Who killed a California mom jogging 26 years ago? DNA helps crack cold case, police say
Christine Munro was murdered when she went jogging near the Sacramento River on June 24, 1995, and despite authorities interviewing witnesses and collecting evidence for hundreds of hours, the case went cold.
But, with the help of DNA analysis, James Earl Watkins, 42, of Texas, pleaded guilty Monday to first-degree murder and confessed to allegations of robbery, kidnapping and lying in wait for the murder of Munro, 37, the Shasta County District Attorney’s Office said in a news release.
Watkins will be sentenced Aug. 25 and has waived his rights to appeal, according to the district attorney’s office.
Detective Rusty Bishop of Redding police started reviewing Munro’s case in 2019 and submitted her fingernail scrapings to the Justice Department for DNA analysis in January 2020, Redding police said in a news release. Bishop was notified this past June about a possible match and found that the evidence matched Watkins, who was serving a 14-year sentence for robbery.
Officials said detectives went through Watkins’ history and learned that he moved from Texas to Redding in 1995 to live with his uncle and aunt and was contacted by police eight times over two years. According to the release, Watkins was contacted for an arrest warrant, an arrest for shoplifting and an unlawful camping citation.
Watkins moved back to to Texas in 1997 and was arrested and convicted of sexual assault, escape, burglary and bank robbery and “spent a significant portion of his life in prison,” according to authorities.
In August 2020, detectives and Senior Deputy District Attorney Kelly Kafel flew to Texas and interviewed Watkins, the release stated. A search warrant for Watkins’ DNA was issued, and the sample was given to the California Department of Justice’s Redding lab, officials said. An analysis confirmed that Watkins’ DNA was under Munro’s fingernails when she was killed, according to authorities.
An arrest warrant was issued, and Watkins was flown to Redding from Texas in November 2020, according to the release. Watkins was booked on charges including rape, kidnapping and murder into the Shasta County Jail.
A convicted rapist confessed to killing Munro in 1997, but there wasn’t enough evidence to prove that he had done it, Redding police said.
This story was originally published July 29, 2021 at 3:22 PM with the headline "Who killed a California mom jogging 26 years ago? DNA helps crack cold case, police say."