Hey guys, it's Melissa.

And Nate.

And if you're enjoying, you can see me in the dark. I've got something you need to check out. It's the brand new Crime House original series, Clues, hosted by Morgan Absher and Kaylyn Moore. And if their name sound familiar to you, that's because Morgan hosts the podcast, Too Hot Takes, and Kaylyn hosts the podcast, Heart Starts Pounding. And they're coming together to host the new series, Clues. news. Every Wednesday, Morgan and

Kaelin take you deep into the world of the most notorious crimes ever, where a single clue can crack a case wide open, from shocking murders to high stakes trials. Clues unpack the forensic evidence and obsessive sleuthing behind the investigations that still have people talking to this very day. Kaelin is your true crime expert, breaking down cold, hard facts of these cases, and Morgan is your internet detective. Digging into Reddit to uncover the theories and weird details you definitely haven't heard. So whether you're obsessed with the details, deep into internet theories or love a good forensic twist, you have to check out clues. In this episode, Morgan and Kaelin look into the 1993 murder of Genie Childs, which went on-solve for nearly three decades. They examined the crime scene evidence, the years of unanswered questions, and the DNA breakthrough that finally identified her killer. If you like what you hear, follow clues on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Today, we are going to talk about the 1993 murder of Genie Childs. A Minneapolis woman stabbed more than 60 times in her own apartment. The investigation started with a solid clue that everyone thought would crack the case. Instead, the evidence led them down a very winding and complicated path, which eventually caused the case to turn cold. Then, 25 years later, a new investigative technique

led police to a game-changing clue,

one hiding in plain sight,

and left by someone no one would have ever suspected before. Hi guys, welcome back to Clues, where we sneak past the crime scene tape to explore the key evidence behind some of the most gripping true crime cases. I'm Kaelin Moore and I'm going to be the one digging deeper into the timelines, the backstories, and the court files related to these cases. And I'm your internet slew with Morgan Absher.

I'm the one who's diving into the reddit forums,

the local news documentaries on YouTube,

and everything else I can find to explore the case

and see what adds up or doesn't.

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More on the case and the clues that defined it right after this quick break. So I actually discovered this case. I was doing research for one of our earlier episodes and all of a sudden on my like, discover more bar on YouTube. It was like premiering soon, news documentary from like a local news station in Minnesota, WCCO. Oh, that's how you found it. And I literally sat there and waited 20 minutes. I watched the little premiere time or go down on YouTube. And I watched it and I was so blown away by this case, by Jeanne's family. Yeah. And their experience and them sharing about Jeanne. And it is a really, really interesting case. I think it's one that a lot of people don't know about, too. So it's, I think it's a good one to highlight. That is a good find. Flies under the radar and really highlights good detectives and how big of a role evidence and some Sherlock moments can make. And how important it is to keep calling the police all the time.

We're the loved one who you're trying to have their case investigated.

Absolutely.

So it really pays off in this case. Advocacy is huge. Yeah. And in this episode too, we have a lot of assets. There's going to be a lot of pictures. A lot of stuff that was going on. People involved. So a quick reminder, if you're watching this on YouTube, You're going to see some of those photos, but if you're listening, you can follow us on Instagram,

at Clues Podcast and see the same pictures.

