An Isanti County man charged with second-degree murder in a 1993 Minneapolis cold case has a first court appearance today (Fri) after unknowingly giving authorities a D-N-A sample by throwing away a napkin at a hockey game. Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman says 52-year-old Jerry Westrom at some point sent a D-N-A sample to an on-line geneology company, and investigators got a match with 1993 crime-scene D-N-A they sent to that same company — then tracked Westrom and collected fresh D-N-A which also matched. Freeman says, “I’m sure the defense attorney will try to challenge the surveillance, but the best I can tell from… [everybody] we talked to, it was totally legit, within the confines of the law, and we’re gonna use it.”
Freeman says about the defendant, “After he agreed to talk with investigators he said, never been at the apartment complex, I’ve never been in the apartment, I don’t know who this person is and I didn’t have sex with her. Well then why is his D-N-A all over the place?”