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Betty Ekman (Jeannie's Mother)

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Crime Scene Investigator

On 13th of June 1993, I was on call as a team leader for our crime scene team. We had pagers then, no cell phones. And I got a page who was a sergeant requesting our assistance on the 21st floor of this high rise apartment building.

Forensic Expert/Investigator

When you entered into the apartment, you didn't really see anything. You wouldn't have known that a crime had occurred. When you went a little further

Defense Forensic Expert

and

Forensic Expert/Investigator

you ended up going into the bedroom. It was catastrophic.

Crime Scene Investigator

When I proceeded to where the body was on the side of the bed, I looked down. I could see the imprint in blood that looked like a left foot and a right foot. It's an actual bare foot. I mean, wow.

Betty Ekman (Jeannie's Mother)

I turned the TV on. I saw the apartment. They said they just found a young woman in her early 30s. Oh my. I just got chills all over. Don't tell me that was Jean. I called the Coroner's place. And he said, are you all alone? You better get somebody over there with you because it was your daughter. I couldn't believe it.

Jennifer Meyerle (Reporter)

Jeannie Childs had defensive wounds on her hands when they found her. She had been stabbed at least 65 times, including after she had died. Investigators took DNA evidence at the time. They could not find who it belonged to. And they hit a dead end at some point and moved on. And it wasn't until 2015 that a cold case unit reopened the case. A DNA profile, it was uploaded into myheritage.com and they found what could be a match. Jerry Westrom is a husband, a father of three, a businessman. He attended church. He was a hockey dad. Police expect Westrom to be charged with murder by noon tomorrow.

Wayne Triplett (Friend of Jerry Westrom)

Jerry doesn't have a demeanor of being a violent person.

Host/Reporter

Have you ever seen him lose his temper?

Wayne Triplett (Friend of Jerry Westrom)

No, I believe it's in my toes. He's not capable, okay? He didn't do it.

Forensic Expert/Investigator

There was DNA from other individuals that did not belong to Jerry Westrom, but clearly belonged to a male source. We know that there were experts that viewed multiple footprints and they're in her blood.

Crime Scene Investigator

The person who put the footprint down had to step in wet blood and it had to be after she was stabbed or bleeding.

Host/Reporter

How important did those footprints in blood become in this case?

Forensic Expert/Investigator

Without the footprints, we would not be sitting here. I think that the footprints defined the path of this case.

Crime Scene Investigator

Erin Moriarty reports.

Host/Reporter

The footprint. Minnesota crime scene investigators captured this footage when they got their first look inside a high rise apartment in Minneapolis. The camera's pointing west at this time. According to police reports, at around 5:30pm June 13, 1993, a tenant reported water seeping into their apartment. A building caretaker and a security guard were called to check it out and discovered the water was coming from apartment 2104.

Crime Scene Investigator

They went into the apartment and they found that the shower was still running and causing all this flooding next door.

Host/Reporter

After the shower was turned off, they came upon a gruesome sight in the bedroom. 35 year old Jeannie Child's body was partially under the bed. That's when police were called to investigate.

Crime Scene Investigator

This was a violent, bloody crime scene. This is one of the bloodiest that I'd been to.

Host/Reporter

Retired forensic scientist Bart Epstein says carefully documenting that scene was crucial. Blood stains and blood spatter tell a story.

Crime Scene Investigator

Yes, they sure can. In this case, we could establish that Jeannie Childs was hit in front of the bathroom door.

Host/Reporter

Epstein says Jeannie then moved into the bathroom. She was stabbed and Slashed dozens of times.

Crime Scene Investigator

She was down on the floor smearing blood along that area.

Host/Reporter

While the shower had been turned off earlier, investigators noticed water was still running from the sink faucet.

Crime Scene Investigator

There was a lot of activity going on there. Why was the sink faucet still dripping? Was he trying to clean up?

Host/Reporter

Jeannie apparently made it back to her bedroom where her body was found.

Forensic Expert/Investigator

The blood wasn't confined to just the area where she was. The blood was on the walls. The blood was on the comforter. The blood was on the floor.

