Post Mortem | The Footprint Evidence

Welcome back to postmortem. I'm your host Ann Marie Greene.

“And I'm joined by 48 hours correspondent, Erin Moriardy.”

We're going to be discussing the murder of 35 year old Genie Childs. She was stabbed over 60 times in her Minnesota high rise apartment in 1993. Her case went unsolved for over two decades. Until advances in investigative genetic genealogy, let authorities to arrest a local businessman and father.

His name is Jerry Westrum. Erin, thanks again for joining us. Oh, I'm really grateful to be here because this is one of those stories. People who love forensics, love this story. We want to remind everyone. Of course, if you haven't listened to this hour,

head on over to your feed, you'll find this episode of 48 hours right above. This one, go listen and then come on back and we can talk about it. When I started watching this,

the case reminded me of actually the first 48 hours I ever did.

Several years ago was the case of Angie Dodge, a teenager in 18 years old who was killed in her brand new apartment. And the case went unsolved for many, many years until they used genetic genealogy to track down her killer. It was kind of new-ish then. This is a very similar case.

But the thing about this case is, you know, you think you find the DNA, you find the match, it's a home run. But in this case, in the apartment, there was a lot of DNA. So not necessarily a home run. No, what's so interested is I think,

sure, sometimes think that it's a slam dunk when there is DNA that has been obtained through genetic genealogy.

“But the truth is DNA, if it is collected and tested properly,”

it can show that somebody was there.

But it can't tell you when they were there. And in this case, this case, as you said, Emory happened in 1993. That was when DNA was in its infancy, at least being used as a investigative tool. And so they did collect DNA and they collected those bloody footprints

that are just so important in this case. But the DNA didn't match anyone back then. They did have a person of interest. She was living with a boyfriend, Arthur Gray. But he had an alibi.

He was out of town that weekend. And they took those unknown bloody footprints and compared them to Arthur Gray and said that they did not belong to him. So the case kind of went cold. And then in 2015, just about two decades later,

there were so many advances in DNA technology that they did more tests. And I thought this was really interesting. Did you point it out, Emory? There was a lot of DNA there in that apartment.

Yeah. According to police reports, Genie was a sex worker and there had been men in that apartment. But what was interesting is that they found one unknown profile, the specific that was not just in the bedroom,

but also in the bathroom on a towel. And because investigators believed that the killer might have cleaned up in the bathroom, that was significant to them. And so that is the DNA that belonged to Jerry Western. But all they had at that point really is the idea that Jerry had been in that apartment at some point.

Right, because just because DNA is found, you can't tell when that DNA was deposited, right? Yeah, you cannot.

“And that's why in this case, those bloody footprints became so important.”

You normally would be a genetic genealogy case. This was a bloody footprint case, and the prosecution said, whoever left their footprints in her blood had to be either there at the time of the murder or right afterwards. And so if those footprints match the person whose DNA was found in that apartment, that was a pretty good indication that that person could be the killer.

Now, I think at this point, one of the most, I guess, famous investigations that was solved because of genetic genealogy was the case of the Golden State Killer. Joseph James G. Angelo, were the investigators inspired by that case, and is that why they kind of went down that route? You know, that case inspired investigators all over the country.

Yes, and they were inspired even to use the same genealogists. Barbara Ray Venter, I had met her on a story I was doing for Sunday morning and such an interesting woman. She was a patent lawyer, but she also had a PhD in biology.

Her hobby was to do these family trees, and that's how she got involved in the Golden State Killer case.

So now she does these cases, and she took that profile that I mentioned that I've been found both in the bedroom and the bathroom, and she uploaded it to the genealogy sites, including myheritage.com. And she was able to build out a family tree and came up with two suspects who happened to be brothers. And then she picked Jerry because the DNA profile indicated that it belonged to someone with brown eyes.

“And Jerry Western had brown eyes, but more important probably I think for investigators was Jerry Western had a history of soliciting sex workers.”

And so that made him a suspect in this case. And remember, it's just a piece of evidence at this point. You know, at this point Jerry Western now is just a suspect, because they can't bring any charges based on what Barbara Ray Venter finds out. She gives them these names, and then she has no idea what happens after that until they call her and say whether they've arrested a person or not. So you know what they have to do at that point is they've got to get a real DNA sample from that person.

