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How a Hot Dog Convicted a Killer: The Murder of Jeanne Childs
A discarded napkin from a hockey game finally provided justice nearly 30 years after a brutal crime.
A man has been sentenced to life in prison for a murder he committed almost three decades ago in another triumph for the technology behind genetic genealogy.
Jerry Westrom was found guilty in August of killing Jeanne Childs in her Minneapolis apartment back in 1993, and a judge said this month that he should spend the rest of his life in jail.
The first Jeanne’s neighbours knew of anything wrong came on June 13th 1993, when a tenant in the same building called the owners to complain about a significant water leak coming through her ceiling.
When the supervisor went to investigate, he discovered a flood of red-tinged water flowing out of Jeanne’s apartment. The shower had been left running — and Jeanne’s body was slumped inside it, the Pioneer Press reported.
The young woman had been stabbed as many as 65 times during a violent attack, with some of the wounds inflicted after she had already succumbed to her injuries.
Although investigators began an inquiry to find out who had killed her, they soon realised there were few leads and no witnesses at…
