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Texas Police Make Arrest in 1991 Cold Case Murder Investigation With Help of College Students
A group of criminology college students helped police in Texas make an arrest in connection to the 1991 murder of 25-year-old woman Cynthia Gonzalez.
Arlington Police Department said on Monday, November 17 that U.S. Marshals arrested Janie Perkins on November 6 in Axle, Texas, on one count of capital murder in connection to the investigation, according to NBC News.
Gonzalez was last seen leaving her home on September 17, 1991 to meet a client for her job. Her ex-husband then reported her missing before her car was found abandoned hours later. Authorities launched an investigation into her disappearance in an attempt to determine whether she had been kidnapped.
She was found dead on private property in a rural part of Johnson County on September 22, 1991. Gonzalez’s body had multiple shot wounds and had begun decomposing.
While police followed many leads, no arrests were made in the first 34 years after Gonzalez’s death. However, a major development in the case took place when the University of Texas at Arlington’s Criminology & Criminal Justice department stepped in. After they began a partnership with APD during the fall semester, several students were selected to go through real cold case files and investigate the unsolved crimes.
After the students received up to 500 files, they noticed that Gonzalez and Perkins, 63, were friends prior to the murder. Additionally, detectives previously discovered in the 1990s that they shared a romantic partner. Weeks before the murder, the partner broke up with Perkins in order to pursue a relationship with Gonzalez.
It was confirmed that Perkins didn’t have an alibi for the night Gonzalez went missing, while she also failed two voluntary polygraph tests when she was asked about Gonzalez’s disappearance and death.
The suspicions grew when it was revealed that Perkins told detectives that she was glad Gonzalez died and admitted she previously thought about killing her herself. Despite her concerning comments, Perkins was never charged in Gonzalez’s murder.
After the students expressed their suspicions, the APD homicide detectives looked back at the case and discovered that witnesses said Perkins admitted she was involved in the murder.
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“Detectives compared those witness statements to the evidence in the case and found they aligned. They believe this demonstrated Ms. Perkins either participated in or facilitated Ms. Gonzalez’s kidnapping and murder,” police said, per the outlet.
Following the discovery, Police Chief Al Jones credited the students for their help in the case. “When we launched our cold case partnership with UTA, we always hoped we’d get an outcome like this one day,” he told the outlet. “I don’t think any of us expected that lightning would strike the first time. I want to sincerely thank the students for their work and dedication to this case.”
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