Jeanie Childs Murder: Genealogy Break, Trial, and Appeals

The 1993 murder of Jeanie Childs in her south Minneapolis apartment was solved more than 25 years later when investigators used forensic genealogy and a DNA sample lifted from a discarded napkin to identify Jerry Westrom, an Isanti, Minnesota farmer with no known connection to the victim. Westrom was convicted of first-degree premeditated murder in August 2022 and sentenced to life in prison, with no possibility of parole before 2052.

What Happened at Horn Towers in June 1993

On June 13, 1993, neighbors at Horn Towers, a high-rise on Pillsbury Avenue in south Minneapolis, reported bloody water leaking from an upper-floor apartment. A caretaker and security guard entered the unit and found the shower running. Jeanie Childs, 35, was partially under her bed. She had been stabbed approximately 65 times, with wounds concentrated on her neck and torso and at least one piercing her heart.¹ Many wounds were inflicted after she had already died. Defensive injuries on her hands showed she had fought back.²

Blood covered the bed, the walls, and the bathroom. Beneath the bedroom window, investigators found bloody bare footprints. Because Childs had been wearing socks, they concluded the prints belonged to her killer. Seven prints were collected and labeled A through G.³ A bloody knife was found in the sink but was not tested at the time, and the actual murder weapon was never recovered.¹

Childs worked as a sex worker and lived with Arthur Gray, who held the lease and whom investigators later described as her “trafficker or pimp.”⁴ Her sister remembered a “playful spirit” who loved Lionel Richie, and her mother called her a “wonderful person” who “had problems” but “a big heart.”¹

Why the Case Went Cold

DNA technology was not widely used in criminal investigations in 1993. Investigators recovered multiple blood and biological samples from the apartment but could not put a name to the profile they had.

Suspicion first fell on Arthur Gray. Hairs matching him were found in Childs’ hand, and his DNA was identified on the comforter. Gray, however, had an alibi corroborated by others that placed him at a motorcycle rally in Wisconsin the weekend of the murder. His footprints did not match the bloody prints, and investigators treated his hair in the bedroom as consistent with his living there.⁵ Gray died in 2012 without ever being charged. The case sat unsolved for more than two decades.

How Genealogy and a Napkin Cracked the Case

In 2015, Minneapolis homicide investigators and the FBI reopened the case and had the crime scene evidence reanalyzed by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and a private DNA company.⁶ By 2018, drawing on the approach that identified the Golden State Killer, investigators uploaded the unknown DNA profile to GEDmatch, a commercial genealogy site.⁷ A genealogist hired by police worked familial matches in the database until the trail led to Jerry Westrom.⁸

Genealogy alone was a lead, not proof. To confirm it, investigators needed a direct sample from Westrom himself. In January 2019, they followed him to his daughter’s hockey game at a rink in Wisconsin. Westrom used a napkin to wipe his mouth while eating a hot dog and threw it away. Officers retrieved it and pulled his DNA from it.⁹ The profile matched semen recovered in 1993 from a comforter, a towel, a red shirt, and the bathroom sink.³ Forensic analysts also matched Westrom’s foot to the bloody bare prints at the scene.

Who Jerry Westrom Was

Westrom was arrested in February 2019 and initially charged with second-degree murder on February 14. He posted $500,000 bail the following day.⁸ He was 52, living in Isanti, a small city north of Minneapolis. He had earned a bachelor’s degree in agricultural business from the University of Minnesota in 1989 and managed an organic farm. Reporting at the time described a “fairly high profile life in the Isanti area” with involvement in youth athletics, and his defense attorney spoke of “deep social and familial roots in his community.” His wife, children, and about a dozen supporters attended his bail hearing. He was later fired from his job and used his farmland as collateral to hire a private investigator.¹⁰ Police said they believed Westrom had not been known to Childs.¹¹

On June 25, 2020, a Hennepin County grand jury indicted Westrom on the more serious charge of first-degree premeditated murder. He turned himself in four days later.⁸

