SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — As the sun shines over Mission Bay, we see tourists and locals alike enjoying the scenic San Diego staple.
But it's a sign that another day has passed without Rosie Rende.
"Rosie was very talented, very high spirits. We used to say hyper. Like I said very talented- she played the piano, she sang, she acted, she danced," said Kathy Mallegni.
That's how Mallegni remembers her 20-year-old cousin.
"We were very close. She was the maid of honor at my wedding. I babysat for her when she was young," said Mallegni.
Mallegni watched as her cousin grew up in San Francisco and eventually moved away from her hometown, San Francisco, to San Diego in the summer of 1981.
"She seemed a little more mature. A little more calmed down and I think. I told her to have fun and to be careful," said Mallegni.
Those words were uttered just one month before Mallegni got the devastating call.
"I think I screamed. My husband was standing close nearby and he just stopped what he was doing because he knew it was something really bad. I think I said 'murdered?!'" said Mallegni.
Rosie was murdered inside her apartment on July 13, 1981, just feet away from the bay.
"This has got to be it. It's all different now. I mean its been 42 years," said Tony Johnson, retired senior investigator with the San Diego County District Attorney's Office.
The neighborhood has changed since then, but Johnson's commitment to solving the case has not.
"Apparently, the roommate interrupted a horrendous crime. As the roommate walked in the door, she saw a male flee from the house. And Rosie had been strangled and murdered," said Mallegni.
Johnson says Rende was also sexually assaulted
"There were indications on Rosie's hands that she had fought," said Mallegni.
ABC 10News asked investigators if they had any kind of a rape kit to gather evidence at the time.
"We did, and we have a profile of the potential suspect, but because of the testing that was done over the years and the large amount of DNA that was needed back in the day, we've consumed all those samples now so we have nothing left. So for example, we can't do genealogy because there are no raw samples left to work with," said Johnson.
Rosie had a unique job as someone who would dance dressed in balloons at parties, but Johnson doesn't think she was targeted.
So, who could have killed her and why?
Johnson thinks Rende's murder may be tied to a group of burglars who broke into multiple homes in the summer of 1981.
"At that time there was a triplex. There was an upstairs and a downstairs on the Bayside Lane side and then there was a downstairs on the Bayside Walk side. The Bayside Walk house got burglarized at the same time Rosie was murdered and killed," said Johnson.
Crime scene photos show the burglars entered Rosie's apartment through a window, but it's unknown how many of them went in. But one left behind a wallet from another apartment they hit.
At the time, investigators released a sketch of a man they believe was also part of the burglary ring and a person of interest in Rosie's death. He has never been found as a potential suspect. He thinks that the missing person could be who he needs to solve this case.
"The only thing we know about him is that he's a white male," said Johnson. "He lived with another man on the north side of 600 Diamond Street," he said.
Johnson thinks the man could be about 60 years old.
"I know there are a lot of longtime residents in Mission Beach. It's a tight-knit community. So we're hoping that someone might live in that area back in 1981 and say, 'Wait a minute I remember that guy,'" he said.
While Mallegni doesn't know what she'd say to the person who killed her cousin, one thing is certain.
"I mean I miss her. She meant a lot to me," Mallegni.
Mallegni said her entire family was left with many questions.
"I think about how she would've matured if she would've had children. If she would've settled down and had children or been successful in what she did," said Mallegni.
She said an arrest could give her a sense of closure.
