Sneak peek: The Footprint | Forensic Files

On the 13th of June 1993, I was on call as a team leader for our crime scene team. We had pagers then, no cell
phones, and u I got a page. It was a sergeant requesting our assistance on the 21st floor of this high-rise
apartment building. When you entered into the apartment, you didn't really see anything. You wouldn't
have known that a crime had occurred. When you went a little further and you ended up going into the
bedroom, it was catastrophic. When I proceeded to where the body was on the side of the bed, I looked down. I
could see the imprint in blood that looked like a left foot and a right foot. It's an actual bare foot. I mean,
wow. I turned the TV on. I saw the apartment. They said they just found a young woman in her early
30s. Oh my. I just got chills all over. [Music] Don't tell me that was Jean. I called the corner's place and he
said, "Are you all alone? You better get somebody over there with you because it
it was your daughter. I couldn't believe it." Jeannie Childs had defensive wounds
on her hands when they found her. She had been stabbed at least 65 times, including after she had
died. Investigators took DNA evidence at the time. They could not find who it belonged to, and they hit a dead end at
some point and moved on. And it wasn't until 2015 that a cold case unit reopened the
case. A DNA profile was uploaded into myheritage.com and they found what could be a match.
Jerry Westerm is a husband, a father of three, a businessman. He attended church. He was a hockey dad. Police
expect Western to be charged with murder by noon tomorrow. Jerry doesn't have a demeanor of being a violent person. Have
you ever seen him lose his temper? No. I believe tip my toes. He's not capable. Okay. He didn't do it.
There was DNA from other individuals that did not belong to Jerry Westerm, but clearly belonged to a male source.
We know that there were experts that viewed multiple footprints, and they're in her blood. The person who put the
footprint down had to step in wet blood, and it had to be after she was stabbed or bleeding. How important did those
footprints in blood become in this case? Without the footprints, we would not be
sitting here. I think that the footprints defined the path of this case.

ALL NEW: A woman is murdered in her home and the pivotal clue at the crime is a bloody footprint her killer left behind. "48 Hours" correspondent Erin Moriarty reports Saturday, May 17 at 10/9c on CBS and streaming on Paramount+.

Crime. Social justice. Impact. "48 Hours" investigates the most intriguing crime and justice cases that touch on all areas of the human experience including greed and passion. "48 Hours," which premiered in 1988, has developed a rich history of original reporting and impact journalism that has helped exonerate wrongly convicted people, caused cold cases to be reopened and solved, and along the way changed lives.

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Brief Summary

The episode details the 1993 murder of Jeannie Childs and the investigation that led to a suspect through DNA evidence and footprints.

Key points

The Shocking Discovery. A young woman is found brutally murdered in her apartment, leaving investigators stunned.
A Cold Case Reopened. Years later, a cold case unit reopens the investigation, leading to a potential match.
The Footprints' Significance. Footprints found at the scene become crucial evidence in solving the case.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I just got chills all over.

Upon discovering the crime scene details.

1:16WatchMay 15, 2025

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