"Four decades after a Bay Area girl's brutal killing, DNA evidence from a cigarette helped secure the conviction of her murderer last week. James Oliver Unick, a 66-year-old resident of Willows, was found guilty of dragging 13-year old Sarah Geer into an alley, sexually assaulting her and strangling her to death in 1982 in Cloverdale, the Sonoma County District Attorney's Office announced Feb. 13."
"Sarah had never returned home on May 23, 1982, after spending the weekend at a friend's house. Though the friend's parents had dropped Sarah off at her home, she instead walked to an arcade on Cloverdale Boulevard, which is the last place she was seen alive. The district attorney's office said that Unick accosted Sarah during her walk. Her body was discovered the following day, partly shoved under a fence and with her shoes lined up at the end of the alley."
"Sarah's case remained unsolved for decades because of limited forensic technology at the time. In 2003, a criminalist with the California Department of Justice was able to create a DNA profile of a potential suspect in Sarah's murder using sperm from Sarah's clothes, the district attorney's statement said. The DNA didn't match up to anyone in law enforcement's databases and investigators didn't make another breakthrough until 2021."
James Oliver Unick, a 66-year-old Willows resident, was convicted of dragging 13-year-old Sarah Geer into an alley, sexually assaulting her and strangling her to death in Cloverdale on May 23, 1982. Sarah was last seen at an arcade on Cloverdale Boulevard and her body was discovered the next day partially shoved under a fence with her shoes lined at the alley's end. The case grew cold for decades due to limited forensic technology. In 2003 a DNA profile was generated from sperm on Sarah's clothing but produced no matches. In 2021 genealogical analysis of the DNA narrowed the investigation, and cigarette DNA evidence later secured the conviction.
Read at SFGATE
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