A resolved case 48 years after the facts. A man living in “This same Ohio was charged with the murder of a Californian woman dating from 1977 after the authorities linked him to fingerprints found on a packet of cigarettes in the victim’s Volkswagen Beetle, the authorities said.
The fingerprints are those of Willie Eugene Sims, 69, discovered in the car of Jeanette Ralston, 24 years old when she was murdered, said Tuesday Rob Baker, assistant prosecutor of Santa Clara in a press release.
Jeanette Ralston seemed to have been strangled and sexually assaulted When his body was found stuck on the rear seat of the Volkswagen on February 1, 1977, near a bar in San Jose, said Rob Baker. The killer would have tried to set fire to the car, but without success, he added. No suspects had been identified following this death, and the case had therefore been classified without follow -up.
For years, the investigators tried to identify the fingerprints with an FBI database, in vain. The assistant prosecutor said that his office “attempted everything for everything” last year, reanalyzing the fingerprints after the FBI has updated the research algorithm in the fingerprint database.
An effort that made it possible to identify Willie Eugene Sims, now residing in Ohio. This same ADN had also been found under the victim’s nails, as well as on the shirt which allegedly used to suffocate him.
“A great gift” for the victim’s son
Rob Baker told NBC Bay Area That the son of Jeanette Ralston, who was 6 years old when her mother was killed, told him that he was grateful to the suspect’s arrest. “His birthday is approaching. He said it was a great gift, “said the assistant prosecutor.
The victim had been found dead after his friends told the authorities that she had left the bar with a stranger shortly before midnight, on January 31, 1977. His vehicle was found the next day, not far from the bar.
At the time, Willie Eugene Sims was a military Assigned to a military base in the county of Monterey, south of San Francisco. In 1978, he was found guilty of theft and assault with intention to commit a murder in a case involving a woman, in the Californian county of Monterey. He had been sentenced to four years in prison.
When he left prison, the man had left California long before DNA became an essential forensic tool for the police, and before his imprints could be recorded in the FBI database.
Now arrested, Willie Eugene Sims is to appear for murder in San Jose next week, said Rob Baker, and he risks a maximum prison sentence ranging from 25 to life.
