Credit: Solano County Sheriff's Office
Last week, deputies booked a suspect into Solano County Jail for a homicide committed 42 years ago.
In August 1980, two field workers discovered a body in a cornfield in Dixon, California. The victim was a white female, but otherwise unidentified. Her cause of death was listed as multiple gunshots to the head and neck.
The victim was initially listed as Jane Doe for more than 10 years. It was not until 1992 when the Coroner’s Office was contacted by the National Missing Persons Unit that investigators learned the victim was 21-year-old Holly Ann Campiglia from New Jersey.
In late 2021, at the request of the family, an evidence technicians reviewed the cold case to see if any of the original evidence could be resubmitted for additional DNA analysis. Several months later, investigators received a report from the Serological Research Institute (SERI) stating that male DNA was found on these pieces of evidence. When that DNA was submitted into another database with the San Mateo Crime Lab, investigators learned that it belonged to 76-year-old Herman Lee Hobbs. At that time, Hobbs had been serving a significant prison sentence for a 1975 murder for which he was convicted in 2005 in Sacramento. Detectives obtained a warrant to collect new DNA from Hobbs for a direct comparison, and it was confirmed for a second time.
Late last week, an arrest warrant was issued by a Solano County Superior Court Judge along with a removal order to have Hobbs transferred from State Prison to Solano County Jail to face new charges for the murder of Campiglia, including an enhancement for the use of a gun. Detectives continue to work in collaboration with other Northern California agencies to potentially identify and/or solve additional cases that may be linked to Hobbs.
Cold cases are particularly difficult cases to work because sadly, time goes on which leads to gaps in memory and new cases that come in and change the prioritization. For example, the original deputy to investigate this case was Deputy Jose “Joe” Cisneros who was killed in the line of duty in 1985. His hard work is still helping solve cases over 40 years later.
This is the second arrest involving a cold case homicide in Solano County in the past seven months. In July 2022, James Gary was arrested for the 1996 murder of Winifred Douglas. He is still pending court proceedings. This case remains under active investigation. If you have information relating to this homicide from 1980, please contact Solano Sheriff Investigations at 707-784-7050.
Republished courtesy of Solano County Sheriff's Office.