1993 Murder Solved with DNA From a Napkin
Killer had uploaded his DNA to an online genealogy company
On June 13, 1993, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Betty Eakman glanced at the TV while working as a hospice care aid. The channel was on the local news, and it was detailing the gruesome discovery of a woman murdered. Betty’s blood ran cold when she recognized the building. It was where her thirty-five-year-old daughter, Jeanie Childs, lived.
She immediately felt a feeling no mother should ever have to, a deep dread that consumed her. She tried to contact her daughter, but no one picked up. She had been the one to contact the coroner and later had to identify her body.
Law enforcement described the crime scene as horrific. Jeanie had been stabbed over sixty-five times, and many of the injuries were caused post-mortem. Evidence collected at the scene was foreign fluid found on the comforter, a bathroom towel, and bloody footprints. The killer had injured himself in the process, leaving blood evidence behind.
The initial suspect list had been vast and had included Jeanie’s boyfriend, but DNA evidence had eliminated him. Jeanie had been a sex worker and had often worked from her apartment as she felt it was safer than meeting clients at unknown locations. Her neighbors had given several witness statements for different men they had seen Jeanie with, but detectives had a hard time locating those men. Jeanie’s Rolodex included phone numbers for certain clients, but they quickly discovered that many of them had fake names attached to them.
Jeanie’s case eventually went cold, but her mother vowed never to stop seeking justice for her daughter’s murder.
In 2018, the case was reopened with the hope of using genetic genealogy to locate her killer. However, they were delighted to discover that a lengthy genealogical investigation would be unnecessary because a person matching the DNA they were looking for had uploaded their DNA to a private DNA company and online genealogy themselves. This would likely have been a company like Ancestry.com or 23andMe.com.
An incredible stroke of luck gave detectives the best lead in nearly three decades. The man, Jerry Westrom, of Isanti, Minnesota, was the new lead suspect in Jeanie Childs’ murder. Westrom would have been in his mid-twenties in 1993, and records showed he also resided in Minneapolis from 1991–1993. He didn’t have a violent criminal history, just speeding tickets and multiple driving under the influence convictions, and in 2016, he had been caught attempting to solicit a prostitute.
He had been a well-respected businessman who was married with two children who are now adults and volunteered with several junior sports organizations. Those who knew him had no idea he was capable of such violence.
They decided to put surveillance on Westrom in 2019 and followed him to a hockey rink. They watched as Westrom ordered a hotdog from the concession stand and later wiped his mouth with a napkin before discarding it.
Officers had been able to collect the napkin, which they had later used to positively match Westrom’s DNA to the foreign sample sound in Childs’ apartment in 1993.
They later picked him up and interrogated him.
Westrom denied living in Minneapolis, knowing Jeanie, and having ever been to the apartment she was killed in. He did not explain as to why his DNA had been found all over the crime scene.
He was arrested in February 2019 but was released on bail until further court proceedings. In August 2022, his trial began. The critical evidence presented to the jury was the numerous places his DNA was found in the apartment, as well as the very distinct bare footprints that had been found next to the victim’s body. Expert testimony detailed that footprints can be as detailed as fingerprints, and each is unique to the person. The jury deliberated for less than two hours before declaring a unanimous guilty verdict.
Westrom, now fifty-six, was sentenced to life in prison for the 1993 murder of Jeanie Childs. Her mother and niece both read victim impact statements at the sentencing hearing.
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Sources:https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/08/30/hotdog-napkin-minnesota-murder-jeanie-childs/ https://www.oxygen.com/crime-news/jerry-westrom-guilty-jeanne-childs-1993-cold-case-murder
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