OVER 45 YEAR OLD COLD CASE SOLVED IN SAN JOSE

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Cold Cases Solved Podcast, a podcast that
shares the most recent solved cold cases. Our purpose is
to help bring closure to the victims' families and hope
for those waiting for justice. Let's begin.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
After decades of no leads, DNA and fingerprints found on
a pack of cigarettes led the Santa Clara County DA's
office to a suspect in a decade's old cold case murder.
In forty seven years were when twenty four year old
Jeanette Ralston was found strangled to death in the backseat
of her Volkswagon Beetle. The San Matteo resident was lasting
alive at a bar in San Jose. Deputy DA Rob

(00:43):
Baker has worked closely with the cold case unit. Baker
said it was late August when they had a breakthrough
that they retested the fingerprints found on a carton of
cigarettes and Walston's car just about a year ago. I
was like, hey, let's run those prints again, said the DA,
and they did. The prince matched to sixty nine year
old Willie Sims in Ohio. He had a prior conviction

(01:05):
in nineteen seventy eight for an assault to commit murder
in Monterey. He moved out of state after his time served.
Earlier this year, investigation from the DA's offense since an
ho is Ana Jose police traveled to Ohio to collect
his DNA. The DA's prime lab found that was consistent
with the DA DNA found on Ralston's fingernails and the
shirt used to strangle her. If we charged him and

(01:28):
went to trial, would we be able to prove it though?
So the DA, do we have enough witnesses that can
actually testify it's a year, it's forty seven years ago,
but they did. Sims was arraigned in Ohio on Tuesday.
In the coming days, he will be transported to Santa
Clara County of Convicted, He's facing twenty five years to life.
Ralston's son posted on social media thinking the detectives for

(01:51):
their persistence and devotion, and he wrote in party of
undoubtedly made a six year old happy after all these years,
thank you from the bottom of my heart. The DA's
Old Case Union has solved thirty murders since twenty eleven,
and over half of those murders have been solved in
the last five years, so basically, fifteen cold case murders
have been solved in the last five years. A great

(02:12):
job to that team out there brings a lot of
closure to families and a lot of hope to others.