50-year-old cold case DNA links rape and killing of Fresno High girl to convicted rapist
Detectives said DNA links a now-dead convicted rapist to a nearly 50-year-old cold case of the strangling of a 17-year-old Fresno High School girl.
Debra Curb was found choked to death by a leotard on New Year’s Day 1974 in her home on College Avenue near Ashlan and Maroa avenues, according to the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office.
A detective ordered the DNA test be conducted in December 2021, and the results came back recently pointing the crime to James Arthur Blaylock, the sheriff’s office said Thursday.
Before the results had come back, detectives sought Blaylock for questioning in 2022 and learned he had died in the hospital at 66, the sheriff’s office said.
Though investigators in 1974 said she was not raped, detectives in the decades following determined she was sexually assaulted.
Blaylock later became a suspect, but the District Attorney’s Office had never charged him due to a lack of evidence, investigators said.
The teen was a member of the California Scholarship Federation and Student Council, according to archives. She was also described as jovial and an excellent student.
The night before the crime, Debra had a small New Year’s Eve party in 1974 with her boyfriend and two other students, including Blaylock, according to Fresno Bee Archives.
The three others left shortly after midnight when Blaylock dropped off the other two. Detectives said they believe Blaylock then returned to girl’s home and committed the attack.
Her body was found the next afternoon by her parents, who had been in Pismo, according to archives.
Blaylock had been convicted of the violent rapes of sex workers in the 1980s and was a registered sex offender.
In later interviews, Blaylock denied raping her and then later claimed he had consensual sex with her, investigators said.
