The brutal 1982 rape and murder of a 13-year-old Cloverdale girl has been solved, thanks to DNA from a cigarette butt.
James Oliver Unick, 64, was found guilty last week of murdering teen Sarah Geer — a hard-won conviction after a decades-long cold case investigation searching for her depraved killer.
The jury’s verdict will send Unick — who was arrested in July 2024 — to a lifetime in prison without the possibility of parole.
“This guilty verdict is a testament to everyone who never gave up searching for Sarah’s killer,” said Carla Rodriguez, district attorney for Sonoma County, in a statement.
“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.”
The twist-filled quest for justice began late May 23, 1982, when Geer walked to downtown Cloverdale from a friend’s home, prosecutors said.
Along the way, a vile sicko snatched Geer, dragging her down an alley and behind a fence near an apartment building.
The degenerate brutally raped Geer and strangled her to death by twisting her own shorts around her neck, prosecutors said.
Geer’s body was found the next morning, prompting a probe by Cloverdale police that ultimately was thwarted by the limits of 1980s forensic science, officials said.
But not all hope was lost — in 2003, a California Department of Justice criminalist developed a DNA profile from sperm collected from Geer’s underwear, prosecutors said.
Source: California Post – Breaking California News, Photos & Videos
