on Morton Drive, very close to her bus stop and home, after being sexually assaulted and beaten.
Those harrowing details have haunted her brother, Marc Matteucci, and the rest of the family for 39 years amid a lack of answers.
“That’s one of the very hard parts about this, is because she had her whole life ahead of her, with school and education, and possible family life, and I just felt like she was cheated,” said Marc Matteucci.
“It has been difficult, but I give myself, and my family a lot of credit, because I know Michele would want us to go on with our lives,” he added.
In a press release, Newsom emphasized that every family deserves answers “when a loved one is taken by violence.”
Marc Matteucci expressed gratitude for the state’s intervention: “I do appreciate the Governor, and the state of California to offer this, because it very well might make some speak out now.”
While the National Institute of Justice estimates that roughly 20% of cold cases are eventually solved, legal experts believe modern investigative tools could change the equation. Although statistics show rewards alone do not always spike clearance rates, Bay Area legal expert Steven Clark noted that financial incentives paired with modern science offer new hope.
“And when you incentivize through the use of rewards, you can get people to come forward,” Clark said. “With the DNA advances we have today, just getting a tip on someone, can link them through a relative’s DNA, to see if you can place them at the scene of a crime.”
Marc Matteucci agreed that fresh leads are vital for further testing: “The more names, the more possibilities, the better, to do as much testing as possible.”
Anyone with information about Michele Matteucci’s disappearance and murder is urged to contact the Daly City Police Department.
