Investigators solved the 1999 murder of a 28-year-old woman through use of California’s familial DNA search program, authorities announced Thursday at a news conference punctuated by pushback from the woman’s family.
Richmond police said Jerry Lee Henderson killed Meekiah Wadley at her home in January 1999, but could not bring him to trial because he died of a suspected drug overdose 11 days after her death.
DNA collected at the crime never yielded a direct hit in DNA criminal databases. But in October 2020, investigators asked the state to conduct a familial search.