Suspect in 20-Year-Old Slaying Is Captured

A man whose fingerprints link him to the 20-year-old abduction and slaying of Los Gatos socialite Gloria Acronico has been taken into custody.

Police pulled Troy Lee Johnson, 53, from a bus bound for Oklahoma and arrested him Wednesday in Needles, near the Arizona line, after learning that a friend of his had purchased a bus ticket for him.

“I just wish we had gotten him 20 years ago,” said John Moilan, chief of police in Piedmont, where Acronico’s body was found.

The case had been dormant until two weeks ago, when a tip came in about a possible suspect. It didn’t pan out, but it got detectives interested.

They decided to once again examine unidentified prints from the crime scene. The state Department of Justice’s fingerprint computer, with records of more than 7.5 million prints, produced a match.

The Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Department on Tuesday issued a no-bail warrant for Johnson, charging him with robbery, kidnapping and murder.

Acronico, a 49-year-old mother of two and wife of the owner of Diana Fruit Co., was leaving a tennis club when she was accosted by a man who forced his way into her car. Two days later, her body was found in the trunk of the car. She had been killed by a single bullet fired into her temple at close range.