ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Scott Herhold spent 40 years as a reporter, editor and columnist for the San Jose Mercury News. Among his other duties, he wrote a series called “The Unsolved Crime File,’’ which examined cold cases in Santa Clara County.  Herhold was drawn to the Arlis Perry murder in part because his father was a Lutheran minister in Palo Alto at the time it occurred.  “It felt like the murder of a cousin,’’ he explains.  “It was a rebuke to my father’s faith.’’  Herhold is a graduate of Yale and a father of four grown children.  He lives in the Hanchett Park neighborhood of San Jose with his wife, Sarah.