This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

A Minnesota businessman has been charged in a 25-year-old murder case, after investigators ran crime scene DNA evidence through a genealogy website then obtained the suspect’s DNA from a napkin thrown away at a hockey rink.

Jerry Westrom, 52, was charged with second-degree murder in the 1993 death of 35-year-old Jeanne Ann “Jeanie” Childs in Minneapolis, a case that had gone cold.

Childs’ body was found in her apartment, which, according to a criminal complaint reviewed by the Minneapolis Star Tribune, was in an area known for prostitution.

Police found Childs dead in the shower, wearing only socks, with the water running. She had dozens of stab wounds, several inflicted after she died.

Westrom is a father of two from Isanti, Minnesota, who was 27 at the time of the crime, according to the Star Tribune. He was released from jail on Friday in Hennepin county, after posting bail.

The FBI ran DNA from the crime scene through an online genealogy website in 2018 and got a match, the Hennepin county attorney, Mike Freeman, told the newspaper. Either Westrom or a close relative had submitted DNA to the site to get information about family genealogy.

“If we don’t have a match, we don’t have a case,” Freeman said.

Officers then followed Westrom in hopes of collecting a sample of his DNA, and got lucky at a hockey game where he ordered a hotdog at a concession stand, wiped his mouth after eating, and tossed the napkin in the trash.

Investigators matched the DNA on the napkin to that found on a washcloth at the crime scene, the Star Tribune reported. Authorities said DNA taken from Westrom after his arrest also connected him to the crime scene.

Westrom has denied involvement and said he did not know the victim and was not present in the apartment where she was killed. His lawyer said he was charged prematurely.

The suspect is married with two grown children, an owner of several businesses and a supporter of youth athletics. He has convictions for drunk driving and served probation after being accused of soliciting a teenager for sex, according to the newspaper.

Childs’ mother, Betty Eakman, told the Star Tribune she has long wondered about her daughter’s fate.

“I am so happy they have come out with this new technology,” she said.