Perkins was identified as a suspect by students in the UTA Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice. Police partnered with the university at the start of the fall semester, selecting 15 students for a special class on cold case investigations.<\/p>\n
Those students were assigned to one of three groups, each looking into a different Arlington cold case. They were given access to everything in the investigation except physical evidence.<\/p>\n
Natalia Montoya, one of the students in the group, said it took months of digging through police writeups, lab reports and witness statements to identify Perkins. When the pieces started lining up, she became a clear suspect.<\/p>\n
Perkins was one of Gonzalez\u2019s friends, according to police. Witnesses said they would regularly spend time together, but that the two women shared a romantic partner who, several weeks before the murder, told Perkins he was ending his relationship with her to be with Gonzalez.<\/p>\n
Homicide detectives in the original case suspected Perkins, who couldn\u2019t provide an alibi for the night Gonzalez went missing. The case files showed she failed two voluntary polygraph tests when asked if she killed Gonzalez and even told investigators she was glad she was dead.<\/p>\n
Polygraphs aren\u2019t admissible in court, though, and Perkins maintained that she wasn\u2019t involved in the killing, police said. She wasn\u2019t charged until the students at UTA grew suspicious of her.<\/p>\n
All the groups in the class were assigned cases along with current Arlington homicide detectives. Montoya said her group wrote up some questions about Perkins to send to the detectives. When they heard back from detectives, it wasn\u2019t with answers to those questions.<\/p>\n
It was the news that Perkins had been arrested based on their work.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis morning, I got the arrest warrant written and issued and our U.S. Marshals Task Force is currently outside of Janie\u2019s house in Azle, Texas, waiting to take her into custody,\u201d the detective told the students.<\/p>\n
The news was met with applause from the class and tears from the group working the case.<\/p>\n
It was emotional, too, for Gonzalez\u2019s daughter. Jessica Roberts was six when she last saw her mother.<\/p>\n
She told reporters after a news conference Monday that she\u2019d heard of Perkins but didn\u2019t know her. The news that police made an arrest left her feeling \u201coverwhelmed, shock, excitement, just a mixture of everything,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe grief never subsided,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cIt came in waves year after year and not even just for me but for other family members as well and friends of my mom.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gonzalez knew police hadn\u2019t given up on investigating the case \u2014 in 2024 it was assigned to a current homicide detective for review. But Arlington doesn\u2019t have detectives dedicated to cold cases. Homicide detectives pick up cold cases to investigate between current cases.<\/p>\n
Roberts didn\u2019t find out UT Arlington students were reviewing cold cases for police until a couple of weeks ago, she said. Even then, she didn\u2019t know her mother\u2019s case was among those until police contacted her to share the news that they\u2019d made an arrest.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was shocked to get the phone call that not only was my mom\u2019s case already presented to this program, that it had been solved,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cI was just beside myself, and I only found that out last Thursday. It has been a process, and I am still processing this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roberts said she\u2019s thankful to the students who aided investigators.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am so proud of these students at UTA and I am so thankful for what they have done and the time that they\u2019ve spent and the effort they\u2019ve put into this case,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cThis has been a working case for 34 years and so many people have been involved in this case, not just these students but friends and family members.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is the first semester students at UT Arlington have partnered with police to investigate three cold cases and the first of those cases in which the students\u2019 work has helped to lead to an arrest.<\/p>\n
\n\tRelated\n<\/p>\n
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