The life and death of Port Washington, New York’s Marissa Rolf Harvey

Marissa Rolf Harvey of New York, United States was 15 when she was found dead on March 28, 1978. She was Gary Harvey and Marguerite Schultz‘s adopted daughter.

Marissa was an infant when her biological mother died. The biological mother worked as a model in New York.

Before Gary and Schultz’s divorce, they lived in Douglaston, Queens, New York City, New York with Marissa. Gary later married Ruth Harvey while Schultz married Howard Schultz.

While in contact with Gary and Ruth, Marissa lived with Marguerite and Howard in Port Washington, Nassau County, Long Island, New York and attended St. Dominick’s High School in Oyster Bay, Long Island. Although Marissa was only 5’2″ and weighed less than 100 pound, she enjoyed horseback riding and managed to win several ribbons in jumping events in Long Island.

In the probate of the estate of Marissa’s maternal relative in Belgium, a company tracked down her half-sister Miriam Wadeiff of San Francisco, California, USA, who was 9 years older than Marissa. The two were born to the same mother but different fathers.

On December 23, 1977, Marissa and Wadeiff met for the first time. On March 24, 1978, the teenager arrived in San Francisco after travelling alone from New York to visit her newfound sister, who is a graduate student and teacher at the San Francisco Institute of Fine Arts.

On March 27, 1978, Marissa asked Wadeiff if she could go horseback riding. At around 1:30 p.m. that day, Wadeiff’s friend dropped the teenager off at the Golden Gate Park Stables in San Francisco, not knowing that the stables were closed.

Later that day, Marissa failed to return so Wadeiff reported her missing. At around 7:51 p.m. on March 28, 1978, San Francisco Police Department officers found Marissa dead in Sutro Heights Park in Richmond District, San Francisco.

Mark Stanley Personette of Conifer, Jefferson County, Colorado, USA was 76 when he was arrested on December 16, 2021 in Denver, Colorado after a joint operation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the San Francisco Police Department and the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office. He is accused of killing Marissa.

Personette was booked into Jefferson County Jail in Golden. On January 27, 2022, he pleaded not guilty to homicide in San Francisco Superior Court.