Credit: Riverside County DA
Nearly 28 years ago, Cheri Huss was found stabbed to death inside her Desert Hot Springs apartment. Her case went cold until last month.
The Riverside County Regional Cold Case Team, which is led by the DA’s Bureau of Investigation, has arrested a man who the DA’s Office has now charged with Huss's April 1994 murder.
Sharron Eugene Gadlin was arrested last week, when investigators pulled over his car. He was booked at the Robert Presley Detention Center in lieu of $1 million bail.
“I hope Cheri and her family will finally get the justice they deserve and have waited so long for,” District Attorney Mike Hestrin said. “Our cold case team of investigators will continue to use cutting edge technology to solve old murder cases across Riverside County. Our prosecutors will continue to vigorously prosecute these murderers until we get justice for their victims.”
Huss was found murdered in her apartment on April 24, 1994. She had been stabbed multiple times and was bitten by her killer. Homicide investigators also found that she had fought off her attacker, which caused the person to leave blood, determined by testing to be from a male, at the crime scene. Forensic testing confirmed that the blood from the male matched the DNA of saliva left behind in the bite marks on the victim.
After years of investigation and regular attempts to match the suspect’s DNA profile to a profile in CODIS without success, Huss's case went cold. Then, in February 2022, using forensic genetic genealogy, the Regional Cold Case Team was able to identify Gadlin as a person of interest in the crime and discovered he lived in Thousand Palms in 1994, about 12 miles from the murder scene.
Cold case investigators sought and were granted a warrant to obtain a saliva sample from Gadlin, which was done on Feb. 14, 2022. Four days later, on Feb. 18, investigators received confirmation from the state Department of Justice lab that there was a DNA match of the saliva to the DNA profile of the person suspected of murdering Huss.
Regional Cold Case Homicide Team investigators ask that anyone who may have information about this case call (951) 955-2777 or leave a tip on the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department website homicide tip form.
Republished courtesy of Riverside County DA.