RICHMOND — After 23 years, the one who murdered a Richmond lady inside her house has been recognized as a person who died inside two weeks of the killing, police introduced Thursday.
Meekiah Wadley, 28, was strangled to loss of life inside her house on Carlson Boulevard, abandoning an 18-month-old daughter whose father died earlier than she was born. Wadley had simply returned from the films with a pal on the evening of Jan. 9, 1999. Neighbors heard her arguing with somebody earlier than she was killed.
Now, police say they know who did it: a 35-year-old homeless man and Contra Costa Neighborhood Faculty scholar named Jerry Lee Henderson. The Shreveport, La., native died of a suspected drug overdose simply 11 days later. Henderson was recognized via DNA proof discovered beneath Wadley’s fingernails, police say.
Henderson was recognized after police linked his DNA to a relative, in a course of referred to as genetic family tree. That method was made well-known by the Golden State Killer investigation.
Meekiah Wadley’s sister, Quila Wadley, informed this information group that she by no means suspected Henderson, an acquaintance of Meekiah who she met via a pal. She mentioned police targeted on the person Meekiah went to the films with that evening.
“This provides all people hope that justice can prevail,” Quila Wadley mentioned.
In an interview with this newspaper, Quila Wadley shared her concept behind her sister’s homicide: that Henderson was dwelling on mates’ couches and that one other particular person had requested him to go away. He believed Meekiah was staying at one other pal’s home that evening and snuck into her house intent on spending the evening, shocking him when she confirmed up.
“I believe he thought he was going to sleep in her home, and when she got here house, and will need to have discovered him in her home,” Quila mentioned. “She was in all probability like, ‘Get out of my home, I’m gonna name the police,’ they usually began preventing.”
In 1999, this information group reported that Meekiah Wadley moved into the house the place she was killed about three years earlier than her loss of life, along with her daughter, Chantel Jones. In 1997, Jones’ father was gunned down in an ambush exterior Richmond’s Roadrunner Membership on Ohio Avenue. Relations mentioned Wadley was nonetheless grieving years later.
On the time of her loss of life, she labored at Goal in El Cerrito, the place co-workers described her as a critical, organized employee with a “nice persona.” She made a decision on New 12 months’s Day 1999 to go to varsity, which is the place she met Henderson, kin say.
Her homicide went unsolved regardless of a DNA check in 2002 of swabs from Wadley’s palms, which yielded a DNA profile however no matches within the state’s offender database. In 2020, police requested “further testing” of her fingernails and used DNA from them to determine a relative of her killer, which led investigators to Henderson.
Performing Richmond police Chief Louie Tirona and Lawyer Basic Rob Bonta introduced the findings at a information convention Thursday.
“I hope right this moment brings a measure of peace and closure,” Bonta mentioned.