Suspect arrested in Sacramento mother's killing, 44 years later
SACRAMENTO – Detectives have made an arrest in the 1980 killing of a Sacramento mother after years of struggling with evidence, police say.
Helen Terry was found stabbed to death in her Wyndham Drive apartment back on Aug. 28, 1980. Her one-year-old son was alone in the apartment when she was found.
Sacramento police have continued to investigate the case, but no suspect was ever identified until an investigator with the department's cold case unit reopened the case in 2016.
Processing the evidence from the scene, police say DNA now pointed out the possible suspect as Robert Terry – the man who Helen was involved in a paternity and child support battle with at the time of her death.
Still, detectives say there wasn't enough evidence to charge Robert Terry.
That is, until 2024 when the Sacramento County District Attorney's Office Cold Case, Science, and Technology Unit took on the case. Police say "advanced investigative methods" uncovered enough evidence to charge Robert with homicide.
Robert, now 81 and living in Rancho Cordova, was arrested on Sept. 27 and booked into Sacramento County Jail on homicide charges.
Police say Robert's relationship with Helen and whether he was the child's father is still being investigated.