The 2022 Trial

Westrom’s trial began with opening statements on August 16, 2022, before Hennepin County District Court Judge Juan Hoyos.¹² Assistant Hennepin County Attorney Darren Borg argued the killing was premeditated, pointing to the 65 stab wounds and evidence that the attack moved from room to room. The prosecution presented DNA matching Westrom on a shirt, washcloth, blanket, and in the bathroom sink, along with semen linked to him on the bed and in the bathroom. Footprint evidence placed him near the body.²

Mark Ulrick, a forensics supervisor with the Minneapolis Police, testified that friction ridge skin patterns on four of the seven bloody prints matched Westrom. Alicia McCarthy, a forensic scientist retained by the defense, independently confirmed at least one match, testifying she was “positive” that print E2, showing the area below the left big toe, was made by Westrom’s left foot. She disagreed with Ulrick on the other three, saying they lacked enough detail for a definitive identification.⁵

Defense attorneys Steve Meshbesher and Andrew Tyler argued Westrom was innocent. DNA from other unidentified individuals had been found in the apartment, and because Childs was a sex worker, many men had been through the unit. The defense argued the state could not prove when Westrom’s DNA had been deposited.¹² Meshbesher pointed back to Arthur Gray, citing Gray’s hair in Childs’ hand and a history of physical abuse.² A pretrial ruling weakened the defense: Judge Hoyos excluded testimony from Dr. Michael Nirenberg, a forensic podiatry expert Westrom had hired to challenge the footprint analysis, finding the field “unreliable for purposes of identification.” Westrom ended up calling no forensic or medical experts.⁴

On August 25, 2022, after roughly two hours of deliberation, the jury found Westrom guilty of both first-degree premeditated murder and second-degree intentional murder. He was taken into custody immediately.²

Sentence and Appeals

On September 9, 2022, Judge Hoyos sentenced Westrom to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 30 years, making him eligible no earlier than 2052.¹³ Westrom did not speak. Betty Eakman, Childs’ mother, told the court, “I’ve waited so many years to have this end, and it has put me through so much hell. I’ll never forget … and love her the way I always did.”¹⁴

Westrom appealed directly to the Minnesota Supreme Court, raising seven challenges, including that police violated his constitutional rights by generating a DNA profile from the discarded napkin. On May 8, 2024, the court rejected six of the challenges and affirmed the first-degree premeditated murder conviction. It reversed the second-degree conviction on the ground that Minnesota law treats every lesser degree of murder as a lesser-included offense, so a defendant cannot be convicted of both for the same act. The ruling had no effect on his life sentence.¹⁵ Westrom petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined to hear the case on October 21, 2024.¹⁶ He remains incarcerated at the St. Cloud prison in Minnesota.

1
Oxygen. Jerry Westrom Guilty in Jeanne Childs 1993 Cold Case Murder
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CBS News Minnesota. Jerry Westrom Guilty Verdict
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CBS News Minnesota. Jeanie Childs Minneapolis Cold Case Solved
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FindLaw. State v. Westrom
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CBS News. Jeanie Childs Jerry Westrom Minneapolis Cold Case Murder
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13WHAM. Napkin, Genealogy Site Leads to Arrest in 1993 Murder Case
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MPR News. Genealogy Technology Plays Key Role in Minneapolis Cold Case
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Hennepin County Attorney’s Office. Westrom Indicted for First-Degree Murder
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CBS News Minnesota. Jeanie Childs Cold Case Murder Forensics
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Star Tribune. Bail Reduced for Isanti Man Charged in 1993 Cold Case Murder
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ABC News. DNA Leads to Man’s Arrest in 1993 Murder
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MPR News. Hennepin Jury Convicts Jerry Westrom in Cold Case Killing
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MPR News. Jerry Westrom Sentenced to Life in Prison in Cold Case Murder
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CBS News Minnesota. Jerry Westrom to Be Sentenced in 1993 Murder of Jeanie Childs
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Fox 9. Minneapolis Cold Case Murder: Supreme Court Vacates Conviction but Suspect Will Stay in Prison
16
Supreme Court of the United States. Docket No. 24-271, Westrom v. Minnesota