Wayne Triplett
Appearances
48 Hours
The Footprint
In 2015, the Minneapolis Police Department began digging deeper into unsolved cases, and Jeannie Child's murder was one of them. Jeannie's family had no idea, but investigators were hoping science would help them solve the case.
48 Hours
The Footprint
Agent Boker says they discovered that a blood sample found near Jeannie's blood in the stairwell of her apartment building had matched to a man named John Eswine. In 2015, investigators interviewed Eswine, who was in prison for violating probation on a drunk driving offense.
48 Hours
The Footprint
Eswine told investigators he was in the building once in 1991, two years before Jeanne's murder.
48 Hours
The Footprint
According to a lab report, the footprints were inconclusive and Eswine's DNA was not found inside Jeannie's apartment. The mystery only deepened. Investigators knew from the case file that there were DNA profiles discovered at the crime scene that had never matched to anyone.
48 Hours
The Footprint
Andrea Fea, a forensic scientist with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, performed additional testing on the evidence that was collected back in 1993. And she noticed something unusual about one of the unknown DNA profiles.
48 Hours
The Footprint
It was on the comforter. It was on the blue towel. It was found on the blue washcloth and the red T-shirt. Correct. And on the sink.
48 Hours
The Footprint
Investigators then turned to Investigative Genetic Genealogy for answers. The unknown DNA profile was submitted to genealogy websites, including MyHeritage.com.
48 Hours
The Footprint
More than 25 years after Jeannie Childs was murdered, unknown DNA at the crime scene was matched to 52-year-old Jerry Westrom. What did you know about him?
48 Hours
The Footprint
Retired FBI agent Chris Boker says the married father of three wasn't hard to find.
48 Hours
The Footprint
Wayne Triplett and Jerry Westrom were farm kids. They later became college buddies.
48 Hours
The Footprint
Westrom and his family were well-respected in Isanti, Minnesota, about 40 miles away from Minneapolis. They owned a Sears store. And in the year 2000, Westrom built his own field of dreams, a convenience store and gas station known as Westrom's Corner. But in 2008, the turbulent economy took it all away. Was that tough on him to lose Westrom's Corner?
48 Hours
The Footprint
Westrom returned to his roots. He began raising organic corn and soybeans and cultivating a business selling crop insurance.
48 Hours
The Footprint
Wayne never imagined that the even-tempered friend he's known since their teenage years would become the prime suspect in a violent murder case.
48 Hours
The Footprint
Jeannie was stabbed over 60 times, and here's this man, no history of violence, and this is the guy who might have killed her?
48 Hours
The Footprint
Investigators were anxious to confirm that the unknown crime scene DNA was indeed Jerry Westrom's. But to do that, they needed to track him down.
48 Hours
The Footprint
Forensic scientist Andrea Feija. And what did you tell them would be the best DNA if they could get it?
48 Hours
The Footprint
Why is saliva the ideal? Why did you say, get something that had touched his mouth? There's a lot of DNA in saliva. Westrom, a devoted hockey dad, frequently attended his daughter's college games. In January 2019, Westrom traveled to a game in Wisconsin. Agent Bogers, along with his partner, surreptitiously followed him there.
48 Hours
The Footprint
Westrom tossed that napkin and food container in the garbage can. And when he returned to the ring, Agent Bokers made his move.
48 Hours
The Footprint
A month later, in February 2019, Jerry Westrom was arrested and charged with the murder of Jeannie Childs. As you sit here right now, Wayne, do you believe that Jerry Westrom is the one who killed Jeannie Childs?
48 Hours
The Footprint
In a videotaped interview at the jail, Agent Bogers and his partner question Westrom.
48 Hours
The Footprint
Jerry Westrom had no history of violent crime, but it seems he had been keeping a few secrets from his friends. Westrom had told Wayne about two DWI arrests, but never shared he had been arrested twice for soliciting sex workers.
48 Hours
The Footprint
Investigators questioned Westrom for 11 minutes until he asked for a lawyer. He was then handcuffed and spent the night in jail.
