Sanford found guilty in Swanson murder

By Kathryn Reed

Nearly 34 years after Richard Swanson was murdered, the killer has been convicted.

On April 23, the eight-woman, four-man jury found Andrew Sanford guilty on all counts.

In all likelihood Sanford, 52, will be spending the rest of his life in prison.

Swanson was 16 when he was murdered Aug. 14, 1980, while he worked at the former Shell gas station at the Y in South Lake Tahoe. He was bound with duct tape and left to die of asphyxiation. He had also been beaten.

Sanford lived in town at the time, but left a few days after the murder.

“I think it’s a long, long time in coming to try to get some measure of justice for the family,” El Dorado County District Attorney Vern Pierson told Lake Tahoe News. “For us it happened 34 years ago. For them, it’s like it happened yesterday.”

Ronald and Sharon Swanson, Richard’s parents, were in the Placerville courtroom every day listening to witness after witness describe what they remembered, the details of how their son was murdered, the autopsy and finally the arrest of Sanford.

It wasn’t until 2012 that Sanford was arrested and charged in the Swanson case.

From this killing the local Secret Witness program was formed. The seed money was always to go to the person who helped solve the Swanson murder.