Posted on 05/16/2025 6:17:36 AM PDT by simpson96
Nearly half a century after a young California woman was strangled, officials say a thumbprint on a carton of cigarettes has led to an arrest.
Willie Eugene Sims was arrested in Jefferson, Ohio, in connection with the death of Jeanette Ralston, according to a Friday statement from the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office.
Sims, 69, has been charged with murder and was arraigned on Friday in Ashtabula County Court before being sent to California.
(snip)
A thumbprint found on Ralston’s cigarette carton in her car was found to match Sims’s last fall after law enforcement had asked to run the print through the FBI’s updated system, prosecutors said.
Earlier this year, officials from the district attorney’s office and San Jose police went to Ohio to collect DNA from Sims. Prosecutors say it matched the DNA found on Ralston’s fingernails and the shirt used to strangle her.
“Every day, forensic science grows better, and every day, criminals are closer to being caught,” District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in a statement. “Cases may grow old and be forgotten by the public. We don’t forget and we don’t give up.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
They’ll let him go and probably run him for Congress.
He’d fit right in with the rest of em....
Kudos to the policework. What a hot beauty the lady was and what a tragedy her life became.
THIS is what the death penalty is for.
Make prayer for soul.
The people who worked to solve this crime have made a difference. God bless them.
https://search.brave.com/search?q=unsolved+Jeanette+Ralston&summary=1
Jeanette Ralston Cold Case
Jeanette Ralston’s murder case, which was unsolved for nearly 50 years, was recently solved when Willie Eugene Sims, 69, was charged with her murder. Ralston, a 24-year-old woman, was found strangled and sexually assaulted in her Volkswagen Beetle near a bar in San Jose, California, on February 1, 1977.
Cold-case investigators used a fingerprint from a 1977 pack of cigarettes and a DNA match to implicate Sims in Ralston’s death. The fingerprint was found on a carton of Eve cigarettes in Ralston’s car, and DNA evidence from Sims matched that found on Ralston’s fingernails and the shirt used to strangle her.
Sims was arraigned on one count of murder and faces a maximum prison sentence of 25 years to life. He was previously convicted of assault with intent to commit murder and robbery in Monterey County, California, in 1978.
Ralston’s son, Allen Ralston, expressed gratitude for Sims’ arrest, saying it was a great birthday present for him.
AI-generated answer. Please verify critical facts.
“Your honor, the cigarettes would have killed her eventually anyway.”
Sims was arraigned on one count of murder and faces a maximum prison sentence of 25 years to life. He was previously convicted of assault with intent to commit murder and robbery in Monterey County, California, in 1978.
Of course it wasn’t his first rodeo.
Why couldn’t she see the danger?
If the races were reversed, they would be complaining that it took so long to solve the case.
“Of course it wasn’t his first rodeo.” Exactly. The case was solved, but justice was not done. You can be sure that, except for his time in prison, he’s been assaulting, raping and murdering his entire adult life.
Yeah it is, but he is going to Kalifornia so not going to happen.
More proof that smoking is bad for your health?...
Gee, what a shock. Another white killed by a black. I watch true-crime shows every day while riding my exercise bike, and this racial scenario plays out again and again and again. I just saw two episodes where two elderly white women were found dead in their homes. The killers? A black garbage collector and a black door-to-door salesman. Very rarely do I see cases like this where the races are reversed.
1977 was peak disco.
1977 was peak disco.
Saturday Night Fever ruined Disco.
I hope there’s more evidence than a fingerprint on a carton of cigarettes...that’s a pretty thin reed by itself.
I thought so to. They must have more.
Prosecutors say it matched the DNA found on Ralston’s fingernails and the shirt used to strangle her.
I’d say that’s a pretty slam dunk case.
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