48 Hours
The Footprint
48 Hours legal consultant Julie Rendelman says the footprints were important because Westrom's DNA was not the only DNA recovered there.
48 Hours
The Footprint
For more than 25 years, Betty Ekman had prayed for a break in her daughter's unsolved murder case. In February 2019, her prayers were answered.
48 Hours
The Footprint
But when Cindy Blummer learned the name of the suspect in her sister's murder, she had trouble believing it.
48 Hours
The Footprint
Jerry Westrom was a familiar face who lived in their town of Isanti, Minnesota.
48 Hours
The Footprint
The hockey dad and local businessman was now charged with murder. Westrom was later indicted by a grand jury and pleaded not guilty. Westrom's DNA, according to forensic scientist Andrea Fea, found on the comforter and towel in the bathroom, was identified as semen.
48 Hours
The Footprint
But she says her team couldn't determine the type of DNA that she says Westrom left on the red T-shirt, the bathroom sink, and the washcloth. You can't say definitively that his blood or any other kind of DNA was found at the scene. You know it's his DNA, but you don't know what kind. Is that correct?
48 Hours
The Footprint
Wayne Triplett, however, has questions about how and when the DNA was left there.
48 Hours
The Footprint
Despite advances in DNA technology, there's no way to know how long Westrom's DNA had been there. And Wayne says the evidence only suggests one thing.
48 Hours
The Footprint
48 Hours legal consultant Julie Rendelman says the evidence in this case does raise questions. According to lab reports, there was other DNA from semen discovered on Jeannie's purple panties that does not match Westrom. Whose DNA it is remains, even today, a mystery.
48 Hours
The Footprint
Rendelman points to that DNA found in the stairwell, close to bloodstains identified as belonging to Jeannie Childs.
48 Hours
The Footprint
Remember, that stairwell DNA matched John Eswine. When investigators interviewed him, he couldn't recall how his blood ended up in the stairwell not far from Jeannie Child's apartment on the 21st floor.
48 Hours
The Footprint
We reached out to John S. Wein for comment, but he didn't respond. He has never been charged in this case. Rendleman also points out that before Jerry Westrom's DNA was identified at the crime scene, authorities had discovered a mixture of DNA types on the comforter. According to a 2012 lab report, a man named James Luther Carlton couldn't be excluded as one of the contributors.
48 Hours
The Footprint
And what makes Carlton so significant? A little more than a year after Jeannie Child's murder in July 1994.
48 Hours
The Footprint
26-year-old hospital worker Jody Dover was stabbed to death in her Minneapolis apartment. Jody's murder was eerily similar to Jeannie's murder. Jody's killer had also left behind bloody footprints. Authorities arrested Carlton and determined a footprint found inside Jody Dover's apartment belonged to him. He was convicted of her murder in 1995 and is serving a life sentence.
48 Hours
The Footprint
48 Hours can't confirm if he was ever questioned around the time of Jeannie Child's murder. We reached out to Carlton. He declined our interview request. Carlton's criminal history was a red flag for Westrom's defense team. Attorney Steven Meschbescher told our CBS station, WCCO, that it was a rush to judgment in this case.
48 Hours
The Footprint
Were the footprints Jerry Westrom's? As both sides prepared for trial, it became clear that it would all come down to this unique evidence.
48 Hours
The Footprint
Mark Ulrich, a supervisor with the Minneapolis Police Forensic Division, examined the footprints. He says he focused on the friction ridge skin, the arrangement of ridges and furrows unique to every person.
48 Hours
The Footprint
Seven bloody footprints were photographed and labeled A through G. Defense attorneys hired their own forensic scientist, Alicia McCarthy, a professor at Thomas College in Waterville, Maine, to analyze the bloody footprints for them. You call this case a beast.
48 Hours
The Footprint
What conclusions would the experts reach? Was Jerry Westrom just a customer who had left his DNA in Jeannie Child's apartment previously? Or was he the one who stabbed her to death more than 60 times? Investigators believe the bloody footprints found in her apartment would provide the answer. That looks like a left foot.
