Ex-sheriff's sergeant, convicted in wife's murder, denied parole

Paul Kovacich, 76, convicted in 2009 for the 1982 murder of his wife, Janet Kovacich, was denied parole on March 26. According to previous Gold Mountain California New Media reports, Kovacich, a former sergeant for the Placer County Sheriff's Office, was arrested Sept. 6, 2006, for Janet's murder. The Placer County District Attorney's Office previously reported Kovacich was found guilty by a jury on Jan. 27, 2009, of murdering his wife with the use of a firearm. Janet was reportedly a homemaker and the couple lived in Auburn with their two children. According to the DA's Office, Kovacich was one of the last people to see Janet alive. The other was the driver of a carpool who took her children to school at 8 a.m. Janet was not seen or heard from again. A skull was found in October 1995 when two people walking on the dry bottom of Rollins Lake noticed something partially buried in the silt. The skull was identified in 2007 as that of Janet Kovacich. "The skull … had a hole that was consistent with an entrance wound caused by a gunshot from a large-caliber handgun, similar to the weapon defendant had been issued as a law enforcement officer," FindLaw.com states. Kovacich, who is serving his sentence at the California Institution for Men in Chino, was previously scheduled for parole suitability hearings on Oct. 29, 2024, and July 30, 2025. Both dates were postponed, according to the California Incarcerated Records and Information search database. Kovacich has served nearly 17 years in prison, having been admitted to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation on April 24, 2009. Kovacich received a denial of five years. His next parole suitability hearing is tentatively scheduled for March 2031.