Arse's tip of the day: if you test your DNA, don't leave chili dog napkins laying around

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Hockey dad Jerry Westrom visited a rink for a game one recent winter’s day, as he had done countless times over the years, ate a hot dog and threw his napkin in the trash. Within weeks, DNA evidence on that napkin put the Isanti businessman in jail, charged with murder in the 1993 stabbing of 35-year-old Jeanne Ann “Jeanie” Childs in a Minneapolis apartment. Prosecutors say the DNA, tested against crime scene evidence collected decades ago, leaves no doubt that Westrom killed Childs.

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Police were called to the building after a tenant saw water coming from an apartment. Officers found Childs dead in the shower, wearing only socks, the water running. She had dozens of stab wounds, and “a number of wounds were inflicted [after she died],” the complaint read. Evidence collected by investigators from the room included the bed comforter, a towel and washcloth, a T-shirt and a bloodstain on the sink.

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The FBI then ran the sample through an online genealogy website in 2018, relying on a process that others have used to find lost relatives and map family trees. That turned up two possible suspects, one of them Westrom. It turned out, Freeman said, that either Westrom or a close relative of his had submitted DNA for genetic background information. In January, officers trailed Westrom in hopes of collecting a DNA sample without tipping him off. They said they caught up with him at the hockey game, where he ordered a hot dog from the concession stand. When Westrom was done eating, he wiped his mouth with a napkin and tossed it in a trash can, authorities said. Once the coast was clear, investigators recovered the napkin. The BCA said the DNA on the napkin was consistent with DNA collected from the apartment where Childs was killed, and that gave them probable cause to arrest Westrom.

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After Westrom’s arrest this week, DNA was collected from him. It too was a match with DNA on the washcloth seized from the homicide scene, authorities said. His DNA allegedly also matched sperm on the towel and the comforter from the apartment.

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