DNA evidence on napkin leads to suspect in 1993 cold case murder of woman stabbed 65 times

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — A Minnesota man discovered responsible in a brutal cold-case homicide was sentenced Friday.

DNA proof led the jury to search out Jerry Westrom responsible within the 1993 homicide of Jeanie Childs in Minneapolis.

The jury foreperson broke down the three issues that made an enduring impression on jurors.

Inside the packing containers of proof introduced in court docket that the jury noticed included a serviette Westrom threw away at a hockey sport.

It’s also the primary look contained in the ugly crime scene of the Minneapolis house the place Westrom murdered Childs a long time in the past after stabbing her 65 instances.

“He would have needed to chase her across the house, stabbing her a number of instances over and over. He actually needed her to die,” mentioned jury foreperson Derek Fradenburgh.

Connecting Westrom to the homicide began with a success on a family tree web site, linking his DNA to DNA collected in 1993 on the crime scene.

“It is a story. It is fascinating,” Fradenburgh mentioned.

However investigators wanted extra, so that they tracked him to a hockey sport in Wisconsin. They then watched and waited for Westrom to throw this serviette away on this cardboard tray to gather his DNA.

“Listening to that testimony in court docket, it is extremely gripping stuff,” Fradenburgh added. “For that to be the factor that introduced him down, I assume, is basically unimaginable.”

Investigators used that match to arrest Westrom and to construct their case.

His DNA discovered on the comforter, a bloody lavatory towel, washcloth, a t-shirt and within the sink. Then there’s the bloody footprint.

“Even probably the most charitable studying was one of many footprints for certain had been his,” Fradenburgh mentioned.

Fradenburgh mentioned there is no approach to clarify away the footprint. It confirmed Westrom’s guilt for the jury.

“It isn’t a shoe impression or something like that. It is his naked footprint, and our toes have the identical ridges and whirls and every thing that our palms and fingers do,” Fradenburgh mentioned.

Prosecutors then performed Westrom’s 2019 interview with police. It is the one time jurors heard from Westrom whereas on trial, the place he denied he knew Childs and what occurred within the Minneapolis house.

“He is only a man who did not have an entire lot to say, however what he needed to say, I do know they had been lies,” Fradenburgh mentioned.

Fradenburgh mentioned these three issues are what made the jury’s determination: the police interview, DNA and the bloody footprint.

“He mentioned he wasn’t there. His DNA proves that he was there. It places him there. His footprint places him there on the time of the homicide,” Fradenburgh mentioned.

He mentioned he feels for Childs’ household, saying nobody deserves to die that approach.

“That is why it issues that it got here up 30 years later. It was so brutal. It is so graphic. You’ll be able to’t simply let this go,” Fradenburgh mentioned.

The jury reached its responsible verdict in two hours.