The Cloverdale Police Department (CPD) is reopening the rape and murder case of Sara Ann Geer, a13-year-old Cloverdale resident who was found dead behind a Main Street apartment building on May 24, 1982.
According to reporting from a June 1982 edition of the Cloverdale Reveille, Geer’s body appeared to have been dragged up an alley toward an apartment building and under an apartment fence. She had last been seen alive on the Sunday evening before she was found.
In a social media post on July 15, the CPD said that it is contracting with a private investigation firm to reopen the investigation in hopes that the investigation team will be able to reexamine evidence to shine “new light” on the investigation, or to find new evidence to analyze.
CPD Chief Jason Ferguson said that he initially met with the investigation firm in 2019 with the intention of reopening the case. However, the investigation reopening was pushed back due to COVID-19, which he said “put the breaks on the process.”
“The primary reason more information about reopening the case was not disclosed earlier is due, in large part, to unnecessary rumors, hearsay, uninvolved party interjections and misleading information posted on social media, which has already threatened to jeopardize the integrity of the investigation moving forward,” a department announcement said.
In mid-June, an account using Geer’s name and photo appeared on Facebook and posted on a Cloverdale-specific Facebook group, urging readers to look into the murder. Ferguson said that the announcement in part was in reference to that account, along with other “community messaging.” He said that the Facebook account was removed shortly after the police department posted about the reopened investigation.
The CPD is urging community members to avoid posting misleading information about the case.
Anyone with information relative to the case is being asked to contact the tip line at 707-867-9840 or by email at ge******************@ci.us.
