Workers found slain woman in cornfield in 1980, CA cops say. Now 77-year-old sentenced

As field workers ambled through a California cornfield in 1980, they made a gruesome discovery: a slain woman’s body.

Though the woman was identified 12 years later as 21-year-old Holly Ann Campiglia of New Jersey, the suspect in her killing eluded investigators for decades more, the Solano County Sheriff’s Office said in a July 16 Facebook post.

That is, until DNA evidence linked an incarcerated man to her killing in early 2023, McClatchy News reported.

And now, the 77-year-old man, Herman Lee Hobbs, “was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison,” the sheriff’s office said.

Just before his preliminary hearing was set to begin, Hobbs “ entered a no contest plea to one count of second-degree murder,” according to court records obtained by the East Bay Times.

“We are grateful to our Investigations Bureau and evidence technicians who cracked this cold case,” the sheriff’s office said. “Without their dedication and persistence, Holly’s case would still be unsolved.”

The road to “justice” for Campiglia was not a direct one, according to deputies.

After the woman’s body was found in an unincorporated area of Dixon in August 1980, she was identified as Campiglia through the National Missing Persons Unit in 1992, deputies said.

Campiglia’s case, however, went cold.

But even with the passage of time, Campiglia’s family did not lose hope.

In 2021, they pushed to have the sheriff’s office review “the case to see if any of the original evidence could be resubmitted for additional DNA analysis,” deputies said.

After submitting the evidence to the Serological Research Institute, a report showed that one of the pieces of evidence had male DNA, according to deputies.

This DNA profile was submitted to the San Mateo Crime Lab database, where it was a match to Hobbs’ DNA, deputies said.

Hobbs was already jailed, serving a prison sentence in a separate murder case, according to deputies.

A warrant allowed detectives to collect Hobbs’ DNA “for a direct comparison,” deputies said.

It, again, was a match to the DNA profile found on the evidence in Campiglia’s case, deputies said.

“Holly’s family has suffered tremendously over the past four decades. They turned their grief into action and never gave up in their search for justice,” the sheriff’s office said. “We know that today’s sentencing will not bring Holly back, but it is our hope that it gives them some peace.”

Dixon is about a 20-mile drive southwest from Sacramento.

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