On May 23, 1982, 13-year-old Sarah Geer left a friend’s home in Cloverdale, California, to walk downtown.
As Sarah walked that evening, she was approached by a man in an alley, the Sonoma County District Attorney’s Office said in a Feb. 13 news release.
“Sarah was forcibly dragged down the alley to a secluded area adjacent to an apartment building and behind a fence,” where she was “brutally raped” and strangled to death with her own shorts, according to prosecutors.
Though Sarah’s homicide was investigated by the Cloverdale Police Department, with the limited forensic science of the day, they found few answers, prosecutors said.
Sarah’s death “haunted the community for over 40 years,” the Cloverdale police said in a Facebook post.
But with the advent of new DNA technologies, detectives finally identified and arrested a suspect — James Oliver Unick — in July 2024, according to prosecutors.
Now, more than a year after his arrest, a jury has found 64-year-old Unick guilty in connection with Sarah’s cold case slaying, prosecutors said.
“This guilty verdict is a testament to everyone who never gave up searching for Sarah’s killer,” District Attorney Carla Rodriguez said in the release. “This is the coldest case ever presented to a Sonoma County jury. While 44 years is too long to wait, justice has finally been served, both to Sarah’s loved ones as well as her community.”
Sarah Geer’s case grows cold
The morning after Sarah was attacked in 1982, a Cloverdale fireman walking home after his shift stumbled upon her body, prosecutors said.
Despite Cloverdale detectives’ investigation, Sarah’s case went cold, prosecutors said.
Two decades later, in 2003, the case finally had its first breakthrough: “A criminalist with the California Department of Justice was able to develop a DNA profile based upon sperm collected from Sarah’s underwear,” according to prosecutors.
However, when the DNA profile was uploaded to law enforcement DNA databases, no matches were found, prosecutors said.
Again, the case remained stagnant.
Case reopened in 2021
In 2021, investigators made another push for answers and reopened Sarah’s case, according to police.
Police hired a private investigator, Kevin Cline, to help with the investigation, prosecutors said.
After the police chief spearheading those efforts retired, Chief Chris Parker continued to push the case forward “alongside private investigator Kevin Cline and Cloverdale Detective Katie Vanoni,” police said.
Sgt. Salvatore Borruso took charge, “meticulously reviewing evidence and conducting interviews,” according to police.
Additionally, police said investigators looked to forensic genetic genealogy in hopes of identifying a suspect.
The investigative team partnered with the FBI in help to identify a source of the DNA profile created in 2003, according to prosecutors.
Genetic genealogy couples DNA testing with “traditional genealogical methods” to create “family history profiles, according to the Library of Congress. Through genealogical DNA testing, researchers can determine how people may be biologically related.
“The FBI, with its access to familial genealogical databases, concluded that the source of the DNA evidence collected from Sarah belonged to one of four brothers, including James Unick,” prosecutors said.
FBI agents surveyed Unick and collected “a discarded cigarette that he had been smoking” for DNA testing, prosecutors said.
“A DNA analysis of the cigarette butt confirmed that Unick’s DNA matched the 2003 profile, and his DNA additionally matched DNA collected on numerous articles of clothing that Sarah had been wearing at the time of her death,” according to prosecutors.
Unick was arrested at his Willows home on multiple counts, including murder, rape and kidnapping, in July 2024, according to prosecutors and police.
“Today, we stand united in solidarity with the Geer family as we witness the culmination of years of hard work and perseverance by our law enforcement officials,” Cloverdale Mayor Todd Lands said of Unick’s arrest.
When Unick was arrested, he denied knowing Sarah and said he had no recollection of May 23, 1982, according to prosecutors.
A month-long trial
“During the month-long trial, the jury heard testimony from Sarah’s friends who had spent time with her during her final weekend alive,” prosecutors said.
The jury also heard Unick’s version of events from the night of Sarah’s death.
Unick told the jury that Sarah “propositioned him for sex while he had been playing a video game at the Cloverdale arcade,” prosecutors said.
Unick said the two “had consensual sex on a hillside near the Russian River,” prosecutors said.
His testimony implied that Sarah had been assaulted and killed by another man later that evening, according to prosecutors.
“After about two hours of deliberations, the jury rejected Unick’s fictitious account and, after more than four decades, finally held him accountable for his crimes,” prosecutors said.
Because the jury found Unick guilty of “a special circumstance related to the sexual assault during the commission of the murder,” prosecutors said he will be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Unick is scheduled to appear in court again on April 23, jail records show.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: DNA evidence leads to conviction in California teen’s 1982 murder
Reporting by Daniella Segura, Palm Springs Desert Sun / Palm Springs Desert Sun
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
