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“The Footprint”: 48 Hours Investigates the Jeanie Childs Homicide on August 1 2026

Ryan Gill

3 months ago

For more than a quarter of a century, the murder of Jeanie Childs remained one of Minneapolis’ most haunting unsolved crimes. Investigators believed they had collected valuable evidence from the apartment where the 35-year-old was found stabbed to death in June 1993, yet none of it was enough to identify her killer using the forensic tools available at the time. Among the most unusual pieces of evidence was a trail of bloody bare footprints left throughout the apartment, a clue detectives believed had been left by the murderer.

48 Hours revisits the extraordinary investigation in “The Footprint,” airing Saturday, August 1, 2026, at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT on CBS and streaming on Paramount+. The episode examines how detectives preserved evidence for decades before advances in DNA testing and forensic investigative genetic genealogy transformed a cold case into a landmark murder conviction. Through interviews with investigators, forensic experts and those closest to the case, the program explores how modern science ultimately delivered justice for Jeanie Childs and her family.

The Life and Death of Jeanie Childs

Jeanie Childs was 35 years old when she was killed inside her apartment at the Horn Towers complex in south Minneapolis on June 13, 1993. Although she had experienced personal struggles throughout her life, her family remembered her as someone they loved deeply. She had begun running away from home as a teenager and later worked as a sex worker, circumstances that investigators believed may have exposed her to dangerous individuals. Her family has consistently rejected the idea that her lifestyle diminished the value of her life or the importance of solving her murder.

Childs’ mother, Betty Eakman, learned of the homicide while working in hospice care after hearing a television news report describing a body being removed from an apartment building she immediately recognized. The realization that the victim was her daughter marked the beginning of decades spent searching for answers. Her sister, Cindy Blumer, has often spoken publicly about the family’s determination to ensure Jeanie would not simply become another forgotten cold case.

A Brutal Crime Scene Reveals Critical Evidence

The attack was exceptionally violent. An autopsy determined that Childs had been stabbed approximately 65 times. Investigators also found evidence that the killer had continued mutilating her body after she had died, reflecting an attack marked by extreme violence. Blood covered much of the bedroom and extended into other parts of the apartment, providing forensic investigators with a large amount of physical evidence to collect.

Among the most significant discoveries were several bloody bare footprints left throughout the apartment. Investigators immediately recognized their importance because Childs was found wearing socks, eliminating the possibility that the prints belonged to her. The footprints indicated the attacker had walked barefoot through the apartment after the stabbing, creating a unique form of forensic evidence that investigators carefully photographed, documented and preserved.

Crime scene specialists from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension also collected blood samples, biological evidence and numerous items that could eventually be tested for DNA. While DNA profiling existed in the early 1990s, it was still developing and lacked the power and database support that investigators rely on today.

An Investigation That Reached a Dead End

Despite the extensive forensic evidence, investigators were unable to identify the killer during the original investigation. Detectives pursued numerous leads, including individuals known to Childs, but none could be linked conclusively to the crime. Early suspects were investigated and eliminated, including Childs’ boyfriend after detectives established he had an alibi.

DNA recovered from the apartment did not match anyone contained within available criminal databases, while fingerprint evidence failed to identify a suspect. Without eyewitnesses or a viable forensic match, the investigation gradually stalled.

For Jeanie’s family, the passing years brought frustration and grief. Betty Eakman refused to accept that the case would remain permanently unsolved and continued pressing investigators for updates. Although active investigative work slowed, police preserved every piece of physical evidence, believing future technological advances might eventually unlock the mystery.

A New Era of DNA Investigation

The case received renewed attention in 2015 when Minneapolis police reopened the investigation as part of their cold case efforts. Detectives began reviewing preserved evidence using DNA technologies that had not existed when Childs was murdered.

A major turning point came after investigators observed the success of forensic investigative genetic genealogy in identifying the Golden State Killer in California during 2018. Recognizing the potential of the technique, Minneapolis investigators partnered with the FBI and forensic specialists to apply similar methods to the DNA recovered from the Childs crime scene.

Rather than searching only traditional criminal databases, forensic investigative genetic genealogy compares unknown DNA profiles with publicly available genealogy databases to identify distant biological relatives. By building extensive family trees and narrowing possible candidates through traditional detective work, investigators can identify individuals who may have left DNA at a crime scene even if they have never been arrested.

