DNA links California man to 1979 cold case murder, years after passing lie detector
Riverside, California, investigators linked a man’s DNA to a 1979 cold case murder of a teenage girl, years after the same man passed a lie detector test about the crime, according to authorities.
The body of 17-year-old Esther Gonzalez was found dumped in packed snow off Highway 243 in Banning, California, in 1979, and after an investigation, detectives determined the teen had been raped and bludgeoned to death.
Last week, the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office said in a press release that the case had been solved using forensic genealogy, over 45 years later.
On Nov. 20, the Riverside County Regional Cold Case Homicide Team identified Lewis Randolph "Randy" Williamson, who died in 2014, as the killer.
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Gonzalez was attacked and murdered on Feb. 9, 1979, as she was walking to her sister’s house in Banning from her parent’s house in Beaumont.
Her body was found the next day after an unidentified man, who Riverside County Sheriff’s Office deputies described as "argumentative," called to report he had found a body. The man, later identified as Williamson, said he did not know if the victim was a man or a woman.
Detectives identified Williamson as the caller five days after he reported the body, and investigators asked if he would submit to a polygraph. Williamson agreed to the test and passed, which, at the time, cleared him of any wrongdoing.
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After exhausting numerous leads in the case for several years, investigators eventually sent a semen sample from the crime scene into the Combined DNA Index System, also known as CODIS.
The county cold case homicide team sent various pieces of evidence to Othram, Inc. in 2023 to initiate a forensic investigative genetic genealogy investigation, with hopes of developing additional leads.
Earlier this year, the team moved closer to solving the case.
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A crime analyst assigned to the team determined that even though Williamson was cleared by a polygraph test in 1979, he was never cleared through DNA because the technology had not yet been developed.
When Williamson died in Florida in 2014, a blood sample was collected during the autopsy. With the Broward County Sheriff’s Office’s assistance, the sample was sent to the California Department of Justice.
It was ultimately confirmed that Williamson’s DNA matched the DNA recovered from Esther’s body.
While Williamson’s DNA matched, the investigation remains open into the circumstances that led to Gonzalez’s death.
The Riverside County Regional Cold Case Homicide Team encourages anyone who knew Williamson or may have information about the case or other potential victims to contact them at 951-955-277 or coldcaseunit@rivcoda.gov.