Oregon DOJ Secures 20-Year Sentence in 1983 Cold Case Homicide of Teresa Peroni

Attorney General Dan Rayfield announced today that Marcus Sanfratello, 73, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for the 1983 homicide of Teresa Peroni, closing a case that went unsolved for more than four decades. Sanfratello pleaded guilty to Manslaughter in the First Degree in Josephine County Circuit Court. Under the terms of the plea agreement, he will serve a minimum of 10 years.

"For Teresa Peroni's family, this has been a 43-year wait for an answer they never should have had to wait for," said Attorney General Rayfield. "Cases like this remind us of why we don't give up. It doesn't matter how many years have passed - if someone took a life, we're going to keep working until we can hold them accountable."

The case dates back to July 1983, when Teresa Peroni, then 27, was reported missing shortly after attending a party in the Selma area. She was last seen walking in the woods with Sanfratello, who was her boyfriend at the time. Her disappearance was deemed suspicious, but an initial investigation by the Josephine County Sheriff's Office and the District Attorney's Office did not produce sufficient evidence to support charges.

In 1997, a human skull was discovered on nearby private property, though no additional remains were found. In 2024, the Josephine County Sheriff's Office reopened the case with prosecution and investigative support from the Oregon Department of Justice, the Josephine County District Attorney's Office. Investigators re-interviewed witnesses, collected new DNA evidence, and applied modern forensic techniques to build a case against Sanfratello. On June 27, 2025, evidence was presented to a Josephine County grand jury. They indicted Sanfratello on the charge of Murder in the Second Degree. Chico Police, coordinating with the Josephine County Sheriff's Office and the Oregon Department of Justice, arrested him the following day in Chico, CA. He was then extradited to Oregon.

The case was prosecuted by the Oregon Department of Justice Criminal Division. Senior Assistant Attorneys General John Casalino and Brad Kalbaugh, along with ODOJ Special Agent Brendan McGuire, led the effort - meticulously organizing more than 40 years of evidence to secure a conviction.

The Oregon Department of Justice acknowledges the vital contributions of Detective Sergeant Kile Heinrich of the Josephine County Sheriff's Office, the Josephine County District Attorney's Office, Oregon State Police Forensic Anthropologist Dr. Nici Vance, the scientists at the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification and the Chico Police Department.