HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
A 1974 murder inside the church went unsolved for 44 years until DNA tied the security guard who found the body.
450 Jane Stanford Way, Palo Alto, CA 94305
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Stanford Memorial Church is open to the public free of charge.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Paved campus paths; church is fully accessible
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1903 · Jane Stanford Memorial · Cold Case Resolution · DNA Evidence Landmark Case
Stanford Memorial Church was built in 1903 as a memorial to Leland Stanford Sr. by his wife Jane, and has served as the university's central religious and ceremonial space ever since. Its Byzantine-influenced mosaics and Romanesque tower make it the visual anchor of the Stanford main quad.
On the night of October 11–12, 1974, Arlis Perry, 19, entered the church alone to pray. Perry and her husband Bruce had recently moved to Palo Alto from Bismarck, North Dakota, where she had been active in her church community. At 5:45 a.m. on October 12, a campus security guard discovered her body near the altar. She had been murdered.
The Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office investigated the case for decades without identifying a suspect. The murder attracted sustained public attention and became one of the most discussed unsolved crimes in Silicon Valley history.
In June 2018, Stanford announced that investigators had used DNA evidence to link the crime to Stephen Crawford, a former campus security guard who had been employed at the university in 1974 and was among those who claimed to have found Perry's body. As detectives prepared to serve a search warrant, Crawford killed himself. He was 72 at the time of his identification. Investigators concluded that Crawford acted alone.
The case's resolution ended a 44-year question for Perry's family and for law enforcement. The church has not marked the location of the crime, and continues to function as an active house of worship and venue for university ceremonies.
Sources
Stanford Memorial Church appeared in campus dark-history accounts well before DNA evidence closed the Arlis Perry case in 2018. The Stanford Daily's 2012 Halloween retrospective named it among the campus sites most associated with unexplained phenomena, citing the unresolved murder as the source of the church's unsettled reputation.
Visitors and students have reported feelings of unease near the front of the nave, particularly in the area around the altar where Perry's body was found. These accounts are informal—there is no organized paranormal investigation history at the site—but they cluster consistently around the same area of the church.
The 44-year window of uncertainty gave the crime an outsized presence in local memory. A murder inside a church, by someone who may have posed as a discoverer of the victim, inside one of the most architecturally prominent buildings on the peninsula—the elements have kept the case in active retelling. Since Crawford's identification in 2018, the paranormal accounts have quieted, though the site retains its place in local crime history.
The church is still an active place of worship; Sunday services continue. Visitors who come for its dark history share the building with regular congregants, which gives the experience a particular texture that purely decommissioned crime sites lack.
Stanford Memorial Church, completed in 1903, is open for self-guided visits during campus hours. The interior near the altar is where Arlis Perry's body was discovered on the morning of October 12, 1974. The Stanford campus history tour also covers the church's architectural and institutional significance.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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