Utah truck driver arrested in California cold case from 1994
Jan 31, 2023, 1:09 PM
Terrie Ladwig, 28, who was found in her Concord, California apartment dead on Dec. 2, 1994. (Concord Police Department)
(Concord Police Department)
SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah truck driver has been arrested in connection with a 28-year cold case homicide in California.
James William Grimsley, 55, was arrested Thursday by Unified police and members of the Salt Lake City Safe Streets Task Force, the Concord Police Department in California announced Monday.
Grimsley was arrested for investigation of murder in the death of Terrie Ladwig, 28, in her apartment in Concord, northeast of San Francisco, on Dec. 2, 1994. Ladwig, a transgender woman, was beaten and strangled, according to local media reports.
“Concord PD has kept this ‘cold case’ open and under investigation since that time. Recent developments led to the identification of Grimsley, a truck driver who was living in Utah at the time of his arrest,” Concord police announced.
A fugitive from justice arrest warrant filed in 3rd District Court states that Unified police were contacted by the Concord Police Department and located Grimsley on Thursday. He was being held in the Salt Lake County Jail on $1 million bail pending an extradition hearing to return him to California. Grimley’s first court appearance in Salt Lake City was scheduled for Wednesday.
A motive for the killing has not been given. It was not immediately known how long Grimsley, who would have been 25 at the time of the killing, has been living in Utah. Court records show Grimsley as having a West Valley City address in 2018, and he may have been living in Kearns in 2008. His criminal history in Utah includes one minor traffic violation.
