VACAVILLE — In what may be a tragic end to a brief but bizarre missing person case linking a criminaldefense investigator for death row inmates with a violent sex offender she dated two decades ago, investigators searching for missing Oakland resident Sandra Coke found a woman’s body near a Vacaville park Friday afternoon.

Authorities would not say whether the body was that of Coke, who relatives said left her Oakland home Sunday night, saying she was going to investigate a tip about her missing dog. Oakland police, however, said Thursday that Coke was seen with Randy Alana — who was charged with two separate killings in the 1980s and was paroled from a 15-year robbery sentence in June 2012 — later Sunday evening.

“We are waiting official confirmation on the identity of the body and then, after that, the next process will be to notify the next of kin,” said Oakland police Lt. Henderson Jordan during a press conference announcing the discovery.

Alana remained in custody on a parole violation Friday evening, but police were still saying only that he was a “person of interest” in the disappearance.

The body was found by the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue Team just after 2 p.m. near the Cherry Glen Road extension, not far from a church on the west side of Interstate 80, said Deputy Daryl Snedeker, public information officer for the Solano County Sheriff’s Office. Officials had been searching near Lagoon Valley Park, on the eastern side of the freeway, earlier Friday after moving north from the Solano County Fairgrounds in Vallejo, where they had searched overnight.

It is unclear what tipped investigators to search those sites, but Oakland police officials said they were searching the area for the 50-year-old North Oakland woman.

Officials would not offer any information about the condition of the body or the apparent cause of death.

Late Friday, the Alameda County Coroner’s Office said it is taking the lead on identifying the body.

‘A career criminal’

Coke’s relatives said Thursday that she briefly dated Alana more than 20 years ago during a stretch of time when Alana was not incarcerated.

A former prosecutor calls Alana charming and handsome, but also a “career criminal” who once put a $100,000 hit on the prosecutor’s life.

“His whole history has been a life of crime,” said attorney Russ Giuntini. “That’s who he is.”

Alana, who is being held without bail at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, has spent decades in and out of jail and is considered a high-risk sex offender, according to a state-run sex offender registry, which lists undated convictions for two counts of rape, kidnapping with intent to commit a sex offense and oral copulation.

On May 9, he was arrested by Alameda County Sheriff’s Office deputies after they were called to the Sage Motel, 4844 MacArthur Ave., by a state parole agent who found Alana in violation of parole. It’s unclear what prompted the violation. As he left his motel room, a deputy attempted to handcuff him, but Alana resisted and ran before deputies caught him several blocks away, according to court records. He was charged with misdemeanor resisting arrest, but the case was dismissed June 13 for an unknown reason.

Two days earlier, he was found to be in violation of registration requirements, according to the state sex offender registry.

Previous murder charges

Alana has managed to dodge other serious charges in his past.

In September 1983, Alameda County prosecutors charged him with the murder of Marilyn Pigott, 23, a woman he had known since elementary school. Pigott was found beaten to death with a hammer in her North Oakland apartment on Aug. 13, 1983. Alana was eventually acquitted.

While in custody awaiting trial for Pigott’s slaying, Alana and fellow inmate James Hodari Benson were accused of fatally stabbing 40-year-old Al Ingram in June 1984.

Both men were charged in Ingram’s death the following February, but the jury in Alana’s trial deadlocked on the charge. His partner, however, was convicted of first degree murder in 1987. In March 1988, Alana pleaded no contest to the jailhouse killing and received a six-year prison term.

Giuntini prosecuted Alana twice for Pigott’s murder and once for the murder of Ingram, whom he said was stabbed 93 times during the slaying.

According to Giuntini, Alana and Benson put a $100,000 contract out on his life in the mid-1980s when they discovered he’d worn a wire while talking to prison inmates.

While Giuntini says he does not know Coke and could not speak to why she would associate with someone with such a violent past, he could understand why she might be drawn to him.

“He’s a charming guy, and he’s very good-looking,” Giuntini said. “He was raised in West Oakland, North Oakland. They might have known each other a long time.”

Family offers reward

Coke worked as a capital case investigator for the federal public defender’s office in Sacramento. Some of her co-workers joined her family Thursday in calling her disappearance out of character and announcing a $100,000 reward for any information leading to her return.

Little is known about where Coke went after leaving her home in the 600 block of Aileen Street, but she made a stop at a Walgreens, and her Mini Cooper was found two days later in the 800 block of 32nd Street, police have said. Her home was burglarized May 8, and her beloved cocker spaniel mix, Ginny, went missing.

“My sister is an incredibly devoted mother and sister and friend and co-worker,” her sister, Tanya Coke-Kendall, said Thursday through tears. “We will not leave until she is found.”

Staff writers Katie Nelson, Doug Oakley, Vallejo Times-Herald staff writer Sarah Rohrs and Vacaville Reporter staff writer Catherine Bowen Mijs contributed to this report.