On December 7, 1989, the life of Margaret Narcisa Ball, a 36-year-old woman, was brutally cut short in her home in an unincorporated area of Hayward, California. The shocking violence of her death and the profound loss felt by those who knew her would only be fully understood in the context of a string of violent crimes that terrorized the East Bay during the 1980s.
Margaret, a graduate of Castro Valley High School and the daughter of Narcisa Louise Curry, was the final known victim of a man who had left a trail of sorrow in his wake.
The discovery of the crime scene was a traumatic event that would forever alter a young life. Margaret’s body was found in the living room of her home on Lowell Avenue by her boyfriend's 11-year-old daughter. She had been the victim of a savage beating and stabbing, with wounds to her chest and abdomen. The motive appeared to be a robbery; food stamps and about $85 in pocket change had been stolen from the residence. The horror of the scene left an indelible mark on her loved ones.
Investigators quickly focused on an acquaintance of Margaret’s known as "Dave." Family members and her boyfriend, Michael Zaboy, told police that a man named David Emery Misch had been an unsettling presence in her life, having sexually harassed her and even threatened her with violence. The investigation swiftly led to a Farm House Motel on MacArthur Boulevard in Oakland, where police found Margaret’s stolen 1981 silver-colored Mazda. The man behind the wheel was David Misch.
Misch, who had been paroled from prison less than a month earlier, on November 17, 1989, was arrested for Margaret's murder the day after her body was found. While he denied responsibility, the case against him was damning. His own father later testified that his son had come home on the day of the murder and confessed to killing Margaret during a robbery while under the influence of methamphetamine. In 1990, Misch was convicted for the murder of Margaret Ball and sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole.
For decades, Margaret's murder was seen as a singular, horrific act. It was not until years later that advances in DNA technology would reveal the true, terrifying scope of David Misch's violence. He was, in fact, a serial killer. Cold case detectives in Fremont revisited the 1986 murders of two best friends, 18-year-old Michelle Xavier and 20-year-old Jennifer Duey. The young women had been found shot and stabbed on the side of a road. In 2018, Misch was charged with their murders after DNA evidence linked him to the crime.
The web of his crimes expanded further when, in 2020, authorities charged Misch with the 1988 kidnapping and murder of 9-year-old Michaela Garecht, a high-profile case that had haunted the community for over three decades. A partial palm print on the scooter Michaela had been playing with at a Hayward market was matched to Misch. He had been preying on the innocent in the Bay Area for years, his violent spree bookended by the murders of Xavier and Duey in 1986 and ending with his capture for the murder of Margaret Ball in 1989.
In December 2024, a jury found David Emery Misch guilty of the first-degree murders of both Michelle Xavier and Jennifer Duey. During the sentencing, as victim impact statements were being read, Misch showed no remorse, singing loudly until he was removed from the courtroom. He was sentenced to two consecutive terms of 25 years to life for those murders, to be served after he completes his life sentence for the murder of Margaret Ball. While justice for Margaret was served in 1990, the full story of her killer's depravity underscored the profound danger she faced and the immense loss her community suffered.
