ASHTABULA — An Ohio man has been charged in the 1977 murder of a woman in San Jose, California due to a fingerprint found on a pack of cigarettes, according to a press release from the Deputy District Attorney of the County of Santa Clara.
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Jeanette Ralston was strangled to death in February of 1977 after leaving a bar with an unknown man. She was found in the back seat of her Volkswagen Beetle at an apartment that was near the bar, the court says. Evidence gathered at the time showed that she had been strangled with a shirt that was tied around her neck, was sexually assaulted, and the killer had tried to light the car on fire, but it did not burn.
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Willie Eugene Sims is accused of killing Ralston, and was arraigned in court in Ashtabula, Ohio where he is waiting to be extradited to California, according to the release.
There were no suspects at the time, but a fingerprint on a cigarette pack matched Sims in August of 2024. Sims had been convicted for an assault to commit murder in 1978. He moved out of state before his DNA was entered into the California database, according to the release.
Investigators travelled to Ohio to collect Sims’ DNA weeks ago, and found that it matched DNA found on Ralston’s fingernails and the shirt used in her strangulation, according to the release.
If found guilty, Sims could spend 25-years-to-life in prison.
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