And then see if that matches the unknown DNA in the crime scene. That's they have to do that or they can't take this case to court. So they're in lies the challenge. They have to somehow get a DNA sample from Jerry. And I thought it was really interesting in the hour. How they talked about, you know, a mouth sample. So live a sample is better than anything else. And this is the first time I actually considered.

Why they want mouth swaps. Why they always look for, you know, something a suspect may have put in their mouth a drink.

“But they go at the eye agents in 2019, they go all the way to Wisconsin to track them down at a hockey game. Why do they have to go that far?”

Well, so yes, you're right. He's he's living just right outside Minneapolis. And I say on to. But he is a devoted hockey dad. And I think they believed that if they followed him to Wisconsin where he was going with his family to see his daughter play hockey. You know, you eat your you're out at a hockey games. You've got these two investigators who are following him like right behind, but they don't want him to know because what if they're wrong. They don't want to be seen. They're staying in the same hotel as Jerry and his wife are staying. I mean, they even went.

It just is so interesting. After he checked out of his room, they went into his room. Now, how are they going to know that it was his DNA that he left on something, but they did just in case they could fine saying that they thought connected just to him.

So it takes time and they're frustrated. So they finally follow him to this game, according to Agent Bokers, they follow him to this game and they finally see him wipe his mouth with a napkin.

And they bring it back to the lab and according to Andrea Fayau, who was the forensic scientist who tested it match the unknown DNA sample from the crime scene. So they've got more than a suspect. They've got some of them about to charge. Wow. And so they get the DNA sample and they make an arrest. How did Genie's family react to hearing about who the suspect was? Well, with a lot of surprise, number one, you know, it had been so long. This was February 2019. Genie had been killed in 1993. They did not tell them that they were looking at someone. So this came out of the blue.

“But I think more important, especially for Genie's sister, Cindy. They live in Iceland and that's where Jerry Western lives. Gary ran Western's corner, which had a shop and a gas station and everybody went there.”

Her kids knew his kids. I mean, it was shocking to Genie sister. And I should point out, I think this is very important. Yes, he might have had brown eyes. Yes, he may have had a history of soliciting sex workers, but he did not have a history of violence. And if you remember, Amri, Genie was killed brutally. And so I think it came as a big shock to Cindy and her mom. Welcome back. In February of 2019, Jerry Westrum was arrested when he was 52 years old and he was charged with the murder of Genie Childs.

And do you know what we have near DNA? I assume so. So, can you think of anything? Maybe that's a bit a long time ago. This is a pretty significant event when you agree.

Yeah, the person involved is around what you think. Yeah. Until that kind of war, we're wondering if you have it to that kind of knowledge.

“What was he like during that interrogation? I mean, he doesn't seem to be upset. You know, why isn't he asking why he's there?”

Or not saying what we all think he would say? I didn't do anything like that. I would say so, considering the circumstances.

But when we spoke with our legal consultant, Julie Rendelman, she does point out that you really can't judge somebody's affect, you know, we don't really know what's going on through his head. So, this case also had a really sort of interesting piece of evidence that you talked about a little bit earlier. These bloody footprints, and it was the focus for investigators. And at first I thought, oh, what do you need in perfect piece of evidence?

“But then afterwards I thought, but how do you, what do you compare that to? There's no footprint data base like there's for fingerprints. So how do you even use this evidence?”

That was so interesting, I'm right, but this was the first one for me as it seemed to be for the investigators. But you know, we remember these were actually recorded back in 1993. They were photographed.

They were seven that they had labeled. So what was interesting is we had two experts. So we had the expert for the state, and then we had an expert that had been hired by the defense.

And the expert for the state said that four of those were suitable for comparison. And he decided, I'm any testified as such, that four of those prints belong to Jerry Westerom, that Terry Westerom was the one who's left them there. That is so damaged as you can imagine because we know his DNA is in that apartment. But now it looks like that these bloody prints also belong to him. But then you have the expert that had been hired by the defense. And she is an expert who teaches in Waterville, Maine, Alicia McCarthy. And she did the same work as the state expert, but she said that she only found one of those prints.

It was labeled E2 as suitable for comparison. She says that the state expert was not right about those other three that you could not analyze and compare those other three just E2.

“But what matters in this case is she also found that the print, which is right below the big toe of the left foot, just a small area, she says was left by Jerry Westerom.”

