A new partnership between Arlington Police and UTA criminal justice students has produced results in a 34-year-old cold case.<\/p>\n
ARLINGTON, Texas \u2014 Jessica Roberts has waited for this day since she was 6-years-old, when her mother disappeared without explanation.<\/p>\n
She remembers the confusion from that day when everything changed.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe went to work,” Roberts said. “And then it’s a little fuzzy after that, on when we got the phone call about her missing.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Sept. 17, 1991, her father reported 25-year-old Cynthia Gonzales missing. Gonzales worked as an adult entertainer and was last seen after leaving home to meet a client.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Five days later, her body was found in Johnson County. She had been shot multiple times according to police.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe really was, really kind,” Roberts said about her mother. “Wonderful person and just so full of life and funny and fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
For decades her murder remained a cold case until Arlington Police turned the evidence over to criminal justice students at the University of Texas at Arlington as part of a new UTA partnership program.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After weeks of sifting through materials that investigators have not detailed publicly, a break in the case led to a suspect, 63-year-old Jane Perkins, being charged with one count of capital murder.<\/p>\n
According to police, Perkins and Gonzales shared a romantic partner, a connection investigators say became significant during the review. Several weeks before the murder, that partner told Perkins he was calling things off with her to be with Gonzales.<\/p>\n
In the Police and UTA program, select students earn the opportunity to review real APD cold cases to possibly help detectives develop new leads and provide feedback on how to move forward with the case. Although students do not get access to physical evidence, case details are shared with them to investigate. The Gonzales case is one of three reviewed by students.<\/p>\n
When asked how it felt to learn that their work contributed to the case, student Preston Schroeder said \u201cit was extremely gratifying.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMost of these students were even alive when this case was being worked,” Arlington Police Detective Anthony Stafford said. “And it’s really cool to see dedication to someone who they don’t even know.\u201d<\/p>\n
After 34 years of waiting and wondering, Roberts believes the partnership between police and UTA students can help other families searching for answers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think this is a phenomenal program,” Roberts said.<\/p>\n
Roberts said she is hopeful it will bring justice to other cold cases still waiting for closure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new partnership between Arlington Police and UTA criminal justice students has produced results in a 34-year-old cold…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57057,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[150,152,151],"class_list":{"0":"post-61541","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arlington","8":"tag-arlington","9":"tag-arlington-headlines","10":"tag-arlington-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}