Discarded napkin at hockey rink links man to murder 25 years later
Advances in forensics are giving police departments more and more ways to solve crimes, but using a napkin found in the garbage can at a hockey rink has to be a new one.
According to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, the police trailed suspect Jerry Westrom to a hockey game and fished a napkin out of the the trash in an attempt to link him to the 1993 killing of a woman named Jeanne Ann “Jeanie” Childs.
Per their report:
In January, officers trailed Westrom in hopes of collecting a DNA sample without tipping him off. They said they caught up with him at the hockey game, where he ordered a hot dog from the concession stand.
When Westrom was done eating, he wiped his mouth with a napkin and tossed it in a trash can, authorities said. Once the coast was clear, investigators recovered the napkin.
The BCA said the DNA on the napkin was consistent with DNA collected from the apartment where Childs was killed, and that gave them probable cause to arrest Westrom.
It’s a heck of a story, one that you should definitely read in its entirety, with perhaps the best quote coming from Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman:
When discarding something in the trash, the Supreme Court has said many times it is fair game.
The outcome of the case, which was first reopened in 2015, is yet to be decided, but at the very least Hennepin County’s finest should be commended for going the extra mile.
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