Kenneth Glad
For years, the file sat dormant. Investigators had preserved the evidence. The science, however, had not yet caught up.
On February 13, a Sonoma County jury found James Unick, 64, guilty of murdering 13-year-old Sarah Geer, closing what authorities described as the oldest case ever presented to a county jury. The conviction comes nearly 44 years after the teenager was killed in the small Northern California city of Cloverdale.
Jurors also found that the crime involved a sexual assault special circumstance, meaning Unick faces life in prison without the possibility of parole. He is scheduled to be sentenced April 23, writes CNN.
In a statement issued after the verdict, District Attorney Carla Rodriguez underscored the length of the wait. “This guilty verdict is a testament to everyone who never gave up searching for Sarah’s killer,” she said. “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.”
A community remembers
Cloverdale, now home to roughly 9,000 residents, was even smaller in 1982. Cold cases in close-knit communities can linger in public memory, particularly when they involve a child.
Sarah was last seen on May 23, 1982, according to CNN, leaving a friend’s house. The following morning, a firefighter walking home discovered her body near an apartment complex. According to prosecutors, she had been dragged down an alley to a more secluded area, where she was sexually assaulted and strangled.
A DNA profile was first developed in 2003 from sperm recovered from her clothing, authorities have said. At the time, it did not match anyone in state or federal offender databases, and the investigation stalled for years.
Science catches up
The case was reopened decades later as advances in forensic science began reshaping cold case work across California. Genetic genealogy, which compares crime-scene DNA to profiles voluntarily submitted to public ancestry databases, has been used by law enforcement statewide since the 2018 Golden State Killer arrest and has helped resolve numerous long-unsolved homicides, according to officials.
With assistance from the FBI and a private forensic firm, investigators revisited the evidence, CNN reports. According to the district attorney’s office, federal analysts determined the DNA likely came from one of four brothers, including Unick.
Surveillance followed. After Unick discarded a cigarette, authorities collected it for testing. Court records show the DNA matched the profile generated from the 1982 evidence. He was arrested in July 2024 at his home in Willows.
The jury’s decision
At the time of his arrest, Unick said he did not know Sarah.
During trial, he testified that she had “propositioned him for sex while he had been playing a video game” at an arcade and claimed their encounter was consensual, suggesting someone else later attacked her.
After about two hours of deliberations, jurors rejected that account and returned a guilty verdict, ending a case that had remained unresolved for more than four decades.
Sources: CNN
