Trial Begins for Suspect Accused in the Murder of Tina Faelz

The man accused in the killing of Tina Faelz will be at the Rene C. Davidson Courthouse in Oakland on Monday for the first day of his trial, according to the Alameda County District Attorney's office.

Steven J. Carlson, 45, was arrested in August of 2011 in the killing of Faelz, who was 14 when she was stabbed 44 times while walking home from school in Pleasanton. Carlson, a registered sex offender with a criminal history involving drugs and battery, was arrested after police were tipped off by an FBI analysis of evidence collected at the scene of in 1984.

[Related article: Trial Date Set in Killing of Foothill High Student Tina Faelz]

Police tracked Carlson down thanks to new DNA technology that wasn't available at the time of the killing. They were able to identify blood on a purse found hanging from a tree at the killing scene as being from Carlson.

Carlson's father, interviewed by Patch right after Carlson's arrest, said he doesn't believe his son committed the crime.

On April 5, 1984, Tina Faelz, a 14-year-old Foothill High freshman, was stabbed to death in a culvert that once crossed beneath Interstate 680, while she was walking home from school. Fellow students discovered her body shortly afterward. Now, 27 years later, Carlson has been charged in the killing.

Pleasanton Police said Carlson lived close to the path on which Faelz was killed, a popular shortcut that passed east of the school underneath the freeway to the Valley Trails neighborhood. He said it would have been easy for the suspect to know which students used that route to walk home. (For a map showing the school area, click here.)

Carlson, 45, is being held without bail at Santa Rita jail. 

Supporters of Faelz have been keeping track of the case on this Facebook Page.

Past Pleasanton Patch coverage of Tina Faelz murder case:

• Steven Carlson Ordered to Stand Trial for the Murder of Tina Faelz
  
• Suspect in Tina Faelz Slaying Will be Tried as Adult
  
• Witness: Carlson Made Incriminating Comment The Day After…
  
• Friends, Relatives Leave Heartfelt Messages For Murder Victim Tina Faelz on Facebook
  
• Friends of Slaying Victim Tina Faelz Remember Her as Kind…
  
• Steven Carlson Pleads Not Guilty to 1984 Slaying of Tina Faelz
  
• Slaying Suspect Steven Carlson May Face Contempt Charges For Granting Jailhouse Interview
  
• Slaying Suspect Steven Carlson Gets New Attorney, Will Remain in Juvenile Court Until After the New Year
  
• Pleasanton Police Keeping DNA Evidence Quiet For Now
  
• Suspect in Tina Faelz Case Makes First Court Appearance

Contributor Susan Schena, Patch editors Kari Hulac and Tanya Rose contributed to this report.