After nearly 50 years, genetic genealogy has helped identify the suspect in a cold case homicide that plagued the city of Kenosha, Wisconsin for decades. In addition to advanced DNA testing, the preservation of physical evidence from the 1977 crime scene and detailed detective work played a key role in finally solving the cold case.
On Sept. 7, 1977, a friend found 48-year-old Ralph Gianoli brutally murdered in his home in Kenosha. He had been badly beaten and strangled with an electrical cord. An autopsy later determined that he died from blunt force trauma to the head and abdomen.
The Kenosha Police Department immediately responded and began collecting evidence and investigating. Police at the time found signs of a violent struggle inside the home. Blood in the bedroom, living room and outside the front door, overturned furniture and broken beer bottles strewn about.
Investigators collected a sizable amount of physical evidence at the crime scene, including hair, fingernail scrapings, a wristwatch and the ligature cord. In addition, numerous items with blood and latent prints were seized.
However, no suspect or probable case was ever developed and the case ultimately went cold—until 2022 when police explored the idea of using genetic genealogy to analyze suspect DNA from Gianoli’s fingernail scrapings.
The Kenosha Police Department, Wisconsin DOJ and FBI worked together to submit the DNA from the fingernail clippings to Othram, who delivered a partial DNA profile back to the investigators in 2023. From there, a genetic genealogy search led to a new suspect—James Fowler.
Fowler would have been 19 years old in 1977. Kenosha Police obtained his military record that showed he was at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center in Illinois the week prior to the murder. Stationed about 20 miles from Kenosha, Fowler would have been on leave from the training center on Sept. 7, 1977—the day Gianoli was murdered.
Investigators also discovered that Fowler had a prior record. He was convicted of killing his father in Alabama in 1983. Fowler was incarcerated for 5 years, until 1988, after having his murder sentence reduced to manslaughter.
In January 2025, a search warrant for Fowler’s DNA and palm- and finger-prints was issued. The Wisconsin State Crime Lab has now confirmed the DNA from the swab is consistent with the DNA found under Gianoli’s fingernails.
The now-68-year-old Fowler was arrested in Tennessee on a charge of first-degree murder on March 30, 2026. He will be returned to Wisconsin to face trial.
“No victim is forgotten, and no case is ever truly closed until justice is served,” said Kenosa Police Chief Patrick Patton. “Whether the crime occurred yesterday or decades ago, our commitment to seeking the truth does not fade with time.”