Cold case collapse: Grand jury declines to indict suspect in killing UTA class worked
A grand jury in Tarrant County late Friday afternoon declined to indict Janie Perkins, whom Arlington police arrested last year on capital murder in a 34-year-old cold case homicide.
The no-bill in the 1991 killing of Cynthia Gonzalez came in a case on which students in a University of Texas at Arlington criminology course worked with police.
“This is the difficult reality of many cold cases,” Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office prosecutor Kim D’Avignon wrote in a statement. “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.”
On Sept. 17, 1991, Gonzalez’s former husband reported that she was missing. Gonzalez, who was 25, worked as an adult entertainer and was last seen the previous evening as she left her Arlington home to meet with a client, police said. A few hours after Gonzalez was reported missing, her vehicle was found abandoned in a neighborhood in the 900 block of Cedar Springs Terrace.
Five days later, Gonzalez’s body was found dumped on private property in a rural area of Johnson County. She had been shot multiple times and was decomposing.
Homicide detectives pursued leads but made no arrest.
Students in a UT Arlington Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice course review cold Arlington homicide cases and try to develop new leads. The students were asked to provide detectives with feedback on potential paths forward in the Gonzalez case.
On Nov. 6, 2025, Perkins, who is 63 and lives in Azle, was arrested in connection with the case.
Perkins was in the course of committing the offense of kidnapping when she shot Gonzalez to death, law enforcement authorities alleged.
Perkins and Gonzalez shared a love interest who broke up with Perkins to be with Gonzalez, authorities said. When detectives interviewed Perkins, she denied killing Gonzalez. She failed two polygraph tests and made statements about being glad that Gonzalez was dead and thinking about killing her, police said. Polygraph results are not admissible in court. Perkins was not arrested at the time.
Evidence reviewed by the students included statements Perkins made to people who said she admitted being involved. Those statements included detail that only someone involved in the killing would know, authorities said.
Defense attorneys Miles Brissette and Steve Gebhardt were appointed to represent Perkins.
“The Perkins family is grateful to the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office and to the members of the grand jury for taking the time to conduct a thorough, evidence-based review,” Brissette wrote in a statement. “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.”
The district attorney’s office said it remains hopeful that new information will emerge that would merit another presentation to a grand jury.
“We will not give up hope that someone knows something that could help us to successfully prosecute this case in the future,” D’Avignon wrote.
An Arlington police spokesperson wrote in a statement that the department respects the grand jury’s decision.
“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 as part of our cold case partnership with the university.”
A UT Arlington spokesperson wrote in a statement that ”the decision to pursue an arrest and submit the case to the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office was made solely by the Arlington Police Department based on its independent review of the evidence.
“The course has sparked nationwide interest in similar partnerships between universities and law enforcement agencies. We are proud of our faculty’s innovative approach and our students’ dedication in examining complex cases, and we remain committed to providing meaningful, real-world learning opportunities.”
This story was originally published March 21, 2026 at 10:27 AM.
