DNA from cigarette identifies teenage lady’s killer — 44 years later | EUROtoday

More than 40 years after a youngster was brutally murdered in California, authorities used DNA discovered on a discarded cigarette butt to catch her killer.

Sarah Geer, 13, was final seen leaving a good friend’s residence within the city of Cloverdale on May 23, 1982.

As she walked downtown, she was approached by James Unick, who forcibly dragged the teenager down an alley, the place she was “brutally raped” and strangled to demise along with her personal shorts, the Sonoma County District Attorney’s Office mentioned.

The teen’s physique was found the next morning by a Cloverdale firefighter who was strolling residence after his shift. While her demise was dominated a murder, “limited forensic science of the day” stored the case chilly for many years, prosecutors mentioned.

A jury discovered Unick, 64, responsible of killing Geer on February 13, which might have been her 57th birthday, the district legal professional’s workplace instructed CNN.

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The break within the case got here in 2003, when investigators developed a DNA profile primarily based on sperm collected from Geer’s underwear. However, the profile didn’t match anybody whose DNA was out there in regulation enforcement databases, and the case went chilly once more.

In 2021, the Cloverdale Police Department reopened its investigation into Geer’s demise, and enlisted the FBI to assist discover a potential match to the DNA profile.

“The FBI, with its access to familial genealogical databases, concluded that the source of the DNA evidence collected from Sarah belonged to one of four brothers, including James Unick,” prosecutors mentioned.

After surveilling Unick, FBI brokers collected a cigarette he discarded, which confirmed his DNA matched the earlier profile.

The Cloverdale Police Department arrested Unick at his residence in July 2024. At the time of his arrest, Unick denied understanding Geer or what occurred the evening of her demise. However, throughout his month-long trial, his story modified.

Unick testified that the teenager “propositioned him for sex while he had been playing a video game” at an arcade, and claimed they engaged in consensual intercourse on a hillside close to a river, “implying that Sarah Geer must have been assaulted and murdered later that evening by a phantom man who failed to leave behind DNA evidence.”

After about two hours of deliberations, the jury convicted Unick of homicide.

He is scheduled to be sentenced on April 23.

“This guilty verdict is a testament to everyone who never gave up searching for Sarah’s killer,” District Attorney Carla Rodriguez mentioned in a press launch. “This is the coldest case ever presented to a Sonoma County jury. While 44 years is too long to wait, justice has finally been served, both to Sarah’s loved ones as well as her community.”