DNA evidence used to track down American serial killer in New Jersey woman's 1980 Solano County murder

DNA evidence used to track down Herman Lee Hobbs for the murder of Holly Ann Campiglia who was already serving a prison for a different murder

By Edward Era Barbacena

Holly Ann Campiglia’s body was dumped in a Solano County cornfield 42 years ago. The young woman’s murder went unsolved for four decades, but her family held out hope that, one day, the killer would be found.

On Friday, Solano County Sheriff’s deputies arrested and booked her suspected killer, 76-year-old Herman Lee Hobbs, into jail on murder charges.

Two field workers in unincorporated Dixon found Campiglia’s body in a cornfield along Sievers Road in August of 1980. A coroner determined she was shot multiple times in the head and neck.

“The victim was initially listed as ‘Jane Doe.’ It was not until 1992, when the Coroner’s Office was contacted by the National Missing Persons Unit, that we learned that the victim was 21-year-old Holly Ann Campiglia,” Sheriff’s Office wrote.

The case went cold until 2021, when her family requested that the Sheriff’s Office review the case and resubmit evidence for a DNA analysis.

The Serological Research Institute used advanced technology and found male DNA on the evidence. When the DNA was submitted into a database with the San Mateo County Crime Lab, it matched Hobbs.

Hobbs was already behind bars serving a prison sentence for a 1975 Sacramento murder. He was convicted in 2005 of murdering 29-year-old Brenda Ann Tucker, whose body was found Yuba County. Like Campiglia, Tucker’s skull had a bullet hole. Hobbs was also convicted in 2000 of raping a 15-year-old girl.

Late last week, an arrest warrant was issued by a Solano County Superior Court Judge to have Hobbs transferred from a state prison to the Solano County Jail to face new charges for the murder of Campiglia.

“Cold cases are particularly difficult cases to work because, sadly, time goes on which leads to gaps in memory. For example, the original deputy to investigate this case was Deputy Jose Cisneros, who was killed in the line-of-duty in 1985,” the Solano County Sheriff’s Office wrote Monday.

“We are grateful to the Campiglia family for their patience and assistance, to the labs whose new technology allowed additional testing of older evidence, and to the staff who worked tirelessly to help bring closure to a lifetime of waiting,” the Sheriff’s Office wrote.