MYSTERY

A Killer Left Just One Thumbprint in a California Murder Case

The victim’s cigarette carton smoked out a suspect after 48 years

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A young mother told friends she’d be “back in 10 minutes.” She never returned, and the police in San Jose have now charged a man with her death.

Jeannette Ralston, 24, was a resident of San Mateo, Calif., when she was found strangled in her car in early 1977.

She was at the Lion’s Den bar in San Jose, Calif., when she told her friends she would be “back in 10 minutes.” Ralson never returned.

The next morning, on Feb. 1, 1977, police officers found the 24-year-old’s body. She had been strangled with the long sleeve of a red women’s dress shirt.

Ralson’s dead body was jammed into the back seat of her Volkswagen Beetle in a parking lot close to the Lion’s Den.

The police found a carton of Eve cigarettes, a popular brand for women in the 1970s, and the shirt with which she was strangled. They also had a sketch drawn of an unidentified man that her friends saw her leave the bar with the night before she was found.

Police investigations into the killing of Ms. Ralston went cold after no credible leads were initially developed. Almost 50 years later…