{"id":50527,"date":"2026-02-22T03:02:44","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T03:02:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/?p=50527"},"modified":"2026-02-22T03:02:44","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T03:02:44","slug":"dna-technology-convicts-a-64-year-old-for-murdering-a-teenager-in-1982utm_sourcerss1-0mainlinkanonutm_mediumfeed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/2026\/02\/22\/dna-technology-convicts-a-64-year-old-for-murdering-a-teenager-in-1982utm_sourcerss1-0mainlinkanonutm_mediumfeed\/","title":{"rendered":"DNA Technology Convicts a 64-Year-Old for Murdering a Teenager in 1982"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"fhbody-180840614\">\n<div id=\"text-180840614\" class=\"p\">\n<p>\t\t\t\t&#8220;More than four decades after a teenager was murdered in California, DNA found on a discarded cigarette has helped authorities catch her killer,&#8221; reports CNN:<\/p>\n<p><i>Sarah Geer, 13, was last seen leaving her friend&#8217;s house\u00ef in Cloverdale, California, on the evening of May 23, 1982. The next morning, a firefighter walking home from work found her body, the Sonoma County District Attorney&#8217;s Office said in a news release&#8230; Her death was ruled a homicide, but due to the &#8220;limited forensic science of the day,&#8221; no suspect was identified and the case went cold for decades, prosecutors said.<\/i><\/p>\n<p>Nearly 44 years after Sarah&#8217;s murder, a jury found James Unick, 64, guilty of killing her on February 13. It would have been the victim&#8217;s 57th birthday, the Sonoma County District Attorney&#8217;s Office told CNN.  Genetic genealogy, which combines DNA evidence and traditional genealogy, helped match Unick&#8217;s DNA from a cigarette butt to DNA found on Sarah&#8217;s clothing, according to prosecutors&#8230;  [The Cloverdale Police Department] said it had been in communication with a private investigation firm in late 2019 and had partnered with them in hopes the firm could revisit the case&#8217;s evidence &#8220;with the latest technological advancements in cold case work&#8230;.&#8221;  <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The FBI, with its access to familial genealogical databases, concluded that the source of the DNA evidence collected from Sarah belonged to one of four brothers, including James Unick,&#8221; prosecutors said.  Once investigators narrowed down the list of suspects to the four Unick brothers, the FBI &#8220;conducted surveillance of the defendant and collected a discarded cigarette that he had been smoking,&#8221; prosecutors said.  A DNA analysis of the cigarette confirmed James Unick&#8217;s DNA matched the 2003 profile, along with other DNA samples collected from Sarah&#8217;s clothing the day she was killed.<br \/>\n <br \/>In a statement, the county&#8217;s district attorney &#8220;While 44 years is too long to wait, justice has finally been served&#8230;&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>And the article points out that &#8220;In 2018, genetic genealogy led to the arrest of the Golden State Killer, and it has recently helped solve several other cold cases, including a 1974 murder in Wisconsin and a 1988 murder in Washington.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p><script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n#DNA #Technology #Convicts #64YearOld #Murdering #Teenager<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;More than four decades after a teenager was murdered in California, DNA found on a discarded cigarette has helped authorities&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31513,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mzansi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50527"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50527\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50528,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50527\/revisions\/50528"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}