Police say DNA recovered from a cigarette thrown away in public has finally solved the 1982 rape and murder of a 13-year-old girl in Northern California, bringing a 44-year-old cold case to court.
Prosecutors announced that 64-year-old James Oliver Unick has been convicted in Sonoma County of murdering 13-year-old Sarah Geer, with the jury also finding a special circumstance that the killing happened during a sexual assault.
The verdict means Unick faces life in prison without the possibility of parole, according to the district attorney's office. Officials noted this is the oldest homicide case ever tried before a jury in the county, according to ABC News.
Sarah vanished on May 23, 1982, after leaving a friend's home in Cloverdale to walk toward the downtown area. Investigators said Unick confronted her near an alley, then forced her to a hidden area beside an apartment complex and behind a fence. There, he sexually assaulted her and strangled her with her own shorts, authorities said. A firefighter heading home after an overnight shift discovered her body the next morning.
Detectives gathered evidence at the time, but early 1980s forensic technology could not identify a suspect. In 2003, a state lab scientist developed a male DNA profile from sperm on the victim's underwear, yet the profile did not match anyone in existing law enforcement databases, Fox News reported.
The case moved again in 2021, when Cloverdale police brought in private investigator Kevin Cline and requested assistance from the FBI. Using genetic genealogy and public DNA databases, analysts concluded the unknown DNA likely belonged to one of four brothers, including Unick.
Agents then watched Unick, collected a cigarette he discarded, and sent it for testing. Lab results showed the DNA on the cigarette matched the sample tied to the 1982 crime, as well as DNA found on multiple items of Sarah's clothing.
Unick was arrested in July 2024. Authorities said he initially claimed he did not remember Sarah or that day, but later testified that she had approached him for sex and that their encounter was consensual, blaming an unknown attacker for her death.
Jurors rejected that account after about two hours of deliberation, and prosecutors said the decision finally delivers justice for Sarah's family more than four decades after her killing, as per People.