Host/Reporter

Julie Rendelman is a defense attorney and legal consultant for 48 hours.

Forensic Expert/Investigator

It leads one to believe that a struggle happened, that she was fighting to save her own life.

Host/Reporter

The living room appeared untouched. A sitcom was still playing on the tv. There was no evidence of forced entry. If Jeannie knew her killer, what could have prompted so much violence?

Forensic Expert/Investigator

This, to me, seems like more rage. Someone who got upset. At the time that the crime was

Host/Reporter

committed to Jeannie's mother, Betty Ekman, was watching television news when she saw a report about a woman who had been murdered.

Betty Ekman (Jeannie's Mother)

I called my husband at work. I said, I just seen them on the news taking a stretcher out of that building that she lives in.

Host/Reporter

Betty soon got the news. No mother wants to hear. The victim was her eldest child.

Betty Ekman (Jeannie's Mother)

I just wanted to hold her. I couldn't believe it.

Host/Reporter

Betty says she spoke with her daughter the day before her murder. Jeannie, she says, wasn't expecting visitors because she was nursing a toothache. What were her plans that weekend?

Betty Ekman (Jeannie's Mother)

She went to the emergency room. She was in so much pain. Jeannie always had problems with her teeth, and I don't know why. So I said, let me come and get you. No, Mom. Stop worrying about me.

Host/Reporter

Jeannie was dead by Sunday afternoon. As the crime investigation continued, authorities focused on gathering evidence. A blue washcloth, a red T shirt, a bath towel. Blood scrapings from the sink along with a comforter were collected and taken for DNA testing. Investigators observed dishes in the kitchen sink and a knife in the drying rack. Did you take that knife in?

Crime Scene Investigator

Did not take that knife in. I looked at it, and there was no apparent blood on there. We never found any actual weapon there that was a murder weapon.

Host/Reporter

Investigators were able to identify some blood stains found in the stairwell near Jeannie's 21st floor floor apartment. Did any of the blood belong to the victim, Jeanne Childs? Do you think it's possible that the person who stabbed her was also cut?

Crime Scene Investigator

Well, it could be. That's why we took the samples.

Host/Reporter

Epstein says whoever murdered Jeannie Childs unknowingly left behind something investigators rarely encounter. Bloody bare footprints under the bedroom window.

Crime Scene Investigator

That drew my attention right away. And right next to it, I see the socked foot of Jeannie Childs.

Host/Reporter

The footprints were dusted with black powder at the crime scene. When you first saw these, you said, because she's wearing socks, this, these belong to the killer.

Crime Scene Investigator

That would be my feeling. That's most likely the perpetrator's footprint. If there's the friction ridge on the feet, like the friction ridge on your fingers, there's potential to identify the person's foot that made that. That was very, very significant.

Betty Ekman (Jeannie's Mother)

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Betty Ekman (Jeannie's Mother)

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Betty Ekman (Jeannie's Mother)

Everyone said she looked like me.

Host/Reporter

Pretty precious.

Cindy Blumer (Jeannie's Sister)

Very few pictures I have of us together.

Host/Reporter

Cindy Blumer remembers the deep loss she felt after the murder of her big sister Jeannie.

Cindy Blumer (Jeannie's Sister)

A lot of sadness when you wanted to pick up the phone and call your sister. I needed my sister. I wanted to talk to her. Wondering what actually took place. Who did this?

Host/Reporter

Although her sister was 12 years older, Jeannie's Playful spirit made an impression on Cindy.

Cindy Blumer (Jeannie's Sister)

Growing up, Lionel Richie was one of her favorite. And as soon as she would hear him play, I mean, her fingers would start snapping and she would dance around.

Host/Reporter

But those good times were few and far between. Betty Ekman says she first noticed a change in her eldest daughter when she was a preteen.

Betty Ekman (Jeannie's Mother)

She kind of lost her way when she was probably around 12, 13.

Host/Reporter

Betty says it wasn't until decades later that Jeannie claimed she had been abused by a male relative. Jeannie started running away from home.