Yes, and we try to get the pictures up on Instagram right away. We're gonna start scheduling them so they're a little earlier for you guys because we do hear you that you want to see them First thing in the morning right after you listen to the episode. So we'll be sure to try to get those up earlier for our audio listeners. So we hear you guys But okay, and with that, let's dive into this one. Let's do it. So I want to start on the day where everything changed. On June 13th, 1983, at around 5.30 that night, a tenant who was living at the Horn Towers building on Pillsbury Ave in South Minneapolis, Minnesota comes home to see that their apartment is completely flooded. Water is seeping into their unit from next door. It's coming down through the walls, and I mean, that's bad enough on its own because that's tons of damage that's going to have to get fixed. But once they take a closer look at the water, they realize that it's kind of crimson, and it actually looks like the water's been mixed with blood. Now, this horrifies the tenant who notifies the building management immediately. And so a maintenance worker and a security guard rush to the unit above where they believe that the water is coming from, and they can hear that there's a shower running inside. They start banging on the door. There's no response. So I mean, it's the maintenance people. So they have a key and they let themselves into the apartment. And the first thing they do is they go to the bathroom. No one is there, but the shower is running. And they turn it off so quickly that they almost don't notice that there's blood on the porcelain sink. But once they do realize that, they see that there's actually a lot of blood in the bathroom. And they figure that they have to go and check the rest of the apartment, even though they start getting this really bad feeling about what they might find. And what they do find is that the whole place is a disaster. Furniture is knocked over. There's not just blood in the bathroom, but there's blood all over the apartment. It's on the walls. It's all over the floor. And finally, when they go into the bedroom, they find that there is a woman's bloody, motionless body lying face up between the bed and the dresser. She's naked. The only thing she has on is bloody socks. And so, the maintenance technician and security guard call 911. And by the time an investigative team arrives, including a forensic scientist from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, someone has tipped off the local news stations. So reporters and broadcasting trucks immediately show up outside. And meanwhile across town, there's a woman named Betty Eakman, who's working as a hospice aide. She's working with this one patient. This day who asks her to turn on the TV. So Betty does, and the news is on. And she sees that they're covering a story about a body being found in a high rise apartment. The TV screen shows a shot of the building, and that causes Betty's blood to run cold. Because that is her 35-year-, Jeannie's building. Now the victim could be anyone inside of the building, but in her heart Betty has this like mother's intuition. She just knows that something happened to her daughter. And that's because she's been afraid of something like this happening for a long time. Now her daughter is Jeannie Childs, who was born on April 21, 1958 in I Santi, Minnesota, a town of just 500 people at the time, really tiny town. And she was born to parents Betty and Eugene who just weren't a very happy couple together. Eugene was really from what we've read hoping for a son. And when he didn't get a son, he just decided he wasn't really going to pay any attention to his daughter. he didn't really give Jeannie any of the attention or love that she deserved and she spent a lot of her early years Kind of fighting for her dad's affection Eventually, I'm not certain how old Jeannie was at the time But Betty and Eugene ended up splitting up and Betty worked really hard to support her family She was working in the health industry and. And Jeannie, throughout this whole time, really kept high spirits. She was a very playful kid. Betty eventually went on to remarry, and that's when Jeannie got a little sister named Cindy. And Jeannie fell in love with Cindy instantly. She took on this really protective role in her life, just kind of very naturally fell into the big sister role. And it seems like after this, the two of them go on to have a relatively happy childhood, at least for a little while, because at some point things take a dark turn. Although she didn't report it to her parents at the time, Jeannie would later say that she was abused by a male family member. And possibly because of that abuse. Jeannie had trouble in school, and she ultimately dropped out in just the sixth grade. A year or two later in 1971, when Jeannie was just 13 years old, but his second husband, Cindy's dad, was shot and killed and nearby Minneapolis. It was hard for us to find more details about this, but we did learn that the shooter was his business partner and also his brother-in-law, but the circumstances other than that are kind of unclear as to what was going on. However, we do know that with Jeannie's mom kind of distracted by grief, Jeannie ran away from home, not just once, but many times in the upcoming years. And whenever Jeannie would run away, But he get her gun and her great-dane, and she'd go track her daughter down. While they lived in a pretty peaceful small town, Jeannie often ran away to the big city. She was running away to Minneapolis. And it seems like at least from what her mom described, she'd always kinda end up in the sketchy parts of town. She was often found hanging out with a really rough crowd, kids that were older, boys. For a few years, Betty managed to keep dragging Jeannie back home. They just repeated the cycle all the time. She'd go out, she'd find Jeannie, she'd bring her back, but nothing ever ended up being permanent. And Betty didn't realize it at the time, but in hindsight, when she reflects on it later in her life, she actually believes that Genie was probably suffering from substance abuse disorders, even when she was a teenager. And Betty thinks that maybe Genie just couldn't stand being home because she would actually start going through withdrawal symptoms. And so she kind of needed to go out to get more drugs. And eventually when She needs turns 18, Betty can't force her to return home anymore. Though it does seem like after she moved out for good, they stayed in close contact. Jeannie was still close with her family despite not living with them. She sent her mom a photo of herself once, writing a Harley Davidson motorcycle. She's wearing red lipstick, she has this heavy eyeshadow on, she has a bandana tied over her blonde hair. Now, her family realizes that despite her difficulties, she seems to still be having a lot of fun. She even had this biker boyfriend at the time. And Genie's also pretty self-aware. She's going through this phase to recognize that she's not going down the right path in her life. And we know this because she would write these letters to her little sister that are sad and hindsight to read, or she would encourage Cindy to listen to their mom and not rebel too much because she didn't want Cindy making the same mistakes that she did. She still continued to have that protective, like, older sister instinct. And we know that no matter what kind of trouble Jeannie would get into her family did have this unconditional love for her. And in many ways they admired her. Like Betty, we saw described her daughter as quote, a wonderful person with a big heart. And she repeatedly reminded her that she was welcome home whenever she wanted to come back. No questions asked her family talking about her. I mean, she didn't judge people. They loved her. They loved her so much. And they are hearing their stories about her. She seemed like such a kind, a pathetic person and really good friend. But her mom also talks about how much she did struggle with substance abuse. And eventually it seems like she was staying in Minneapolis and through a series of events, she starts paying her bills with sex work. She would see customers sometimes at her own apartment, but other times she would work at this thing that was known as a health club that functioned more like a brothel at the time. And as you might imagine, Jeannie's occupation also led to her having some trouble with law enforcement. She was really repeatedly being arrested for being a sex worker. But she had this straightforward, no nonsense attitude that kind of helped her charm the police a little bit. There's actually this story that I found of one officer who arrested Jeanne. He ended up calling her mother and complementing her mom on her parenting style because Jeannie was quote Raised right. So even as she was being arrested by this officer There was something about her that was so magnetic and charming and they just they knew that her soul was good She was just making these mistakes in a tough spot in a tough spot at one point even being in this tough spot, Jeannie gets married. And Betty, when she hears about this,

she really hopes that this is going to motivate her daughter

...