The unsolved murder of Nikolaus Crumbley, a 41-year-old man who was found dead after an apparent gay tryst near McLaren Park in 1983, appeared to be nearing some closure earlier this year with the arrest of William Payne. Payne has been on trial for the murder, but this week, as the Appeal reports, after three days of deliberations, a jury returned saying they were unable to reach a verdict.
Crumbley was a resident of Texas and staying in San Francisco at the time of his murder. Payne was just 19 in 1983, but a DNA swab taken from Crumbley's rectum when his body was found came up with Payne's DNA when it was ultimately tested in 2004. The match came in 2009, and Payne was arrested in January of this year while staying at Walden House, a substance abuse and mental health treatment center at Hayes and Webster. He is now 47.
In the trial, Payne was painted as a "family man" with two children, however he has also been arrested and imprisoned multiple times over the last couple decades, including a charge of kidnapping for the purpose of sexual assault in 1986.