Betty Ekman (Jeannie's Mother)

I took my life in my own hands many a times to track her down. I could have been killed, but I had my Great Dane and a gun.

Host/Reporter

Would you sometimes find her?

Sally Helm (Podcast Host)

Oh, yeah.

Betty Ekman (Jeannie's Mother)

When she would come home, she was like a cat on a hot tin roof. She was so antsy, she couldn't stay very long.

Host/Reporter

As the time passed, she feared her daughter was using drugs and soon learned how Jeannie was making ends meet. And what did your daughter do?

Betty Ekman (Jeannie's Mother)

Prostitution. I just hoped and prayed that she would stop.

Host/Reporter

At one point, it seems she settled down long enough to get married, but her family says it didn't last long. Soon after, she married again to a man with children. And Jeannie became a stepmom.

Betty Ekman (Jeannie's Mother)

And they depended on her. She was the only mother they really knew.

Host/Reporter

Even when Jeannie split with their father, she remained in the children's lives.

Cindy Blumer (Jeannie's Sister)

They needed anything. They knew how to get ahold of her. She was really good that way.

Host/Reporter

At the time of her murder, she was living with a man named Arthur Gray at that apartment complex. After Jeannie's murder, he became a person of interest.

Narrator/Investigator

Investigators immediately looked at whether Arthur Gray was involved in the murder.

Host/Reporter

Retired FBI agent Chris Bogers would later join the investigation. According to police reports, Jeannie, who was a sex worker, claimed she worked for Gray, and there was a history of violence between them. At the crime scene, authorities found Hare's stuck to Jeannie's left hand. And one of those hairs matched Gray. But Boker says the case against Gray started to fall apart pretty quickly.

Narrator/Investigator

Arthur Gray, as a resident of that apartment, it makes sense that his hairs would be throughout the bedroom.

Host/Reporter

And Arthur Gray said he wasn't even in town. But on a motorcycle trip in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the weekend Jeannie was murdered.

Narrator/Investigator

He had a really solid alibi that he was out of town that weekend. That was corroborated by others.

Host/Reporter

Authorities compared the unknown bloody footprints in the apartment to Gray's footprints and determined they weren't his. Do you know how many other possible suspects persons of Interest. Whose footprints were compared to those left in Jeannie's apartment?

Narrator/Investigator

There were multiple people whose footprints were compared to the footprints that were left in Jeannie's apartment. You could see that in the case file that a lot of effort was put in attempting to solve Jeannie's case.

Host/Reporter

According to the case file, on the day of the murder, a witness in the apartment building told police she saw Jeannie with a tall blond man wearing a trench coat.

Narrator/Investigator

We had no way to track down who that may or may not have been.

Host/Reporter

Investigators never found the man. Despite efforts to find Jeannie's killer, the case slowed to a crawl. Months turned into years and then decades. How often would you call the police trying to get an update to find out if they had anything new on this case?

Betty Ekman (Jeannie's Mother)

Many times as I could. But I never let a year go by without reminding them.

Host/Reporter

In 2015, the Minneapolis Police Department began digging deeper into unsolved cases, and Jeannie Childs murder was one of them. Jeannie's family had no idea, but investigators were hoping science would help them solve the case.

Narrator/Investigator

Technology is so much more refined and rigorous than it was in 1993,

Host/Reporter

Agent Boker says they discovered that a blood sample found near Jeannie's blood in the stairwell of her apartment building had matched to a man named John Eswine. In 2015, investigators interviewed S Wine, who was in prison for violating probation on a drunk driving offense.

Narrator/Investigator

Do you have any idea why your DNA would be in that building? Your blood would be in that building? No.

Crime Scene Investigator

Okay. My blood was in that building, yeah.

Narrator/Investigator

If you found my blood somewhere, all I can think of is that I must have fallen down somewhere.

Host/Reporter

Eswine told investigators he was in the building once in 1991, two years before Jeannie's murder.

Narrator/Investigator

He easily volunteered his DNA. He also allowed himself his footprints to be taken. Then his footprints were compared to the bloody footprints in Jeannie's bedroom.

