Thumbprint on cigarette box leads to the death of young wife in 1977

San Jose, California (AP) – Almost half a century after a young California woman had been strangled to death, officials say that a thumb impression on a cigarette box had led to an arrest.

Willie Eugene Sims was arrested in Jefferson, Ohio, in connection with the death of Jeanette Ralston.

Sims, 69, was charged with murder and charged on Friday before the County Court Ashtabula before he was sent to California.

Ralston was found on February 1, 1977 in San Jose in San Jose dead in the back seat of her Volkswagen Beetle. Her body was found in the area of ​​carport of an apartment complex near the bar, in which friends say she was last seen.

She had been strangled with a long -sleeved shirt and, according to the prosecutors, it seemed to be sexually attacked. Her car showed signs that they had been unsuccessfully set fire.

At the time, her friends said that the night before she saw the bar left with an unknown man and said she would be back in 10 minutes, but she never returned. The police interviewed the friends and other witnesses and created a powerful sketch. But the examination became cold.

A thumb print found in Ralston's cigarette box in her car was found last autumn after the law enforcement agencies had asked to lead the pressure from the FBI's updated system, according to the prosecutors.

At the beginning of this year, officials from the public prosecutor and the police went to Ohio to collect DNA from Sims. Prosecutors say that she matched the DNA that was found on Ralston's fingernails, and the shirt used to strangle it.

“Forensic science gets better every day, and every day criminals are closer to being caught,” said prosecutor Jeff Rosen in an explanation. “Cases can grow old and be forgotten by the public. We do not forget and do not give up.”

William Weigel, supervisor of the murder team for the office of the public defender in Santa Clara County, confirmed on Monday that Lara Wallman had assigned the case. He said her office could not comment on the evidence because you have not seen it, but warned the public about conclusions.

“It is important that we let the system play out and allow our site to carry out our own independent review and examination of the case before we judge the judgment, so to speak.

As early as 1977, Sims was a private army that was assigned to a facility about 109 kilometers south of San Jose, according to the public prosecutor.

In the year after Ralston's death, a jury condemned in a separate case of Sims for an attack to commit murder in Monterey County and condemned him to four years in prison, as court records.

Ralston's son Allen Ralston was 6 years old when she died. He told Woio-TV that he was grateful and was relieved that an arrest was finally made.

“I'm just glad that someone took care of,” he said about the case.

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