Madison County uses DNA technology to crack 33-year-old cold case

A 70-year-old man has been charged with the 1993 murder of a Madison County woman

Randi Gail Sperino was last seen alive getting into a vehicle in Granite City in 1993. After that, she was found bludgeoned to death by an undisclosed weapon. No arrests were made, but plenty of DNA was left at the scene. It remained something of a cold case, but investigators told St. Louis media that it was “continuously looked at.”

During one of those looks, that aforementioned DNA evidence was sent to genealogy detectives in national labs, without a match. In May 2025, it was finally sent to a Texas-based lab, which had assisted in other Illinois cold cases.

That result placed sole responsibility for Sperino’s murder in the hands of Albert Lee Zigler, 70, who was charged on Tuesday with two counts of First Degree Murder, each a Class M Felony. He has been formally accused of bludgeoning Sperino in the head with the intent to kill her.

Her son, Wes, was at a press conference Tuesday morning at the Madison County Administration Building. He said he never thought his mother’s murderer would be found, saying that he finally has closure and can progress through life.

Zigler did not have a connection to Sperino at the time of her murder. Everyone is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, and even then, it depends on the trust you place in the courts.