Fresno cold case arrest: Suspect detained after 36 years in brutal murder of young mother

Fresno Police after 36 years made an arrest in the slaying of a young mother who was sexually assaulted, slain and left in a field at in southwest Fresno.

Police Chief Paco Balderrama credited detectives who never gave up on the cold case and DNA technology for the arrest of 71-year-old Carl Eugene Sears.

Police believe Sears is responsible for killing Jacqueline Denise Henry, a mother who was just 22 years old when she died and her body found in a field at Church and Martin Luther King Boulevard.

Sears, who was 35 at the time of the murder, was booked into the Fresno County Jail on a $1.2 million bail. He has previously served a prison sentence for a sex crime and was a registered sex offender.

Police say Henry was assaulted and stabbed to death on Feb. 24, 1987, in the parking lot of Pearly Grove Baptist Church by Sears, who left her body in the field across the street.

At the time, Martin Luther King Boulevard was known as Fig Avenue. Henry’s body was found several days later. Balderrama said detective Bartlett Ledbetter submitted DNA evidence in the case to the state Department of Justice that led to Sears’ arrest after he was tested for a match to the sample. Sears was on probation when arrested.

“I’m very glad the system worked,” said Balderrama at a news conference called to announce the arrest.

Fresno County District Attorney Lisa Smittcamp, also at the news conference, said the case was death penalty eligible. That determination will be made later, she added.

Connie Meux, Jacqueline Henry’s older sister, called the accused slayer “a monster.”

“She was nothing but a baby,” she said, and credited police for making an arrest.

“I would just like to ask that he gets the death penalty.”

This story was originally published July 25, 2023 at 6:10 PM.