DNA evidence leads to charges against man in 1994 killings of woman, child, WA cops say
DNA evidence led to charges against a 51-year-old man in the killings of a woman and her toddler 27 years ago, Washington police said.
The fatal shooting of Stacy Falcon-Dewey, 23, and her 3-year-old son, Jacob Dewey, in Renton has been unsolved for decades until evidence was resubmitted for DNA testing in December 2021, police said in a probable cause statement.
Investigators said they found semen on the child’s clothing that matched the DNA of Jerome F. Jones, who is currently in prison on a murder charge from 1995, the year after is accused of killing Falcon-Dewey and her child.
The recent finding comes 20 years after authorities gave the Washington State Patrol Crime Lab swabs and fingernail clippings from the body of Falcon-Dewey, police said. Police said detectives found semen on the woman’s fingernail clippings and the DNA profile matched Jones.
But it wasn’t until the recent DNA evidence was tested that Jones — a career criminal with multiple felony convictions — was charged in the killings of the mother and child.
The DNA sample collected from the child’s jacket is “3.6 nonillion times more likely to observe this DNA profile if it originated from Jerome Jones rather than any unrelated individual selected at random in the U.S. population,” police said.
A nonillion is “a number equal to 1 followed by 30 zeros,” according to Merriam-Webster.
Prosecutors charged Jones with two counts of first-degree aggravated murder on Feb. 15.
Jones has been in prison since 1998 after he was convicted of first-degree murder for fatally shooting a person in 1995 in California, police said.
Falcon-Dewey and her child were found on a city street with multiple gunshot wounds by a Seattle Times newspaper delivery person around 3:30 a.m. on Oct. 28, 1994, police said.
Neighbors later told police they heard gunshots at 2:10 a.m.
The mother and child were lying in the middle of the street near her 1984 Buick Century, police said. Falcon-Dewey had a gunshot wound to the back of her head, shoulder and arm as well as gashes to her head and bruising on her neck, police said.
Police said Jacob Dewey had two gunshot wounds to the head.
“The defendant bound Stacy Falcon-Dewey, beat her, orally raped her and likely shot her child to death in front of her before killing her,” the charging documents state.
Items from Falcon-Dewey’s purse and car were tossed around and outside of the vehicle, police said, leading detectives to believe a struggle occurred.
Brown packing tape was also found on the scene outside of the vehicle, and it appeared to have been used as binding, police said.
Falcon-Dewey had picked her son up from a babysitter’s apartment between 1 and 2 a.m. before the two were found dead about 4.5 miles away, police said. Falcon-Dewey had previously lived at the apartment complex and police later discovered that Jones had lived there too, in 1993-94. He told police said he did not know Falcon-Dewey.
Police investigated the case for several years, but did not have any serious leads or “conclusive suspects” until after submitting DNA evidence.
