DNA on dirty napkin leads to arrest of suspect in decades-old murder mystery

Investigators follow suspect to daughter's hockey game and use his dirty napkin to collect DNA evidence

Jerry Westrom is charged with second-degree murder in a 1993 slaying after investigators used DNA evidence from a dirty napkin he used at a hockey game. Methods of using private genealogy companies in unsolved violent crimes has raised ethics questions.

A businessman has been charged with fatally stabbing a Minneapolis woman in 1993 after investigators ran DNA evidence from the murder scene through a genealogy website and obtained his DNA from a discarded napkin.

Jerry Westrom, 52, was charged with second-degree murder in the death of 35-year-old Jeanne Ann “Jeanie” Childs. He posted $500,000 bail and was released from jail on Monday following a court hearing where his wife, children and 20 other supporters looked on from the gallery.

The case was reopened in 2015 by a Minneapolis homicide detective and an FBI special agent, who decided to take another look because of advances in DNA testing. Samples from the scene were sent to the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and a private DNA company.

The samples were later run through an online genealogy website, which turned up Westrom as a possible suspect.

Investigators then used the internet to determine where Westrom would be in public places and then secretly trailed him to his daughter’s hockey game in Wisconsin in January. That’s where investigators confiscated a napkin he had used and tossed in the trash.

According to court documents, Ms Childs’ naked body was found in her apartment in an area known for prostitution. She had been stabbed multiple times all over her body, and blood covered the walls of her bedroom, living room and bathroom, according to a warrant.

The bathroom was flooding because the shower had been left turned on. Finger, palm and foot prints were discovered at the scene, investigators said.

Several members of victim’s family were also at the hearing in Hennepin County District Court.

Westrom’s lawyer, Steven Meshbesher, told the court that Westrom had lived in Minnesota his entire life and wasn’t a flight risk.

“What we’ve got is a very unsolved case and it was charged, in my opinion, prematurely,” Mr Meshbesher said. Westrom’s next court date was set for March 13.

The method investigators used against Westrom reflect a trend law enforcement has employed in recent months to nail a slate of violent offenders.

Pennsylvania police identified the assailant of a 1992 raping and strangling of a schoolteacher earlier this year as a result of DNA the suspect’s relative had submitted to a genealogy database. Raymond Charles Rowe apologised in court for killing 25-year-old elementary school teacher Christy Mirack at her apartment. He was sentenced to life without parole.

Additional reporting by AP