So as you can imagine, Amory, when the defense found out that she was a green, at least on that one part that it belonged to Jerry Westerom, the defense dropped her to not one her to testify for them. But the state said, please testify for us, she did. And I think that was very significant for the jury. So if you have as you do have the DNA, the genetic genealogy DNA, that seems to place them in that apartment and you have the area right below the big toe of the left foot that seems to also place Jerry Westerom in her blood on the day she was murdered.

I have that interview where he doesn't seem to show a lot of emotion, but that's that really kind of describes the case against Jerry Westerom in August of 2022 Jerry Westerom went on trial for Jeanne Charles murder. Now the jury heard from a defense witness who told police that she saw Jeanne Charles with a blonde man wearing a trench coat on the day she was murdered. But I'm wondering if there were any other suspects that the jury did not get a chance to hear about it. So I had mentioned Arthur Gray. The judge did allow the defense to raise Arthur Gray. He was living in the apartment with Jeanne.

They did have a history of abuse. She filed a police report and his hair was found on her hand. But he had an alibi. But there, there were some really interesting other possible people of interest. They found blood right in the stairwell that belonged to a guy named John S1. And so they interviewed John S1. I should point out none of his DNA was found in the apartment, but his blood was found in the stairwell.

So James Luther Carlton was convicted of killing a woman a year later. Jody Dover in her apartment. And here's why it's eerily similar. In Jody Dover's murder, there were also bloody footprints found. And that's so unusual. And one of those footprints was found to belong to Carlton. We do not know whether Carlton was at all investigated or talked to at the time in this case. But he's now serving a life sentence for Jody Dover's murder. So the jury again did not hear anything about Carlton or John S1.

“And so ultimately the jury does find Jerry a Western guilty of murder in the first and second degrees. And then on September 9th, 2022, he sent his to life in prison. In 2024, the Minnesota Supreme Court reversed Western's second degree conviction.”

But it upheld the first degree murder conviction. I'm just curious about why they reversed the second degree conviction.

Well, every state is different. You know, even whether you have a first degree or second degree murder is different by state by state. And I'm just going to read to you what the ruling is. Because I thought this was interesting that according to the ruling, in the state of Minnesota, a defendant may be convicted of either the crime charge, which was murder, or an included offense, but not both. And so every lesser degree of murder is an included offense. So they decided that that second degree murder was an included offense.

“So he could be convicted of first grade, but not both. Not the included offense. So that's why they reversed it. But he's, you know, he's remaining in prison on first degree.”

Right. Right. The punishment is the punishment. And he's going to be behind bars for a really long time.

I think I know for me the most frustrating part of this story, though, is that we don't get to hear a why because he's not talking and he didn't testify. And there was no motive. They did not present a motive. You know, there was a in one of her daybooks. Yeah, there was a Jerry, but, you know, nobody knows who that Jerry was. But otherwise, nobody remembers him with her. Jerry just didn't come up, but no, no motive in this case, and he didn't take the sand.

“So even though, I mean, we really don't know what happened in that apartment or why it happened.”

The fact that he was convicted after 25 odd years does the family feel like they've received closure that there's justice or are there so many still unanswered questions that there can never be closure.

I mean, they both have said this to a genie's mom and her sister. They, they do trust the system. They believe that he did kill genie.

I don't think her mom will ever stop grieving. She read to us this beautiful letter that she had written her daughter once. Afterwards, so sorry that she couldn't have said all of these things to her daughter before she died. So they are left with their grief, but at least they no longer in their minds have to worry about who it was. They feel they now know who killed genie child. Aaron another fascinating story. I learned more about DNA and I thought I knew a lot. I learned about footprints and whether or not they may for good evidence.

And thanks for joining us. You know, I love doing this with you, Emory. And I so happy you're now I'm 48 hours. This could not be better. Well, thank you. I really, really appreciate it. And I appreciate the listeners having listened to all of our episodes of Postmortem. Postmortem is hosted by me and Marie Green. Our producer is Annie Cronenberg. Kyra Norbitz is the coordinating producer. Jamie Benson oversees technical production. Ellen Pang and Reginald Bezel are our engineers mixing by Pedro Rafael Rosato special thanks to 48 hours executive producer Judy Tygard.

Megan Marcus and Ainsley Osito who lead the podcasting editorial and operations for CBS as well as the video editing team for CBS digital. And if you like the series postmortem, please rate and review 48 hours on Apple Podcasts and follow 48 hours wherever you get your podcast. You can also listen, add free with a 48 hours plus subscription on Apple Podcasts. Thank you so much for listening.