By Jenna Wells
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KENOSHA, Wisconsin (WDJT) — Kenosha police believe they have cracked a cold case.
An arrest was made Monday, March 30, for a murder that happened almost five decades ago.
Police said advanced technology, diligent investigative work, and a nationwide collaboration led to the arrest of a 68-year-old man in Tennessee, now charged with killing a Kenosha man inside his home in 1977.
“Today represents an important step towards justice for the victim, their family, and our community,” said Lt. Adam Jurgens, Kenosha Police Department’s public information officer.
The reopened cold case could bring closure to the family of Ralph Gianoli, 49 years after his death.
“To say that we are overwhelmed is an understatement, and overjoyed with the news that we received yesterday,” said Gianoli’s niece, Carla Smith.
Ralph Gianoli was 48 years old on Sept. 7, 1977, when a friend found him dead in his home on 25th Avenue near 53rd Street in Kenosha.
“Officers on scene reported signs of violent struggle, including blood spatter, broken bottles and overturned furniture,” said Kenosha Police Chief Patrick Patton during a Tuesday press conference about the case.
Gianoli was found with an electrical cord tied around his neck. An autopsy determined his cause of death was asphyxiation by strangulation and blunt force trauma.
Investigators on scene collected hairs, fingernail scrapings, and several other pieces of evidence.
“Great credit to the detectives and investigators at the time, that they did such a great job of preserving evidence,” said Captain James Beller, the head of Kenosha Police Department’s cold case unit.
At the time, investigators exhausted all leads available, and with no arrests, the case went cold.
Gianoli’s family held out hope, and 30 years later, his niece had her first meeting with detectives.
“I’ve been offered nothing but kindness and respect, and really, realism that this may not ever be solved,” Smith explained.
According to the criminal complaint, at the time of his death, Gianoli worked at American Motors, had no known enemies, and frequented local taverns.
In 2023, the Wisconsin State Crime Lab developed a partial-known male DNA profile from Gianoli’s fingernail clippings that were collected during his autopsy. The single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) DNA file was developed in a private lab and uploaded into a family tree DNA database.
Detectives conducted investigative genealogy through public websites, and matched relatives to the suspect DNA, leading them to James Terry Fowler in Memphis, Tennessee.
Detectives found Fowler was previously convicted of killing his father in 1983 in Huntsville, Alabama, but only served five years, as the plea was downgraded from murder to manslaughter.
Court records said Fowler had shot his father, who was in a wheelchair, several times. Witnesses described Fowler as a “quiet loner” who couldn’t hold a job and “wandered the country,” and said he was staying with his father for several months before the murder.
Through court records, Kenosha detectives found Fowler had a child with a woman who lived in Salem, Oregon. They interviewed her in October of 2024, and she described him as “extremely violent and abusive.”
Detectives also interviewed Fowler’s biological son, who said he had never met his father, and allowed investigators to collect his DNA, which matched with Fowler’s.
Investigators also found Fowler had graduated from the Great Lakes Naval Base, 20 miles from Kenosha, just days before Gianoli was killed.
In January of 2025, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation obtained a search warrant for DNA swabs and fingerprints from Fowler. They located him living in a shack behind a home near Memphis, and he agreed to an interview.
The complaint states that during the interview, Fowler recalled his time at Great Lakes and visiting Wisconsin. He told them about being convicted for killing his father, saying it was, “not the best time” in his life, and he stopped drinking and doing drugs after that.
When asked about the night of Gianoli’s murder, Fowler told investigators he was out drinking at a club and wanted to go home with a girl. When detectives showed him a photo of Gianoli and the crime scene, he said he didn’t want to look at the photo or talk about what happened at the house that night.
One month later, the Wisconsin State Crime Lab confirmed that the DNA collected throughout the process was Fowler’s – a probability of one in 296 trillion of random match to unrelated individual.
“The Cold Case works hard, and they use whatever technology is available, and as technology advances, we continue to explore it and use it,” Beller said.
The Kenosha Police Department and Kenosha County district attorney worked with several organizations to establish probable cause, and on Jan. 16, 2026, they issued an arrest warrant for $1.5 million.
KPD detectives arrested Fowler in Memphis on March 30, 2026.
“We are just all so grateful that you didn’t give up, and that justice will be served,” Gianoli’s niece said.
Fowler is currently in custody in Tennessee, awaiting extradition to Kenosha for one count of first-degree murder.
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