Texas Cold Case Murder From 1979 Solved: Sheriff

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, TX — A 43-year-old case has been closed after cold case investigators from the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office found a DNA match in the murder of 12-year-old Lesia Michelle Jackson, authorities said this week.

Police identified Gerald Dewight Casey of Conroe as Jackson's killer based of a DNA match from blood pulled from Jackson's clothing, according to a release.

Casey was executed by lethal injection in April 2002 for a murder conviction in the 1989 killing of 29-year-old Sonya Lynn Howell in New Caney.

Jackson went missing from her neighborhood off FM 1485 on Sept. 7, 1979, after spending a day at the pool. Law enforcement found her glasses the next day, and nearly a week later, an oilfield worker found her body nearby in a heavily wooded area along a pipeline near Exxon Road. Lesia had been sexually assaulted and murdered, according to an autopsy.

Detectives worked her case for several years, but her killer was not found. Cold case investigators took over the case in 2005, and a breakthrough occurred in late 2021.

Investigators used newly-acquired M-Vac technology to pull evidence from Jackson's clothing in October. According to the M-Vac website, the process involves using a sterile wet-vacuum which sprays collection solution on porous materials while simultaneously vacuuming them. It creates a "mini hurricane" that loosens DNA material, which is then deposited into a collection bottle.

In April 2022, forensic scientists from the Texas Department of Public Safety identified the DNA profile from an unknown man. The DNA profile was scanned through the FBI's Combined DNA Index System and found a match in Casey.

In July, investigators tested the DNA from Jackson's clothing to a DNA sample collected from Casey in 1989, confirming the match, authorities said.

"The tenacity and diligence in solving this case by a dedicated team is a reminder to our public and to those who commit crimes in our communities that we will never cease our efforts to solve the hardest of cases and bring closure to traumatized families," the sheriff's office said in a statement.