Killer charged in 1988 murder of 9-year-old California girl

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Convicted killer David Misch has been charged with the kidnapping and slaying of a 9-year-old California girl who went missing more than 32 years ago. 

It was a cold case that "shocked not just the local community, but the entire Bay Area and the nation" for decades, Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O' Malley said. 

Michaela Joy Garecht, last seen on Nov. 19, 1988, in Hayward, would have been 42 years old next month. 

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Just days before Thanksgiving, then 9-year-old Garecht and her best friend were riding scooters to a market in Hayward. When they came out of the store, Garecht had noticed that one of the scooters had been moved behind a car parked in a nearby space, according to the district attorney's office. 

When she walked over to retrieve it, the driver of the car grabbed her and forced her into the front seat before speeding out. 

This 1988 poster provided by the FBI shows a wanted poster of photos of kidnapped Michaela Joy Garecht in 1988. (FBI via AP)

Michaela was never heard from or seen again, nor was her body recovered, according to the district attorney's office. 

However, Misch's fingerprints were later found on the scooter that Garecht had been riding at the time she was abducted. Officials also say that eyewitness reports placed Misch in the immediate location at the time of the kidnapping. 

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"I hope that today’s action and announcement will provide some comfort to Michaela’s family in knowing that justice will prevail, even after 32 years since this horrible crime," O' Malley said. 

Misch, now 59, has been charged with murder and kidnapping and is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday. It was not immediately clear if he had an attorney who could speak on his behalf.

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Misch was already in prison for the 1989 murder of a woman in the Hayward area and is a suspect in a 1986 case in which two women were killed in Fremont, another city in the Bay Area.

Fremont police had reached out to Hayward detectives about Misch, thinking there might be a link between their cases. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.