Rarely reference to Minneapoli's crime scene points to a barefoot killer

It was a gruesome scene when the police arrived in an apartment complex in Minneapolis on June 13, 1993 to examine the murder of 35-year-old Jeanie Childs. Her body was partly found under her bed, her bedroom was disordered and there was blood splashes over the walls and the ground. The children had been stabbed more than 60 times. When the investigators tried to put together what developed, they found a rare note in the bedroom: bloody, bare footprints.

“This immediately made my attention aware of itself … I mean wow,” said Bart Epstein, a retired forensic scientist, to “48 hours” correspondent Erin Moriarty in “The Footprint”, which was broadcast on CBS and streaming on Paramount+on May 17th. “You don't see this in crime scenes in general, bare feet that have stepped into blood,” said Epstein.

The investigators knew that the footprints had to belong to the murderer of child because they were wearing socks at the time of her death. These footprints had to have been left behind after the perpetrator stepped into her wet blood after the murder. The investigators documented and photographed the footprints.

“The footprints were also important that it was important to show people who might have suspected,” said Chris Boeckers, the retired FBI agent Chris Boeckers, who later took part in the examination.

According to the case file, the investigators compared the footprints that were left behind at the scene at the scene with a man named Arthur Gray, with whom the child lived at the time of their murder. According to police reports, the authorities found hair on the left hand and one of these hair with gray.

But Boeckers says that the case against Gray fell apart pretty quickly. “He had a really solid alibi that he was not in the city this weekend that was confirmed by others.” Gray, who likes to drive a motorcycle, told the authorities that he was in Milwaukee. Forensic scientists also examined Gray's footprints and found that he had not left these footprints at the scene.

The days have been in years and then decades without finding the person who left these footprints. In 2015, forensic scientist Andrea Feia, who was asked to carry out DNA tests to the objects collected at the crime scene, provided an unknown DNA profile that repeated itself again and again. It was found on the duvet, a towel, a washcloth, a T-shirt and on the sink.

The researchers then turned to the investing genetic genealogy for answers. A forensic genealogist has submitted the unknown DNA profile to genealogy. “The forensic genealogin stated that here in Minnesota she had a match with potentially two brothers,” said Boeckers. One of these brothers was a businessman and hockey father Jerry Westrom.

The investigators did not want to confirm that the unknown DNA was indeed the unknown crime scene of Westrome, but to do that, they had to track it down. In January 2019, the investigators western electricity followed his daughter's hockey game in Wisconsin and received a napkin and food container that he had used after dinner in the arena. They brought the objects to the laboratory for testing and the results showed that there was a agreement.

The following month, in February 2019, western electricity was arrested for murder of children. During his police interview, Westrom contested to be in the apartment and know children. The next day, the authorities collected their footprints for comparison.

Although the DNA of Westrom was at the crime scene, it was important to confirm that the footprints belonged to him because other male DNA was found in Child's apartment that did not belong to western electricity.

Mark Ulrick, a manager at the Minneapolis Police Forensic Forensician, examined the footprints. “In Minnesota here, people do not often commit crimes with their socks and shoes,” he said “48 hours”. He says that he concentrated on the frictional crest – the arrangement of combs and furrows – that is unique for everyone. “Frictional skin can be found … their fingers, their palms and soles of the feet,” said Ulrick. During his examination, he compared the unknown footprints with western electricity and suspect.

The Westrome defense team ceased its own forensic scientist Alicia McCarthy to check Ulrick's work. What would the experts close about the footprints? See “The Footprint” on Saturday, May 17th at 10/9 ° C on CBS and stream on Paramount+.