2 arrested in 1993 cold case of man murdered in his Bay Area home, authorities say

ALAMEDA COUNTY, Calif. (KGO) -- Anonymous tips and interviews from members of the public helped solve a more than 30-year-old murder in Alameda County.

In June of 1993, 30-year-old Zachary Jackson was found shot to death in his home. No arrests were made and the case went cold.

But more than three decades later, Alameda County Sheriff's investigator Patrick Smith says Jackson's alleged killers have been arrested.

"There is no statute limitations on murder," Smith said. "We may not get you tomorrow, next week, next month, but keep looking over your shoulder because you never know when the long arm of the law is gonna reach out and touch you."

Just last week, the mother of Jackson's two children was arrested in New York and her boyfriend in the 90's was arrested in Iowa - he is alleged to be the one who pulled the trigger.

Both were charged with Jackson's murder.

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Smith says one of the suspects was interviewed in 1993, but neither was thought to have been involved.

"As you can imagine in 1993, they did not have a lot of the things that we have available to us today investigatively to find leads - no electronic footprint like we have these days," Smith said. "They relied heavily on witnesses."

The Alameda County Sheriff's Office reopened the case two weeks ago, decades after information dried up.

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New leads ultimately helped crack the cold case 32 years later.

Anonymous tips in 2014 and 2021 suggested the two suspects may have been the killers.

But it wasn't until new statements taken this year that District Attorney Ursula Jones Dickson had enough probable cause to charge the man and woman.

"Oftentimes cases take some time and a lot of energy and resources to build them to a point where we can prove them beyond a reasonable doubt," Dickson said. "And that is only possible if we have the resources to get there and people are willing to talk."

Both suspects are being extradited to the Bay Area to be prosecuted.