The mother of a young woman brutally stabbed to death in a Minneapolis apartment broke down from the witness stand Tuesday when prosecutors showed a photo of her oldest child whose murder went unsolved for nearly 30 years.
"That's my daughter," Betty Eakman said as she stared at the image of Jeanne "Jeanie" Childs. Eakman later ran out the courtroom in shock when an image of Childs' naked body from the June 1993 crime scene was shown to jurors.
Though the case went cold, a recently revived investigation led to first-degree murder charges against Jerry Westrom, an Isanti, Minn., husband and father, as Hennepin County prosecutors spent the first day of testimony laying out DNA evidence and bloody footprints they say belong to him.
Westrom, 56, who is not in custody, was accompanied by his wife, Elizabeth Ann, and a dozen other supporters in the courtroom Tuesday. Testimony is expected to carry into next week before the jury will begin deliberations.

The businessman and hockey dad was arrested in 2019 after investigators tested his discarded hot dog napkin from a hockey game for DNA that matched a hit from a genealogy website.
His attorney, Steve Meshbesher, is trying to convince the jury that Arthur Gray is the killer, as Gray's hair was found in Childs' left hand and he had a history of abusing her. The apartment unit was leased to Gray, and Childs allegedly used the unit for prostitution.
Gray, who is now deceased, was Childs' boyfriend and alleged pimp. Meshbesher moved Judge Juan Hoyos to allow the jury to consider five alternate perpetrators, including Gray, but Hoyos ruled that only Gray can be presented as a potential suspect.
Prosecutor Michael Radmer wrote in court documents that considering Gray as the killer "ignores direct admissible evidence to be offered by (witness) Maurice Hampton that he and Mr. Gray were in a different state at the time of the offense."