48 Hours
The Footprint
Mark Ulrich at the Minneapolis Police Lab was tasked with comparing the crime scene prints to Westrom. He determined that four of the seven prints were suitable for comparison. One of them, he says, revealed the impression of a left foot. He labeled the heel E1 and an area below the big toe as E2. When Ulrich analyzed it, this was his conclusion.
48 Hours
The Footprint
Albrechts believed that all four prints, E1, E2, B, and another left footprint he labeled D1, belonged to Westrom. As the trial date approached, forensic scientist Alicia McCarthy, who had been hired by the defense, was asked to verify Ulrich's work.
48 Hours
The Footprint
McCarthy believed that only the print labeled E2, the area below the left big toe, was suitable for comparison. This is the crime scene photo. This is E2. During her analysis, she began comparing E2 to the footprints of alternate suspects and didn't get anywhere.
48 Hours
The Footprint
When she compared E2 to Jerry Westrom's footprints, she followed the curves and finally... And who do you believe left that footprint at the crime scene?
48 Hours
The Footprint
McCarthy agreed with Mark Ulrich. E2, the small area below the left big toe, had been placed there by Jerry Westrom. But she disagreed with Ulrich on the other three footprints.
48 Hours
The Footprint
When McCarthy determined E2 belonged to Westrom, she was immediately released by his defense team. Both experts would then testify for the prosecution.
48 Hours
The Footprint
In August 2022, Jerry Westrom went on trial for Jeannie Child's murder. He had been out on bond. The judge ruled there'd be no cameras in the courtroom. 48 Hours asked Westrom and his family for on-camera interviews, but they declined.
48 Hours
The Footprint
In the courtroom, prosecutors painted a different picture. They said the evidence points to Jerry Westrom as the killer. The bloody footprints combined with his DNA is proof, they said, that he was in her apartment when she was murdered. The bloody footprint put a timestamp of when the killer was there. But the defense tried to poke holes in the footprint evidence.
48 Hours
The Footprint
They also called that witness, who had told police she saw Jeannie Childs with a blonde man wearing a trench coat, the day she was murdered, and she said she saw the same man later running down the stairwell without a coat.
48 Hours
The Footprint
There's no evidence he ever had blonde hair or anything like that. The defense also named Arthur Gray, who died in 2012, as an alternate suspect. Jeannie had accused him of domestic abuse.
48 Hours
The Footprint
The defense, who declined our request for an interview, was dealt a blow when they couldn't introduce James Luther Carlton and John Eswine as alternate suspects. The judge ruled there wasn't enough evidence against either man, and prosecutors cleared them both. So the jury never heard that expert analysis of their footprints had been inconclusive.
48 Hours
The Footprint
I think it was incredibly damaging to the defense's case. Prosecutors declined our request for an interview. Jerry Westrom did not testify, and after eight days, the jury quickly reached a verdict.
48 Hours
The Footprint
Prosecutors didn't present a motive. Wayne Triplett says he still believes his lifelong friend is innocent and says that both families have paid a terrible price.
48 Hours
The Footprint
On September 9th, 2022, Jerry Westrom was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Jeannie Childs.
48 Hours
The Footprint
Jeannie's mother, Betty, believes justice has been served and that the right man is behind bars. But her grief will always be there. She poured her heart out in a letter, a love letter she never got to send.
48 Hours
The Footprint
Minnesota crime scene investigators captured this footage when they got their first look inside a high-rise apartment in Minneapolis.
48 Hours
The Footprint
According to police reports, at around 5.30 p.m., June 13, 1993, a tenant reported water seeping into their apartment. A building caretaker and a security guard were called to check it out and discovered the water was coming from apartment 2104.
48 Hours
The Footprint
After the shower was turned off, they came upon a gruesome scene in the bedroom. 35-year-old Jeannie Child's body was partially under the bed. That's when police were called to investigate.
48 Hours
The Footprint
Retired forensic scientist Bart Epstein says carefully documenting that scene was crucial. Blood stains and blood spatter tell a story.