Host/Reporter

According to a lab report, the footprints were inconclusive. And S Wine's DNA was not found inside Jeannie's apartment. The mystery only deepened. Investigators knew from the case file that there were DNA profiles discovered at the crime scene that had never matched to anyone. Andrea Faya, a forensic scientist with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, performed additional testing on the evidence that was collected back in 1993. And she noticed something unusual about one of the unknown DNA profiles.

Cindy Blumer (Jeannie's Sister)

That DNA profile repeated itself throughout the crime scene.

Host/Reporter

It was on the comforter. It was on the blue towel. It was found on the blue washcloth and the red T shirt.

Cindy Blumer (Jeannie's Sister)

Correct.

Host/Reporter

And on the Sink?

Cindy Blumer (Jeannie's Sister)

Yes. Those were the only areas that we tested that ended up matching each other, essentially.

Host/Reporter

Investigators then turned to investigative genetic genealogy for answers. The unknown DNA profile was submitted to genealogy websites including MyHeritage.com the Forensic Genealogist

Narrator/Investigator

indicated that she had a match, potentially two brothers here in Minnesota.

Host/Reporter

And one of the brothers was a man named Jerry Westrom.

Jennifer Meyerle (Reporter)

He was a well respected member of the community. People were surprised.

Host/Reporter

More than 25 years after Jeannie Childs was murdered, unknown DNA at the crime scene was matched to 52 year old Jerry Westrom. What did you know about him?

Narrator/Investigator

He was living north of Minneapolis St. Paul, that he was working for a company up in St. Cloud, Minnesota area. He'd been a businessman.

Host/Reporter

Retired FBI agent Chris Boker says the married father of three wasn't hard to find.

Narrator/Investigator

Had a Facebook account that we could follow. He was leading a seemingly normal family life.

Host/Reporter

Westrom had grown up in rural Minnesota.

Wayne Triplett (Friend of Jerry Westrom)

He and I were on a 4H trip when we were 14 to Washington

Host/Reporter

D.C. wayne Triplett and Jerry Westrom were farm kids. They later became college buddies. And when Wayne got married, he was

Wayne Triplett (Friend of Jerry Westrom)

one of the groomsmen in our wedding.

Host/Reporter

That means he was a good friend of yours.

Wayne Triplett (Friend of Jerry Westrom)

Yes, that's true. He got along well with a lot of people. Very low key. Gentlemen easily can make friends with people.

Host/Reporter

Westrom and his family were well respected in Isanti, Minnesota, about 40 miles away from Minneapolis. They owned a Sears store. And in the year 2000, Westrom built his own field of dreams, a convenience store and gas station known as Westrom's corner. But in 2008, the turbulent economy took it all away. Was that tough on him to lose Westrom's Corner?

Wayne Triplett (Friend of Jerry Westrom)

I think it was tough on him. It'd be tough on anybody.

Host/Reporter

Westrom returned to his roots. He began raising organic corn and soybeans and cultivating a business selling crop insurance.

Wayne Triplett (Friend of Jerry Westrom)

He's a very good salesperson. He understands the need to fill the need. He understands how to communicate and people have to be comfortable with you to close on business.

Host/Reporter

Wayne never imagined that the even tempered friend he's known since their teenage years would become the prime suspect in a violent murder case. Did he have any history of violent crimes?

Narrator/Investigator

No apparent criminal history involving violent crime.

Host/Reporter

Jeannie was stabbed over 60 times and here's this man. No history of violence. And this is the guy who might have killed her.

Narrator/Investigator

Well, it gave some pause that that level of violence and that type of crime, we kind of expected it would be somebody that maybe had been arrested multiple times. So yes, that does give a little pause.

Host/Reporter

Investigators were anxious to confirm that the unknown crime scene DNA was indeed Jerry Westrom's. But to do that, they needed to track him down.

Narrator/Investigator

We needed to obtain DNA from Jerry in order to compare it to the unknown DNA from the scene.

Host/Reporter

Forensic scientist Andrea Feya. And what did you tell them would be the best DNA if they could get it?

