Suspect arrested in 25-year-old murder cold case

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - DNA helped lead investigators to a suspect in a 25-year-old cold case murder investigation in Minneapolis, police said Tuesday.

The Minneapolis Police Department and the FBI announced the arrest in the 1993 killing of 35-year-old Jeanne Ann Childs of Minneapolis. Childs was found fatally stabbed in her south Minneapolis apartment on June 13, 1993.

The 52-year-old suspect, a married father of two young adult children, was arrested in Waite Park, near St. Cloud in central Minnesota. Minneapolis police spokesman John Elder told KSTP-TV the suspect is a former businessman in Isanti County.

Police began investigating after the medical examiner’s office ruled her death a homicide, but the trail went cold, the Star Tribune reported . Prompted by advances in DNA testing, authorities took another look at the case in 2015.

Investigators said they used forensic DNA testing and an online genealogy website to identify the suspect’s DNA as being consistent with DNA left at the crime scene.

“We all hope Jeanne’s family can finally find peace as a result of this tenacious effort by officers and agents,” said Jill Sanborn, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Minneapolis field office. She said in a statement the case underscores law enforcement’s ability to use “every tool at its disposal to crack a case.”

The FBI joined Minneapolis police, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office on the case.

Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo said the arrest was an example of how “our efforts to increase public safety and ensure justice has no timeline.”

The man is being held in the Hennepin County Jail, pending charges. Elder said there is no known relationship between the suspect and the victim, making it a “horribly difficult” case to crack.