48 Hours
The Footprint
Epstein says Jeannie then moved into the bathroom. She was stabbed and slashed dozens of times.
48 Hours
The Footprint
While the shower had been turned off earlier, investigators noticed water was still running from the sink faucet.
48 Hours
The Footprint
the living room appeared untouched. A sitcom was still playing on the TV. There was no evidence of forced entry. If Jeannie knew her killer, what could have prompted so much violence?
48 Hours
The Footprint
Jeannie's mother, Betty Eckman, was watching television news when she saw a report about a woman who had been murdered.
48 Hours
The Footprint
Betty soon got the news no mother wants to hear. The victim was her eldest child.
48 Hours
The Footprint
Betty says she spoke with her daughter the day before her murder. Jeannie, she says, wasn't expecting visitors because she was nursing a toothache. What were her plans that weekend?
48 Hours
The Footprint
Jeannie was dead by Sunday afternoon. As the crime investigation continued, authorities focused on gathering evidence. A blue washcloth, a red T-shirt, a bath towel, blood scrapings from the sink, along with a comforter were collected and taken for DNA testing. Investigators observed dishes in the kitchen sink and a knife in the drying rack. Did you take that knife in?
48 Hours
The Footprint
Investigators were able to identify some bloodstains found in the stairwell near Jeannie's 21st floor apartment. Did any of the blood belong to the victim, Jeannie Childs? Do you think it's possible that the person who stabbed her was also cut?
48 Hours
The Footprint
Epstein says whoever murdered Jeannie Childs unknowingly left behind something investigators rarely encounter, bloody bare footprints under the bedroom window.
48 Hours
The Footprint
The footprints were dusted with black powder at the crime scene. When you first saw these, you said, because she's wearing socks, these belong to the killer.
48 Hours
The Footprint
Very few pictures I have of us together. Cindy Blummer remembers the deep loss she felt after the murder of her big sister, Jeannie.
48 Hours
The Footprint
Although her sister was 12 years older, Jeannie's playful spirit made an impression on Cindy growing up.
48 Hours
The Footprint
But those good times were few and far between. Betty Ekman says she first noticed a change in her eldest daughter when she was a preteen.
48 Hours
The Footprint
Betty says it wasn't until decades later that Jeannie claimed she had been abused by a male relative. Jeannie started running away from home.
48 Hours
The Footprint
As the time passed, she feared her daughter was using drugs and soon learned how Jeannie was making ends meet. And what did your daughter do?
48 Hours
The Footprint
At one point, it seemed she settled down long enough to get married, but her family says it didn't last long. Soon after, she married again to a man with children, and Jeannie became a stepmom. And they depended on her. She was the only mother they really knew. Even when Jeannie split with their father, she remained in the children's lives.
48 Hours
The Footprint
At the time of her murder, she was living with a man named Arthur Gray at that apartment complex. After Jeannie's murder, he became a person of interest.
48 Hours
The Footprint
Retired FBI agent Chris Bogers would later join the investigation. According to police reports, Jeannie, who was a sex worker, claimed she worked for Gray, and there was a history of violence between them. At the crime scene, authorities found hairs stuck to Jeannie's left hand, and one of those hairs matched Gray. But Boker says the case against Gray started to fall apart pretty quickly.
48 Hours
The Footprint
And Arthur Gray said he wasn't even in town, but on a motorcycle trip in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the weekend Jeannie was murdered.
48 Hours
The Footprint
Authorities compared the unknown bloody footprints in the apartment to Gray's footprints and determined they weren't his. Do you know how many other possible suspects, persons of interest, whose footprints were compared to those left in Jeannie's apartment?
48 Hours
The Footprint
According to the case file on the day of the murder, a witness in the apartment building told police she saw Jeannie with a tall blonde man wearing a trench coat.
48 Hours
The Footprint
Investigators never found the man. Despite efforts to find Jeannie's killer, the case slowed to a crawl. Months turned into years, and then decades. How often would you call the police trying to get an update to find out if they had anything new on this case?