Cindy Blumer (Jeannie's Sister)

Best DNA is something that has been in a person's mouth, like if they drank out of a drinking container, a straw, if they spit out chewing gum, anything that could have saliva on it.

Host/Reporter

Why is saliva the ideal? Why did you say get something that had touched his mouth?

Cindy Blumer (Jeannie's Sister)

There's a lot of DNA in saliva.

Host/Reporter

Westrom, a devoted hockey dad, frequently attended his daughter's College Games. In January 2019, Westrom traveled to a game in Wisconsin. Agent Bokers, along with his partner, surreptitiously followed him there.

Narrator/Investigator

Westrom went out to the lobby concession stand and made a food order. We watched him sit at the table and eat his order. And when he finished, he took a napkin and he wiped his mouth.

Host/Reporter

Westrom tossed that napkin and food container in the garbage can. And when he returned to the rink, Agent Bokers made his move.

Narrator/Investigator

I was gloved. I just reached down and got the container, and we bagged it up for evidence.

Cindy Blumer (Jeannie's Sister)

I tested and got a DNA profile from that napkin and compared it to the unidentified profile on the comforter and the blue towel.

Host/Reporter

And what was the result?

Cindy Blumer (Jeannie's Sister)

They were consistent with each other.

Host/Reporter

A month later, in February 2019, Jerry Westrom was arrested and charged with the murder of Jeannie Childs. As you sit here right now, Wayne, do you believe that Jerry Westrom is the one who killed Jeanne Childs?

Wayne Triplett (Friend of Jerry Westrom)

Definite no? Not a chance.

Host/Reporter

Definite no.

Wayne Triplett (Friend of Jerry Westrom)

Definite no? Not a chance.

Host/Reporter

In a videotaped interview at the jail, Agent Bokers and his partner question Westrom.

Narrator/Investigator

Does this lady look familiar to you at all?

Crime Scene Investigator

Okay. Her name is Jeannie Childs.

Wayne Triplett (Friend of Jerry Westrom)

Okay.

Host/Reporter

And she was found in her building, in her apartment, deceased.

Crime Scene Investigator

Do you know anything about that at all?

Cindy Blumer (Jeannie's Sister)

No.

Crime Scene Investigator

Okay. Do you think you would have ever had sex with her? I doubt it. In 93, would you have been with a prostitute? No. No.

Host/Reporter

WCCO TV senior investigative reporter Jennifer Meyerle.

Jennifer Meyerle (Reporter)

He doesn't give much in the interview, but what he doesn't say almost says more.

Host/Reporter

What do you mean?

Jennifer Meyerle (Reporter)

He doesn't ask any questions about what happened, about why he's there, about why they're looking at him.

Host/Reporter

Jerry Westrom had no history of violent crime, but it seems he had been keeping a few secrets from his friends. Westrom had told Wayne about two DWI arrests but never shared. He had been arrested twice for soliciting sex workers. You didn't know anything?

Betty Ekman (Jeannie's Mother)

No.

Host/Reporter

What was your reaction?

Wayne Triplett (Friend of Jerry Westrom)

It was hard to understand. That's the hard pill to swallow. Meaning how does a person with a good family and loving wife have the need for solicitation? What's going on there?

Host/Reporter

Investigators questioned Westrom for 11 minutes until he asked for a lawyer. He was then handcuffed and spent the night in jail.

Narrator/Investigator

And the following morning, we went to the jail with Minneapolis crime lab personnel, and they obtained his footprints.

Host/Reporter

48 Hours Legal Consultant Julie Rendelman says the footprints were important because Westrom's DNA was not the only DNA recovered there.

Forensic Expert/Investigator

DNA that was recovered was from Western Multiple individuals. If you don't have anything else, that in and of itself does not establish beyond a reasonable doubt that Jerry Westrom is the person that committed this crime.

Sally Helm (Podcast Host)

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Host/Reporter

For more than 25 years, Betty Ekman had prayed for a break in her daughter's unsolved murder case. In February 2019, her prayers were answered.

