US EditionThumbprint on cigarette carton leads to arrest in 1977 death of young woman
- Willie Eugene Sims, 69, was arrested in Jefferson, Ohio, on Friday for the 1977 murder of Jeanette Ralston in San Jose, California.
- Investigators linked Sims to the crime through a thumbprint found on Ralston's cigarette carton, matched last fall using the FBI's updated system.
- Ralston was strangled with a dress shirt, sexually assaulted, found dead in her Volkswagen Beetle on February 1, 1977, near a bar she had left.
- DNA from Sims matched samples from Ralston's fingernails and the shirt used in the strangulation, confirming the connection to the crime.
- The arrest resolves a decades-old cold case, highlighting advances in forensic science, and Sims now faces a murder charge after the system played out.
37 Articles
37 Articles
DNA sample helps Salt Lake City police solve the killing of a young woman 40 years ago
Christine Gallegos, 18, was killed in 1985 — stabbed, shot, sexually assaulted and left in a Salt Lake City neighborhood. Police say that DNA evidence has found a likely suspect.
Cigarette Pack Solves Murder Half Century Later
DNA and a fingerprint from a cigarette pack led to the arrest of a man in a 1977 California cold case. Credit: Raul Lieberwirth CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 / Flickr. Nearly five decades after a woman was found strangled in her car in San Jose, California, a fingerprint on a cigarette pack has led to an arrest and solved the murder. Willie Eugene Sims, 69, was taken into custody in Jefferson, Ohio and charged with murder in connection with the 1977 death of …
A fingerprint on the cardboard made it possible to identify the suspect, arrested almost five decades later thanks to new forensic techniques.
Cigarette Thumbprint Exposes Killer In 1977 Case Of Murdered Woman
How long can justice wait? For one California family, nearly five decades. But now, a single thumbprint has cracked a case that haunted them for generations.Jeanette Ralston was just 27 when she was found strangled in her Volkswagen Beetle back in 1977. The crime scene was chilling—signs of assault, a smoldering attempt to burn the car. No trace of the man she was last seen leaving a bar with.The case went cold. For years.Then last fall, a thum…
In January 1977, a young woman went out with friends to have fun. She left the bar with an unknown man and although she promised her friends that she would return soon, the woman was never seen again by her loved ones. Jeanette Ralston was the mother of a 6-year-old boy. Her body was found in the back seat of her car not far from the bar. The perpetrator managed to get away with the murder for almost half a century, but thanks to the development…
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