A 43-year-old cold case rape and murder of a 12-year-old Texas girl has finally been solved. Lesia Michell Jackson was last seen on Sept. 7, 1979, after spending the day at a neighborhood pool. Almost a week later, her body was discovered by an oilfield worker, dumped in a “heavily wooded area,” according to authorities. A subsequent autopsy revealed Lesia had been sexually assaulted and murdered. While Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) Detectives investigated the case for years, they were unable to find her killer—until now. Using new forensic technology, the MCSO Cold Case Homicide Squad took DNA samples from Lesia’s clothing and were able to match it with a local male named Gerald Dwight Casey. They soon discovered Casey had a history of violent assaults and was executed by lethal injection for a separate capital murder committed in Montgomery County in 1989. He died on April 18, 2002. A blood sample from Casey still existed, however, and detectives were able to make an exact match with the evidence found on Lesia.
