Bloody, bare footprints lead to decadeslong search for woman's killer

This story originally aired on May 17, 2025.Minnesota crime scene investigators captured footage when they got their first look inside a high-rise apartment in Minneapolis. According to police reports, at around 5:30 p.m. on \u00a0June 13, 1993, a tenant reported water seeping into their apartment. A building caretaker and a security guard were called to check it out, and discovered the water was coming from apartment 2104.Bart Epstein | Retired forensic scientist: They went into the apartment and they found that the shower was still running and causing all this flooding next door.\u00a0After the shower was turned off, they came upon a gruesome scene in the bedroom. The body of 35-year-old Jeanie Childs was discovered partially under the bed. That\u0027s when police were called to investigate.Bart Epstein: This was a violent, bloody crime scene \u2026 this is \u2026 one of the bloodiest that I\u0027d been to. Bloody evidence leads to a pivotal clueRetired forensic scientist Bart Epstein says carefully documenting that scene was crucial.Erin Moriarty: Blood stains and blood spatter tell a story.Bart Epstein: Yes \u2026 they sure can \u2026 in this case we could establish that Jeanie Childs was hit \u2026 in front of the bathroom door.Epstein says Jeanie then moved into the bathroom. She was stabbed and slashed dozens of times. Bart Epstein: She was down on the floor smearing blood along that area.While the shower had been turned off earlier, investigators noticed water was still running from the sink faucet.Bart Epstein:There was a lot of activity going on there. \u2026 Why was the sink faucet still dripping? Was he trying to clean up?\u00a0Jeanie apparently made it back to her bedroom where her body was found.Julie Rendelman: The blood wasn\u0027t \u2026 confined to just the area where she was. \u2026 the blood was on the walls, the blood was on the comforter, the blood was on the floor.Julie Rendelman is a defense attorney and a legal consultant for "48 Hours." Julie Rendelman: It leads one to believe \u2026 that a struggle happened, that she was fighting to save her own life. The living room appeared untouched. A sitcom was still playing on the TV. There was no evidence of forced entry. If Jeanie knew her killer, what could have prompted so much violence?Julie Rendelman: This to me seems like more rage \u2026 someone who got upset \u2026 at the time the crime \u2026 was committed. Jeanie\u0027s mother, Betty Eakman, was watching television news when she saw a report about a woman that had been murdered. Betty Eakman: I called my husband at work \u2026 I said, I just seen them on the news taking a stretcher out of that building that she lives in.Eakman soon got the news no mother wants to hear; the victim was her eldest child.Betty Eakman: I just wanted to hold her. (sobbing) \u2026 I couldn\u0027t believe it. (sobbing) Erin Moriarty: What were her plans that weekend?Betty Eakman: She went to the emergency room \u2026 she was in so much pain \u2026 Jeanie always had problems with her teeth, and I don\u0027t know why, so I said "let me come and get you." \u2026 No mom, stop worrying about me. Jeanie was dead by Sunday afternoon. As the crime investigation continued, authorities focused on gathering evidence: a blue washcloth, a red T-shirt, a bath towel, blood scrapings from the sink, along with a comforter were collected and taken for DNA testing. Investigators observed dishes in the kitchen sink and a knife in the drying rack.Erin Moriarty: Did you take that knife in?Bart Epstein: I did not take that knife in. I looked at it and there was no apparent blood on it. \u2026 we never found any, uh, actual weapon there \u2026 that, uh, was \u2026 a murder weapon.\u00a0Investigators were able to identify some blood stains found in the stairwell near Jeanie\u0027s 21st floor apartment.Erin Moriarty: Did any of the blood \u2026 belong to the victim?Bart Epstein: Yes.Erin Moriarty: Jeanie Childs? \u2026 Do you think it\u0027s possible that the person who stabbed her was also cut?Bart Epstein: Well, it \u2014 it could be. That\u0027s why we took samples. Epstein says whoever murdered Childs unknowingly left behind something investigators rarely encounter: bloody bare footprints under the bedroom window. Bart Epstein: That drew my attention right away \u2026 and right next to it I see the socked foot of \u2026 Jeanie Childs.The footprints were dusted with black powder at the crime scene.Erin Moriarty: When you first saw these, you said, because she\u0027s wearing socks, this \u2014 these belong to the killer.Bart Epstein: Yeah, that would be my feeling \u2026 that\u0027s most likely the perpetrator\u0027s footprint. \u2026 If there\u0027s friction ridge on the feet \u2026 like the friction ridge on your fingers, there\u0027s potential to identify the person\u0027s foot that made that \u2026 that was very, very significant.Betty Eakman: I knew that God was gonna make sure that I was gonna know what happened.Who was Jeanie Childs?Cindy Blumer remembers the deep loss she felt after the murder of her big sister Jeanie.Cindy Blumer: A lot of sadness when you wanted to pick up the phone and call your sister \u2026 I needed my sister. I wanted to talk to her \u2026 wondering what actually took place. \u2026 who did this? Although her sister was 12 years older, Jeanie\u0027s playful spirit made an impression on Cindy growing up. Cindy Blumer: Lionel Richie was one of her favorites and as soon as she would hear him play, I mean, her fingers would start snapping and \u2026 she would dance around.But those good times were few and far between. Betty Eakman says she first noticed a change in her eldest daughter when she was a preteen.Betty Eakman: She kind of lost her way when she was probably around 12, 13.Eakman says it wasn\u0027t until decades later that Jeanie claimed she had been abused by a male relative. Jeanie started running away from home.Betty Eakman: I took my life in my own hands many a times ...

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