The technique ultimately pointed investigators toward Jerry Westrom, a Minnesota businessman and youth hockey father whose name had never surfaced during the original 1993 investigation.

The Napkin That Confirmed Detectives’ Suspicions

After identifying Westrom as their leading suspect, investigators needed to obtain a DNA sample without alerting him to the investigation. They conducted surveillance while he attended a youth hockey tournament in Wisconsin.

During the surveillance, agents observed Westrom purchase and eat a hot dog before wiping his mouth with a paper napkin. After he discarded the napkin in a public garbage container, investigators legally recovered it and submitted it for laboratory testing.

The results proved decisive. DNA recovered from the discarded napkin matched semen found on Childs’ comforter and bathroom towel, along with DNA identified on other items recovered from the apartment, including blood evidence. Once detectives obtained a court-authorized DNA sample directly from Westrom following his arrest in February 2019, forensic scientists confirmed the match.

When questioned by investigators, Westrom denied ever being inside the Horn Towers apartment building, a statement that prosecutors later argued was contradicted by the forensic evidence.

The Bloody Footprints Become a Powerful Piece of Evidence

While DNA placed Westrom inside the apartment, prosecutors argued the bloody footprints demonstrated he had been present during the murder itself rather than at some earlier time.

Mark Ulrick, Minneapolis Police Supervisor of Forensic Science, conducted a detailed comparison between the bloody footprints left at the crime scene and known footprint impressions taken from Westrom. Using the same friction ridge analysis techniques long employed for fingerprint identification, forensic examiners concluded the footprints belonged to Westrom.

The footprint evidence addressed one of the central questions raised by the defense. Westrom’s attorneys argued that DNA alone could not establish when he had been inside the apartment because Childs worked as a sex worker and other individuals’ DNA was also present within the residence. Prosecutors countered that the bloody footprints placed Westrom inside the apartment while Childs was bleeding from the fatal attack.

Jurors later identified the combination of DNA evidence and the bloody footprints as particularly compelling. Jury foreperson Derek Fradenburgh explained after the verdict that the footprints demonstrated Westrom had walked through blood during the murder, making it difficult to reconcile with any innocent explanation for his presence.

Trial, Conviction and Appeals

Westrom was initially charged with second-degree murder shortly after his arrest in 2019. A grand jury later returned an indictment charging him with first-degree premeditated murder, reflecting prosecutors’ conclusion that the evidence supported the more serious offense.

The trial began in August 2022. Prosecutors relied heavily on advances in DNA science, forensic investigative genetic genealogy and footprint comparison evidence to reconstruct the events inside Childs’ apartment. Defense attorney Steve Meshbesher argued investigators had identified the wrong man and challenged aspects of the forensic evidence presented during the trial.

After approximately two hours of deliberation, the jury convicted Westrom of both first-degree premeditated murder and second-degree murder. In September 2022, he received a sentence of life imprisonment with the possibility of parole after 30 years, making him eligible for parole in 2052, when he will be in his mid-80s.

Westrom appealed his conviction to the Minnesota Supreme Court, raising multiple legal challenges. In 2024, the court rejected nearly all of his arguments and upheld the first-degree murder conviction. The justices vacated only the second-degree murder conviction because Minnesota law does not permit convictions for both offenses arising from the same killing. His life sentence remained unchanged.

Westrom later sought review by the United States Supreme Court, but the Court declined to hear the case, leaving his conviction intact.

Justice After More Than Two Decades

The resolution of Jeanie Childs’ murder stands as one of Minnesota’s most significant cold case investigations. It demonstrated the growing importance of forensic investigative genetic genealogy and reinforced the value of preserving physical evidence long after an investigation appears to have reached a dead end.

The case also highlighted the dedication of investigators who continued searching for answers decades after the crime occurred. Evidence collected in 1993 became meaningful only because detectives had carefully preserved it, allowing future scientific advances to reveal information impossible to obtain at the time.

For Betty Eakman and the rest of Jeanie Childs’ family, the conviction brought accountability but not closure. They continue to remember Jeanie as a daughter, sister and human being whose life mattered regardless of the difficulties she faced. 48 Hours: The Footprint examines both the remarkable forensic investigation and the family’s decades-long pursuit of justice, showing how a single trail of bloody footprints ultimately helped solve a murder that had remained unsolved for 26 years.

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