A 68-year-old Washington man was arrested this week at a retirement facility and charged in the 1992 killing of his estranged wife, Janice Randle, after investigators said new information and old evidence led them to conclude her death was a homicide rather than an overdose.
James Robert Randle was taken into custody on Apr. 1 in Everett and later booked into Pierce County Jail on a first-degree murder charge, with bail set at $1 million. Court records show he pleaded not guilty in Pierce County Superior Court on Apr. 2.
Janice Randle was found dead in her bed in Graham, Washington, in November 1992, with her young daughter in a crib nearby. At the time, James Randle told police she may have died from a drug overdose because she had used painkillers before, according to CBS News.
The case did not move forward for years because the first investigation left authorities without enough evidence for an arrest. But a later review of the autopsy and case file showed no drugs in Janice Randle's system, and detectives reclassified the death as a homicide.
Pierce County investigators said the case was revived after family members came forward with new information. Those tips reportedly included accounts that James Randle had admitted to relatives that he killed Janice and tried to make her death look like an overdose or suicide, Fox13 Seattle reported.
Court documents also described bruising and other signs of a struggle on Janice Randle's body. Investigators now believe she died after a violent confrontation with her husband on or around Nov. 7, 1992, the day before her body was found.
The couple was separated and headed for a divorce when Janice died. Records and reports also describe a history of domestic violence, including an assault months before her death for which James Randle was later convicted.
Janice Randle's daughters helped push the case back into view, working with detectives and sharing family information that had not been fully used in the original investigation. One daughter, Katie Wakin, was the baby found in the crib beside her mother in 1992.
Officials said the arrest was made only after investigators combined the family tips with reexamined evidence and old records. The Pierce County Sheriff's Office said the result showed how new methods and renewed witness cooperation can bring progress in a case that was cold for more than 30 years, as per Fox News.
