(NewsNation) — Students in a criminology class at a Texas university have helped local police solve a 34-year-old cold case.
Police arrested Jamie Perkins, 63, on Nov. 6 in connection with the 1991 murder of 25-year-old Cynthia Gonzalez, according to an Arlington Police Department statement. Perkins was later charged with one count of capital murder.
Even though police had multiple leads, no one was ever arrested for Gonzalez’s murder — until students in the University of Texas at Arlington’s Criminology and Criminal Justice Department class stepped in to help.
Police said on Sept. 17, 1991, Gonzalez, who worked as an “adult entertainer,” was last seen leaving her home in Arlington that night to go meet a client. Her ex-husband reported her missing, and a few hours later, her car was found abandoned in a neighborhood, which led investigators at the time to believe she’d been kidnapped.
Five days later, on Sept. 22, Gonzalez’s body was found in a rural part of Johnson County in Texas. Police said she had been shot multiple times and her body was decomposing when she was found.
The class partnered with the department at the beginning of the fall semester. Students in the class were given cold case files, which included witness statements, evidence, crime scene photos, and police and detective reports, in hopes of solving the crimes.
After reviewing nearly 500 files from the murder, students started to look at Perkins and discovered that she and Gonzalez were friends. In the files, detectives discovered that the two also shared a romantic partner. Just weeks before Gonzalez was killed, the man, whose identity was not revealed, broke up with Perkins to be with Gonzalez.
Perkins had no alibi for the night Gonzalez went missing, police said, and she failed two voluntary polygraph tests when asked if she knew who was responsible for the woman’s disappearance and death. Students also discovered that Perkins allegedly told detectives she was glad Gonzalez was dead and had thought about killing her or having someone else do it.
Despite that, Perkins was never charged.
Detectives also went back after the students’ urging and reviewed witness statements, in which they discovered that Perkins admitted to being involved in Gonzalez’s death and even mentioned specific details to those witnesses.
“I was extremely shocked when the detectives told us an arrest had been made; it made me so happy to hear,” UTA senior Jenna Lewis said in a statement. “When we first started working on this case and learning about the victim, a fire was lit in me. We just wanted to solve this case so badly for the victim and her family.”
Jessica Roberts, Gonzalez’s daughter, was just six years old when her mother was killed. She told CBS News she was shocked when police said an arrest was made.
“I thought the day would never come. I’d almost given up,” Roberts said.