Jerry Westrom's Murder Trial Date Set For April, Accused Of Killing Jeanie Ann Childs In 1993

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A trial date has been set for hockey dad charged in a decades old murder. Earlier this month, a grand jury indicted Jerry Westrom on first-degree murder charges in the 1993 stabbing death of Jeanie Ann Childs in Minneapolis.

The trial for Westrom is now on the calendar for April 19, 2021.

Police first arrested him in February 2019 after linking DNA from a genealogy website to the crime scene. Hearings have been pushed back over the past 18 months since his arrest due to evidence the defense said its been waiting on.

Westrom, out on bail, walked into the courthouse wearing a mask with his wife. In court Friday, we learned the genealogy website used to match Westrom's DNA is called MyHeritage, and that investigators used Ancestry.com to build a family tree.

Police arrested him after getting his DNA from a napkin he threw in the trash at a hockey game and linked it to DNA found at the cold case crime scene.

In an interview after his arrest, Westrom denied being in the apartment. He said he did not know the victim, and said he did not have sex with any women in Minneapolis in 1993. When confronted with the DNA evidence, he told investigators he had no idea why his DNA would be present at that scene.

Westrom's attorney says he still needs more information before he can try the case.

"I'm not going to try a case without the evidence ... in order to defend somebody," attorney Steve Meshbesher said.

Westrom is out on a $2 million bond.