The story of the 1974 murder of SDSU freshman Tanya Gardini has been somewhat lost to time — but the legacy remains in Zura’s well-received security overhaul and the perpetrator’s recent parole denial.

51 years ago, Navy man Ellis Lee Handy Jr. sexually assaulted and murdered Gardini in her second-floor Zura dorm after she rejected his romantic advances. In 1975, he confessed and was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole, though his Nov. 6 hearing marked his 24th denial thus far.

Zura security: 1974 vs now

Zura had no security in those days, according to alumna Barbara Leiker, who lived there in the fall of 1974 when the murder took place. 

While Leiker had forgotten about the murder until prompted for an interview by The Daily Aztec, she remembered the fear. 

“There was this sense of panic that we felt,” Leiker said. “… I remember saying to somebody, ‘Let’s take our showers at the same time.’ She in her stall, me in my stall, because it was scary to be in that kind of position in a shower and think that somebody was going to come in and kill us.”

While a CSU spokesperson reported having no records available on 1974 campus security measures, nowadays Zura has extremely high security. 

A statement from SDSU Senior Media Relations Officer Rafael Avitabile reads: “A half-century worth of building security and surveillance technology upgrades have allowed San Diego State University to provide a markedly different experience for students living in our residential communities compared to the 1970s.”

The 2014-2015 remodel of Zura saw the addition of a control system to limit access to residents and essential staff, CCTV systems, improved entrance visibility for front desk staff, enclosed walkways and improved lighting.

Access to the building, as well as its elevators and stairs, is limited to residents and essential staff through RedID card scanners. Upon entrance, residents must also flash their RedIDs with the color-coded sticker to the front desk staff. Residents must also sign in any outside guests and register their photo IDs. 

Zura residents feel safe

“I feel like it’s pretty secure,” said first-year biology student Michael Martinez. “We have Elite security that keeps watch of the late-night groups when I feel like more people are coming in during the weekends. And it’s pretty well maintained, I’d say, with the doors and the keycards, they all work.”

As a second-floor resident, Martinez was told about the death by a friend a few weeks ago, but was unaware it was a murder.

First-year criminal justice major and fellow Zura resident Ella McClure had not heard about the incident whatsoever. 

“I thought it was pretty crazy that something like that happened in my space of living,” she said. “And I feel like it’s never talked about, considering I’ve never heard of it, and it happened at my own school, in my own dorm.”

McClure speculates that this was because SDSU wants “to keep it under wraps, to not scare students and to not try to deter anyone away from coming here, from living in this building.”

Absence of university communication

Alumna Leiker shared the same sentiment about the university’s communications following the 1974 murder, reporting that she never once heard anything about it from faculty or administration.

“I’m amazed at the lack of communication that we had … and the lack of information that we were given after this event happened and updates,” Leiker said. “[It was] feelings of ‘Don’t worry, it was just an isolated incident and this guy is gone and we’re gonna up the security.’”

However, Leiker said that security did not improve immediately following the incident, and her former fearless self became much more cautious walking home on the Student Union footbridge or to her parking spot after night classes.

“It was my first time away from home, and it’s a scary thing to think about, you know, because you were thinking ‘It could have been me.’ But then we heard a little more detail, and … it didn’t seem that it could happen to us.”

Details of the murder 

On Dec. 2, 18-year-old Gardini was returning to school from her Thanksgiving break at her Walnut Creek home when she ran into 21-year-old Handy, who was waiting for her neighbor to come home. According to Handy’s report, the two had met once before through mutual friends, so they spoke for a bit before they went into her room. 

While his recounts of the incident are not always consistent, Gardini’s rejection of Handy ultimately led him to strangle her with his bare hands. 

“I was trying to have sex with her … She started fighting me and wrestling when I made my move … All I could think of was her being white and me being black and how much trouble I would be in. So I strangled her to death,” Handy said at his Nov. 6 parole hearing.  

Handy sexually and physically defiled Gardini’s body post-mortem, claiming that he was trying to make it look like an insane individual who couldn’t be tied back to him. 

Ultimately, Handy was denied parole once again, with San Diego prosecutors arguing he does not understand the seriousness or the sexual elements of his crime. 

“It doesn’t really make sense to me that someone’s life could be taken away and at such a young age, then someone just has the possibility of walking free after that,” McClure said. “… With the small context I know about the case, I think that he should be kept in prison for life.”

Handy will continue to serve his sentence at California State Prison, Solano, while he awaits his next parole hearing in 2028.