Thumbprint on cigarette carton leads to arrest in 1977 death of young woman

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Nearly half a century after a young California woman was strangled to death, officials say a thumbprint on a carton of cigarettes has led to an arrest.

Willie Eugene Sims was arrested in Jefferson, Ohio, in connection with the death of Jeanette Ralston, according to a Friday statement from the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office.

Sims, 69, has been charged with murder and was arraigned on Friday in Ashtabula County Court before being sent to California.

Ralston was found dead in the back seat of her Volkswagen Beetle on Feb. 1, 1977, in San Jose, according to the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office. Her body was found in the carport area of an apartment complex near the bar where friends say she was last seen.

She had been strangled with a long-sleeve dress shirt, and evidence appeared to show she was sexually assaulted, according to prosecutors. Her car showed signs of having been unsuccessfully set on fire.

Her friends said at the time that they saw her leave the bar with an unknown man the evening before, saying she would be back in 10 minutes, but she never returned. Police interviewed the friends and other witnesses and created a suspect sketch. But the investigation went cold.

A thumbprint found on Ralston's cigarette carton in her car was found to match Sims last fall after law enforcement had asked to run the print through the FBI's updated system, prosecutors said.

Earlier this year, officials from the District Attorney's office and San Jose police went to Ohio to collect DNA from Sims. Prosecutors say it matched the DNA found on Ralston's fingernails and the shirt used to strangle her.

''Every day, forensic science grows better, and every day criminals are closer to being caught," District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in a statement. "Cases may grow old and be forgotten by the public. We don't forget and we don't give up.''

William Weigel, homicide team supervisor for the Santa Clara county public defender's office, confirmed Monday that Lara Wallman had been assigned the case. He said their office can't comment on the evidence yet because they haven't seen it but cautioned the public from jumping to conclusions.

''It is kind of important that we let the system play itself out and allow our side to conduct our own independent review and investigation of the case before we rush to judgment as it were,'' he said.

Back in 1977, Sims was an army private assigned to a facility about 68 miles (109 kilometers) south of San Jose, prosecutors said.

The year after Ralston's death, a jury in a separate case convicted Sims of an assault to commit murder in Monterey County and sentenced him to four years in prison, court records show.

Ralston's son, Allen Ralston, was 6 when she died. He told WOIO-TV that he is grateful and relieved an arrest was finally made.

"I'm just glad that somebody cared," he said about the case.