Betty Ekman (Jeannie's Mother)

I got a phone call, and he said, I'm the detective that worked on your daughter's case. And I said, okay, what's going on? We found him, and I got goosebumps all over me. And I said, are you sure? He said, yes, we got him.

Host/Reporter

But when Cindy Blummer learned the name of the suspect in her sister's murder, she had trouble believing it.

Cindy Blumer (Jeannie's Sister)

I said, no way. No way.

Host/Reporter

Jerry Westrom was a familiar face who lived in their town of Isanti, Minnesota.

Cindy Blumer (Jeannie's Sister)

I'd seen Jerry because our boys played hockey. He's tall. He kind of stands out. He also owned the business, the gas station.

Host/Reporter

The hockey dad and local businessman was now charged with murder. Westrom was later indicted by a grand jury and pleaded not guilty. Westrom's DNA, according to forensic scientist Andrea Fea, found on the comforter and towel in the bathroom, was identified as semen. But she says her team couldn't determine the type of DNA that she says Westrom left on the red T shirt, the bathroom sink and the washcloth. You can't say definitively that his blood or any other kind of DNA was found at the scene. You know it's his DNA, but you don't know what kind. Is that correct?

Jennifer Meyerle (Reporter)

Correct.

Cindy Blumer (Jeannie's Sister)

I don't know how it was deposited.

Wayne Triplett (Friend of Jerry Westrom)

Essentially, you say DNA to general Joe Q. Public. Well, that's a slam dunk.

Host/Reporter

Wayne Triplett, however, has questions about how and when the DNA was left there.

Wayne Triplett (Friend of Jerry Westrom)

There's no time stamp on DNA.

Host/Reporter

Despite advances in DNA technology, there's no way to know how long Westrom's DNA had been there and Wayne's. The evidence only suggests one thing that

Wayne Triplett (Friend of Jerry Westrom)

just doesn't mysteriously show up. He had to be there.

Host/Reporter

So you think he probably was in that apartment at some point.

Wayne Triplett (Friend of Jerry Westrom)

You know, you can't run from that evidence. He had to been there. Don't get there by accident.

Host/Reporter

You don't believe he was there the day that Jeannie Childs was murdered?

Wayne Triplett (Friend of Jerry Westrom)

I don't.

Host/Reporter

48 hours legal consultant Julie Rendelman says the evidence in this case does raise questions. According to lab reports, there was other DNA from semen discovered on Jeannie's purple panties that does not match Westrom. Whose DNA it is remains, even today, a mystery. And that wasn't all.

Forensic Expert/Investigator

There was DNA from other individuals that did not belong to Jerry Westrom, but clearly belonged to a male source.

Host/Reporter

Rendlen print points to that DNA found in the stairwell. Close to bloodstains identified as belonging to Jeannie Childs.

Forensic Expert/Investigator

Jerry Westrom's DNA is not in the stairwell. But we know that there's at least one other person whose DNA blood is found in that stairwell.

Host/Reporter

Remember that stairwell? DNA matched John S. Wine. When investigators interviewed him, he couldn't recall how his blood ended up in the stairs stairwell not far from Jeannie Child's apartment on the 21st floor.

Forensic Expert/Investigator

His answers were a bit peculiar, I found. And the reason I say that is because he actually described being there one time.

Host/Reporter

And why does that bother you so?

Forensic Expert/Investigator

It bothers me because how the heck would he remember when he's interviewed all these years later that he was there, but only there once, and the one time he says he was there was years before the murder. It just. It felt a bit convenient.

Host/Reporter

We reached out to John S. Wyme for comment, but he didn't respond. He has never been charged in this case. Rendleman also points out that before Jerry Westrom's DNA was identified at the crime scene, authorities had discovered A mixture of DNA types on the comforter. According to a 2012 lab report, a man named James Luther Carlton couldn't be excluded as one of the contributors.

Forensic Expert/Investigator

We know this is an individual that had committed multiple sex crimes in the past.

Host/Reporter

And what makes Carlton so significant? A little more than a year after Jeannie childs murder in July 1994, sometime between last Thursday and Monday, someone entered

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this one bedroom uptown apartment and murdered Jody Dover.

