A Murder, a Cigarette, and a 50-Year Mystery: Cops Think They've Cracked Woman's Slaying Inside Volkswagen Beetle

• A fingerprint on a cigarette pack led to the arrest of Willie Eugene Sims for the 1977 murder of Jeanette Ralston in San Jose
• Ralston, 24, was found strangled and sexually assaulted in her car after leaving a local bar
• Sims was extradited from Ohio and is being held without bail

Nearly 50 years after 24-year-old Jeanette Ralston was found strangled in the back seat of her Volkswagen Beetle, an Ohio man has been charged with her 1977 murder — thanks to a fingerprint left on a pack of Eve cigarettes.

Willie Eugene Sims, 69, was taken into custody in Ohio and charged with Ralston’s killing after a breakthrough in the case linked him to evidence long stored but never matched — until now, according to the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office.

“Last year, we threw a Hail Mary by running all of the prints from the crime scene through the FBI database one last time,” said Rob Baker, Deputy District Attorney.

That decision proved pivotal. “The big break happened last summer when the San Jose Police fingerprint examiners told us we had a match that led our investigators to a small town in Ohio six months later,” he added.

The match came from a latent fingerprint found on the cigarette pack discovered in Ralston’s car. The evidence had sat idle in the case files for decades — but a 2018 upgrade to the FBI’s fingerprint search algorithm, which allowed for more accurate and expansive matches, ultimately reopened the case.  

According to court records, Ralston was last seen on January 31, 1977, leaving the Lion’s Den Bar in San Jose just before midnight with an unidentified man. Her body was discovered the next morning, found in the back seat of her parked car with a long-sleeve dress shirt tied around her neck. An autopsy confirmed that she had been strangled and sexually assaulted.

Investigators also allegedly found evidence that Sims tried — and failed — to set the car on fire, per the records. 

At the time of the murder, Sims was an Army private stationed at Fort Ord. Despite an initial investigation, he was never linked to the crime.

In 1978, Sims was convicted of assault with intent to commit murder in Monterey County and sentenced to 2-and-a-half months in prison — but he moved out of California before DNA was routinely collected and entered into databases.

The case stagnated for years until the breakthrough in August 2024. 

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With a fingerprint match in hand, Santa Clara County investigators and San Jose police traveled to Ohio earlier this year to collect a DNA sample from Sims, with assistance from Ashtabula County authorities. That DNA matched material found under Ralston’s fingernails and on the shirt used to strangle her.

“Every day, forensic science grows better, and every day criminals are closer to being caught,” said District Attorney Jeff Rosen. “We don’t forget and we don’t give up.”

After being extradited to San Jose, Sims was arraigned on May 9 on the murder charge at the Santa Clara County Hall of Justice. He is being held without bail and did not enter a plea. His next court date is set for August 12. If convicted, he faces 25 years to life in prison.