Cold case murder of teen solved 44 years later using DNA from cigarette

A man has been convicted in the 1982 rape and murder of a young girl in Cloverdale, California, after investigators were able to use a cigarette to link him to the crime.

James Oliver Unick, 64, was convicted of murdering 13-year-old Sarah Geerwith aspecial circumstance related to the sexual assault on Friday. He will be sentenced to life without the possibility of parole, according to the Sonoma County District Attorney's Office.

"This guilty verdict is a testament to everyone who never gave up searching for Sarah's killer. 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," Sonoma County District Attorney Carla Rodriguez said in a statement.

Sarah left a friend's residence on Sunday, May 23, 1982, to walk downtown. At some point during her walk, she was "accosted" by Unick near an alley, according to prosecutors.

Geer was forcibly dragged down the alley to a secluded area adjacent to an apartment building and behind a fence where she was raped and strangled to death using her own shorts, according to prosecutors.

Her body was found the next morning by a fireman walking home after his shift, according to prosecutors.

"The homicide was investigated by the Cloverdale Police Department, but the investigation was limited by the forensic science of the day," the DA's office said in a statement.

In 2003, a criminalist with the California Department of Justice was able to develop a DNA profile using sperm collected from Sarah's underwear. But that DNA did not match anyone in law enforcement databases, prosecutors said.

In 2021, the Cloverdale Police Department hired private investigator Kevin Cline to help with the investigation and enlisted the FBI to help identify a matching source of the DNA profile constructed in 2003, according to the DA's office.

"The FBI, with its access to familial genealogical databases, concluded that the source of the DNA evidence collected from Sarah belonged to one of four brothers, including James Unick," the DA's office said.

The FBI then conducted surveillance and was able to collect a discarded cigarette that Unick had been smoking. DNA analysis confirmed that the discarded cigarette matched the DNA profile they were searching for and matched DNA collected on numerous articles of clothing that Sarah had been wearing at the time of her death, the DA's office said.

Unick was arrested in his home in July 2024. At the time of his arrest, he denied knowing Geer and said he had no recollection of what happened on May 23, 1982, the DA's office said.

Unick testified in his own defense during the trial.

"During his testimony, Unick explained that the 13-year-old Sarah Geer propositioned him for sex while he had been playing a video game at the Cloverdale arcade. He claimed that they had consensual sex on a hillside near the Russian River, implying that Sarah Geer must have been assaulted and murdered later that evening by a phantom man who failed to leave behind any DNA evidence," the DA's office said.

The jury deliberated for two hours before returning a guilty verdict, according to prosecutors.

"The jury rejected Unick's fictitious account and, after more than four decades, finally held him accountable for his crimes," the DA's office said.