Host/Reporter

26 year old hospital worker Jody Dover was stabbed to death in her Minneapolis apartment. Jody's murder was eerily similar to Jeannie's murder. Jody's killer had also left behind bloody footprints. Authorities arrested Carlton and determined a footprint found inside Jody Dover's apartment belonged to him. He was convicted of her murder in 1995 and is serving a life sentence. 48 Hours can't confirm if he was ever questioned. Around the time of Jeanne Child's murder, we reached out to Carlton. He declined our interview request. Carlton's criminal history was a red flag for Westrom's defense team. Attorney Stephen Meshbescher told our CBS station WCCO that it was a rush to judgment. In this case case, you need to do the investigation first.

Betty Ekman (Jeannie's Mother)

Find out what the facts are, find

Host/Reporter

out what the evidence is and then determine the charge. Now they're charging it first. Were the footprints, Jerry Westrom's. As both sides prepared for trial, it became clear that it would all come down to this unique evidence.

Narrator/Investigator

In Minnesota. Here people are not committing crimes a lot of times with their socks and shoes off.

Host/Reporter

Mark Ulrich, a supervisor with the Minneapolis police forensic division examined the footprints. He says he focused on the friction ridge skin, the arrangement of ridges and furrows unique to every person.

Narrator/Investigator

Friction ridge skin is found on your fingers, your palms and the soles of your feet.

Host/Reporter

Seven bloody footprints were photographed and labeled A through G. Defense attorneys hired their own forensic scientist, Alicia McCarthy, a professor at Thomas College in Waterville, Maine to analyze the bloody footprints for them. You call this case a beast?

Defense Forensic Expert

It was a beast. It was definitely very challenging.

Host/Reporter

What conclusions would the experts reach?

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Host/Reporter

Was Jerry Westrom just a customer who had left his DNA in Jeannie child's apartment previously, or was he the one who stabbed her to death more than 60 times? Investigators believe the bloody footprints found in her apartment would provide the answer. That looks like a left foot.

Wayne Triplett (Friend of Jerry Westrom)

Correct.

Narrator/Investigator

I completed the reference files.

Host/Reporter

Mark Ulrich at the Minneapolis police lab was tasked with comparing the crime scene prints to Westrom. He determined that priority four of the seven prints were suitable for comparison. One of them, he says, revealed the impression of a left foot. He labeled the heel E1 and an area below the big toe as E2. When Ulrich analyzed it, this was his conclusion.

Narrator/Investigator

E1 and E2 were identified to Mr. Jerry Westrom.

Host/Reporter

And he says there was more.

Narrator/Investigator

This one, that one was identified to the right foot of Mr. Jerry Westrom.

Host/Reporter

Ulrich believed that all four prints, E1, E2B, and another left footprint he labeled D1, belonged to Westrom. As the trial date approached, forensic scientist Alicia mccarthy, who had been hired by the defense, was asked to verify Ulrich's.

Defense Forensic Expert

They wanted me to come in and look and double check the work that was done by the Minneapolis lab.

Host/Reporter

McCarthy believed that only the print labeled E2, the area below the left big toe, was suitable for comparison. This is the crime scene photo.

Defense Forensic Expert

This is E2.

Host/Reporter

During her analysis, she began comparing E2 to the footprints of alternate suspects and didn't get anywhere.

Defense Forensic Expert

I was sort of in limbo for about a year where I was comparing to other people, and then I said, I'm inconclusive. I can't say it's these people. I can't say it's not these people.

Host/Reporter

McCarthy showed us what unique characteristics she was looking for.

Defense Forensic Expert

We have what we call a recurve. Yes, it comes down and recurves back up. And for a friction ridge examiner, that's pretty exciting.

Host/Reporter

When she compared E2 to Jerry Westrom's footprints, she followed the curves and finally. And who do you believe left that footprint at the crime scene?

Defense Forensic Expert

That was Jerry Westrom's left foot.

Host/Reporter

And you're sure of that?

Defense Forensic Expert

Positive.

