Jan Miller has been missing part of her heart since June 29, 1984.
That was the day her 19-year-old daughter, Veronica Perotti, was discovered brutally murdered in her college flat. Her case has still not been resolved 41 years later.
Veronica was Jan’s firstborn and her entire world. She named her daughter after a character from the Archie comic. “I thought that Veronica, in the comic strip, was just the most beautiful name in the world,” she previously told Dateline. “So, I’ve always said that if I ever have a daughter, I’ll name her Veronica. So I could call her ‘Roni.'”
“She was the easiest child ever. She barely cried. She was just one of those quiet children. Uh, I always knew what was going on. Very mischievous. Jan said, “I could always smile at you while also getting into trouble.”
Roni was raised in Marin County, CA. She grew up to be a caring young woman, always willing to help others at school and serving as a mentor to her younger siblings, with whom she had a close bond. “Truly a joy to have around,” Jan said. “The glass was always half full.”
In the summer of 1984, Roni lived alone in an apartment in Chico, California. She was attending a nursing program at Chico State University, taking a summer class, and working as a hostess at a nearby restaurant.
According to Jan, some of Roni’s friends planned to move in when the autumn semester began, and they had already visited and brought some of their belongings. “So there was a steady stream of people and girls. She also had some very close friends who were attending summer school,” she said.
However, Roni was frequently alone in her flat that summer.
Roni was supposed to arrive at work around noon on June 29, but did not show up.
“Her boss, I guess, called, and she did not answer,” Jan told me. She added that the boss then summoned one of Roni’s friends, who rode her bike over to the flat.
The apartment was a two-story townhouse style unit. According to Jan, the friend saw Roni’s bedroom door closed through the front window. Her bedroom was the only one on the first floor.
The friend then went around the back of the apartment, where she discovered Roni on the floor of her bedroom and began yelling. Some construction workers in the area came over, opened the window, and discovered Roni had died. Someone at the scene dialled 911.
Jan was at work that day, so she wasn’t home when police arrived at the front door to inform her of the situation, but she was staying with a friend who was present.
The police left, stating that they would return when Jan arrived home. “So when I got home and saw her, I asked, ‘What is wrong?'” I said, you know, ‘You—you’re a wreck,’ Jan recalled telling her friend. “She said, ‘I don’t know what’s happened,’ she said, ‘but the police will be here shortly.'”
“So I was already, like, you know, hair was standing up on the back of my neck, and then the knock on the door,” Jan echoed. “This young officer, um, you know, identifies himself and he identifies me, and then he says, ‘Your daughter is dead.'”
“You go into shock and, you know, you can’t believe it,” Jan told me. “And then he tells me she’s been murdered.”
She was then faced with the unthinkable task of informing her husband, who was away on business, and her other children, as well as arranging Roni’s funeral.
“She had been brutally beaten to death,” Jan said, adding that the beating was so severe that the mortuary advised her not to open Roni’s casket at the funeral. “I totally lost my mind.”
According to Jan, police suspected Roni knew her killer. “Probably it was the person came over and she let them in,” according to her.
Dateline contacted the Butte County Sheriff’s Office (BCSO) for an interview regarding Roni’s case. Megan McCann, the Community Relations Director, informed Dateline via email that “Veronica was found deceased on June 29, 1984 at an apartment complex located in the 800 block of West Second Avenue in Chico.” McCann also stated that “since this is an active homicide investigation, the information we can release is limited.”
Jan didn’t give up when there were still no answers to Roni’s murder. She became involved in several organisations that help families of murder victims before starting her own in April 1994. “We started Citizens Against Homicide,” she told me. They hold various fundraising events, including an annual golf tournament.
The funds raised, combined with grants, are used to help pay for DNA processing. “It’s expensive and a lot of counties don’t have that much money,” Jan told me. “Citizens Against Homicide has helped Butte County with some DNA processing on Roni’s case as well as other cases.”
Roni’s family also provides a scholarship each year to her high school, Marin Catholic High School in Kentfield, California. “For 41 years, we’ve given out awards to people who remind us of Roni.
That’s the key. We don’t mind if you need money. We don’t care whether you’re a boy or a girl. We do not care what you are studying. “We don’t care what your GPA is,” Jan explained.
When asked what distinguishing characteristics in a student reminded them of Roni, Jan replied, “When she walked into a room, you knew she was there. The smile simply lit up the room. She — the glass is always half full. She is very upbeat.”
All of her efforts are directed towards one goal. “I do not want to forget Roni. “I want my grandchildren to know Roni,” Jan said.
Megan McCann of the BCSO described Roni’s case as an active homicide investigation. “BCSO diligently investigates all homicide cases, and in the past few years we’ve been successful at solving multiple cold cases,” the officer wrote in her email. “BCSO continues to look at emerging technologies, to include advancements in DNA technology to assist in solving cold cases.”
In 2009, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger issued a proclamation offering a $50,000 reward for new information leading to an arrest and conviction in Roni’s murder.
Anyone with information is asked to call the BCSO’s Felony Investigations Unit at 530-538-7671.
