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SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5 / AP / BCN) ― The infamous serial killer known as the "Night Stalker" is now a suspect in a 1984 San Francisco homicide of a nine-year old girl, police said Thursday afternoon. 

Richard Ramirez, who is currently on death row at San Quentin State Prison, was identified by cold case detectives as a suspect in the killing of then 9-year-old Mei "Linda" Leung.

The girl was sexually assaulted and killed in the basement of her family's Tenderloin neighborhood home at 765 O'Farrell Street back on April 10, 1984.

Police said Ramirez at the time was staying at two different residential hotels in the same neighborhood - 373 Ellis Street and 56 Mason Street - and indicated that a recent DNA match identified Ramirez as the suspect.

"A DNA profile was developed from one of the items at the crime scene," said Matthew Gabriel, a DNA technician at the SFPD crime lab.

He said it was "an extremely difficult item to analyze," but would not elaborate. Police also would not discuss how Leung was killed. 

Police said the sample was run through CODIS — the Combined DNA Index System — a database with samples from 1.2 million people, including convicted criminals.

"Cold cases are continuously reviewed by our Cold Case unit," said Deputy Police Chief David Shinn. "There was evidence that was able to be profiled in the state CODIS in which a hit was developed that led us to believe Richard Ramirez was involved."

The database returned a "cold-hit," which means the sample collected from the Leung crime scene matched Ramirez' DNA profile in the database.

However, police said they planned to conduct further testing before deciding whether to file charges against Ramirez in the 25-year-old case.

On Wednesday, SFPD officers traveled to San Quentin and served Ramirez with a warrant to get a confirmation DNA sample. It will be used to confirm the match on the sample in the CODIS database.

SFPD homicide Inspector Holly Pera said Ramirez cooperated with the officers.

"He made no comment," said Pera, who had been a patrol officer at the time of Leung's murder, and called it a case "that you don't forget."

Ramirez is being held in San Quentin after being convicted in 1989 in Los Angeles of 13 murders committed in Southern California in 1984 and 1985.

Those murders terrorized Southern California, with reports of satanic symbols left at bloody murder scenes by a killer who entered homes through unlocked windows and doors.

Ramirez previously has been tied to killings in Northern California. He was charged in the shooting deaths of Peter Pan, 66, and his wife, Barbara, in 1985 just before his arrest in Los Angeles, but he was never tried.
 
Ramirez was additionally charged in the August 1985 fatal shooting of a 66-year-old man in San Francisco's Lake Merced neighborhood, but a trial never went forward as the Los Angeles case took precedence.

Police put out a call on Thursday to the public for help in gathering addiional evidence that might tie Ramirez to Leung's case.

"We're asking for the public's help," said Shinn. He asked that anybody who witnessed Leung's murder call Inspector Joseph Toomey at 415-553-1145 or the SFPD's anonymous tip line at 415-575-4444.

Shinn said that Leung's family had been contacted about the DNA development and were "very grateful."

"I think it's painful...but hopefully we'll bring some closure to the family," Shinn said.

He added that police, in addition to investigating the Leung case, were now reviewing several other homicides that occurred in that area around the same time.

Michael Burt, Ramirez' attorney during the Los Angeles murder trials, did not return a call Thursday seeking comment.

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