RIVERSIDE – (INT) – One of the Inland Empire’s longest-running murder mysteries has been solved because of improved DNA technology.

Riverside County prosecutors announced Wednesday (November 20th) that Lewis Randolph “Randy” Williamson raped and killed a 17-year-old Beaumont girl in 1979. The bludgeoned body of Esther Gonzalez was found dumped at the side of Highway 243 near Banning. She’d been walking to her sister’s home.

Williamson had initially reported finding a body. He was questioned and passed a polygraph exam.

Years later, a semen sample taken from the crime scene was processed in the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS). It matched blood samples retained from Williamson’s autopsy after he died in Florida in 2014. Only recently did the California Department of Justice confirm that Williamson’s DNA matched the DNA recovered from Esther’s body, according to the Riverside County DA’s office.

Story Date: December 4, 2024