Host/Reporter

McCarthy Agree with Mark Ulrich. E2, the small area below the left big toe had been placed there by Jerry Westrom. But she disagreed with Ulrich on the other three footprints.

Defense Forensic Expert

I went through and did the comparisons that Mark had made identifications with. I didn't agree with him.

Host/Reporter

She believed those three prints didn't have enough detail.

Defense Forensic Expert

There wasn't enough for that very high threshold to say an identification and go to court in front of a jury and tell them that this impression belongs

Narrator/Investigator

to Jerry Westrom, that's her decision. And I have no qualms about what she did. I just know the quality of my work and I know what I stand by.

Host/Reporter

When McCarthy determined E2 belonged to Westrom, she was immediately released by his defense team. Both experts would then testify for the prosecution.

Crime Scene Investigator

Opening statements. Today in the trial of a hockey dad accused of a murder nearly 30 years ago.

Host/Reporter

In August 2022, Jerry Westrom went on trial for Jeannie Childs murder. He had been out on bond. The judge ruled there'd be no cameras in the courtroom. 48 Hours asked Westrom and his family for on camera interviews, but they declined.

Jennifer Meyerle (Reporter)

Jerry's wife and three kids were there for most of the trial.

Host/Reporter

Jennifer merrily covered the trial.

Jennifer Meyerle (Reporter)

Jerry and his wife would walk into the Hennepin county government center holding hands.

Host/Reporter

In the courtroom, prosecutors painted a different picture. They said the evidence points to Jerry Westrom as the killer. The bloody footprints combined with his DNA is proof, they said, that he was in her apartment when she was murdered.

Jennifer Meyerle (Reporter)

The bloody footprint put a timestamp on of when the killer was there.

Host/Reporter

But the defense tried to poke holes in the footprint evidence. They also called that witness who had told police she saw Jeannie Childs with a blonde man wearing a trench coat the day she was murdered. And she said she saw the same man later running down the stairwell without a coat.

Forensic Expert/Investigator

Jerry Westrom has dark hair. There's no evidence he ever had blonde hair or anything like that.

Host/Reporter

The defense also named Arthur Gray, who died in 2012, as an alternate suspect. Jeannie had accused him of domestic abuse.

Forensic Expert/Investigator

And then when you put the hair of Arthur Gray in her hand, it starts to become more significant.

Host/Reporter

The defense, who declined our request for an interview, was dealt a blow when they couldn't introduce James Luther Carlton and John Eswine as alternate suspects. The judge ruled there wasn't enough evidence against either man and prosecutors cleared them both. So the jury never heard that expert analysis of their footprints had been inconclusive.

Forensic Expert/Investigator

I think it was incredibly damaging to the defense's case.

Host/Reporter

Prosecutors declined our request for an interview. Jerry Westrom did not testify. And after eight days, the jury quickly reached a verdict. Guilty. The jury Westrom, Guilty.

Narrator/Investigator

First and second degree murder.

Forensic Expert/Investigator

The jury came back quite quickly and convicted Jerry Westrom of the top count, which was murder in the first degree. They also found him guilty of murder in the second degree.

Host/Reporter

Prosecutors didn't present a motive. Wayne Triplett says he still believes his lifelong friend is innocent and says that both families have paid a terrible price.

Wayne Triplett (Friend of Jerry Westrom)

The victim didn't deserve what they got. It's terrible sitting here. Jerry's paying for that, but it's not Jerry.

Host/Reporter

On September 9, 2022, Jerry Westrom was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Jeannie Childs.

Crime Scene Investigator

As we said in the beginning, and we're saying now, you've got the wrong guy. We are sorry for the loss of Jeanne Child's life.

Host/Reporter

Jeannie's mother, Betty, believes justice has been served and that the right man is behind bars. But her grief will always be there. She poured her heart out in a letter? A love letter she never got to send.

Betty Ekman (Jeannie's Mother)

My emptiness will never go away? Since you were taken that fatal day? It wasn't fair you had to die? I never got to say goodbye? I love you and miss you so much? Love and peace, Mom.