The killer of a 14-year-old Bay Area girl has been handed a second life sentence, ensuring he will likely die behind bars. Friday’s sentence marks a measure of closure for the loved ones of De Anna Lynn Johnson, whose murder “rocked the very fabric” of Vacaville in the 1980s, the Solano County District Attorney’s Office said.
On Nov. 15, 1982, De Anna left her residence on Royal Oaks Drive to attend a party a few blocks away. When her brother walked home later that evening, he thought De Anna had already left the party. But upon returning home, De Anna was nowhere to be found, and her worried family reported her missing. In the morning, a railroad worker discovered her body on the nearby train tracks, within sight of the family home. She had been bludgeoned to death.
Suspicion fell on 17-year-old Marvin Ray Markle Jr., who was at the party that night and attended Will C. Wood High School along with De Anna. Markle was a “well-known bully,” and his violent personality only worsened as he grew older. In 2001, he was suspected of killing a 41-year-old woman in Butte County, and when De Anna’s friends and family learned this, they began making trips to Markle’s Briggs home to protest…