Woman accused of capital murder in 1991 Texas cold case cleared after grand jury declined to indict

On Friday, a grand jury in Tarrant County, Texas, declined to indict a woman accused of committing capital murder in a cold case from 1991.

Janie Perkins, 63, was arrested in November after the Arlington Police Department accused her of killing her friend Cynthia Gonzalez in 1991. The police department made the arrest after an investigation done in partnership with criminology students at the University of Texas at Arlington.

The grand jury reviewed the evidence and issued a “no bill” decision, meaning that it declined to indict and the case will not proceed due to a lack of sufficient probable cause.

The counsel for Ms. Perkins, D. Miles Brissette, said in a release that her family is grateful to the local district attorney and the grand jury “for taking the time to conduct a thorough, evidence-based review. Their evaluation was grounded in the facts—not in the narrative advanced publicly by the Arlington Police Department and UTA. We appreciate their commitment to fairness and to the integrity of the judicial process.”

Mr. Brissette added that Ms. Perkins and her loved ones “now look forward to moving beyond the intense public scrutiny generated by the premature and highly publicized accusations.”

Gonzalez, an adult entertainer who was 25 at the time, disappeared on Sept. 17, 1991, after going out to meet a client and failing to return home. Her car was found abandoned, and her body was found on a rural property on Sept. 22, 1991.

Ms. Perkins has maintained her innocence since the initial investigation into the death of Gonzalez.

Kim D’Avignon, a trial specialist in the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office, told KTVT-TV that “over time, witnesses can pass away or become unable to testify. Also, cold cases don’t have some of the modern technological resources like cell phone data and cameras. Sometimes these factors can leave us without the admissible evidence needed to prove a case beyond a reasonable doubt.”

An Arlington Police Department spokesperson told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that “we stand behind the investigative efforts of the detectives who worked on this case over the past three decades, and the efforts of the UT Arlington students who assisted.”