May 13, 2025
24-year-old Jeanette Ralston was last seen leaving The Lion’s Den, a bar in San Jose, on January 31, 1977.
It was close to midnight as Ralston walked away from the establishment, telling her friends that she would be “back in ten minutes” as she left with an unidentified male.
They would never see her alive again.
The following day, on February 1, 1977, she was found dead in her vehicle, a Volkswagen Beetle, which had been parked up just a few minutes away in the carport area of an apartment complex near the Lion’s Den.
The victim was discovered by Grace Delaney, the owner of a nearby apartment close to the discovery of the vehicle.
According to an article published in The Peninsula Times Tribune Wed, Feb 02, 1977, Ralston was found partially clothed, and strangled to death with her own blouse. She had injuries to her face that suggested she had been beaten. Her body was found wedged between the front and back seats of the vehicle, and autopsy revealed she had been sexually assaulted. A “small amount of blood” was also recovered from the scene.
The County of Santa Clara website detailed that the killer attempted to set the victim’s vehicle on fire, but failed.
In February 1977, The Peninsula Times Tribune described Jeanette Diana Ralston as "the estranged wife of AC Ralston, an auto mechanic," in Folkstone, San Mateo. According to the paper, the couple had a 7-year-old son together.
The only evidence left behind, was a fingerprint on a carton of Eve brand cigarettes left at the scene. Although the evidence was secured, DNA testing was not available at the time, and the case went cold.
In the summer of 2024, the fingerprint was entered into the FBI's Combined DNA Index System, CODIS, and matched the profile of an ex-army private named Willie Eugene Sims.
Sims is 69 years old, and would have been in his early twenties at the time of the murder.
His DNA was found under the fingernails of the victim and on the shirt which was used to strangle her to death.
Deputy District Attorney Rob Baker later told the New York Times that he "threw a hail Mary" in 2024, and ran several fingerprints lifted by the original investigators on the case back in 1977 through CODIS.
Fingerprint examiners with the San Jose police soon informed him that there was a match. Although the prints had been run previously, nothing had shown up in the system.
The difference when running the prints in 2024 was the benefit of an upgrade of the systems search algorithm in 2018.
Detectives travelled to the suspect’s home in Ashtabula County, Ohio to collect a DNA sample to compare with the DNA found at the original crime scene.
At the time of the murder in 1977, the private was stationed at Fort Ord in Monterey County.
A year after allegedly murdering Ralston, Sims was convicted of assault to commit murder and robbery using a knife in Monterey County- a crime for which he earned himself four years in prison.
His mugshot closely resembled the witness sketch of the man Ralston had left the bar with on the night of her murder.
He moved to a different state after being released before police had the opportunity to collect his DNA and submit it to a database.
The suspect is, at the time of writing, awaiting extradition to California. If convicted, he faces a minimum of 25 years behind bars.
Sims is being held without bail and is expected in court in early August this year.
According to Deputy District Attorney Rob Baker, despite the decades that have passed, the key witnesses in the case are still living.
"If we charged him and went to trial, would we be able to prove it? Do we have enough witnesses that can actually testify? We're very fortunate in this case that all of the key witnesses are still alive," he told Local12.
The victim's son, Allen Ralston, who is now in his fifties, commented on the arrest, telling WCSC:
“Without the Santa Clara detectives, the whole team that’s worked on this for 49 years, how do you thank somebody like that and not feel guilty you didn’t thank them enough.”
He had no idea that police were working to solve his mother's murder and was surprised to receive the news that the case had been solved almost five decades later.
When asked about his mother he told the outlet: “She raised me to be a happy kid, so I just held onto that. “I’ve always tried to do good in my life and try to respect her in any way I could.”
He thanked the Detectives for their hard work, saying: "You have undoubtedly made a 6-year-old kid happy after all these years. Thank you from the bottom of my heart on a job well done."
On the subject of similarly long-unsolved cold cases, District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in a statement: "Every day, forensic science grows better, and every day criminals are closer to being caught. Cases may grow old and be forgotten by the public. We don't forget and we don't give up."
June 24, 2025
