Wingstop cup DNA locks 40-year Fontana murder suspect

A 40-year-old Fontana, California homicide has a new defendant: Leonard Nash, charged with felony murder in 2020 and sentenced in January 2026. Investigators say DNA collected from a Wingstop cup—along with items taken during a 2020 interview—matched evidence

When Leonard Nash sat down inside a Thai restaurant in June 2020, it was supposed to be a simple follow-up—one renewed cold-case interview during a moment when technology had finally caught up.

Instead. police say he left behind the kind of physical evidence that only comes from ordinary life: the contents of a Wingstop styrofoam cup. plus what investigators could collect from his table. Forty years after Michelle “Missy” Jones was found dead in a grapefruit grove in Fontana. detectives now had a DNA match they could take to court.

Nash was 72 at the time of his conviction and is serving his sentence at the California Institution for Men in Chino, California, according to court records.

Leonard Nash was charged in September 2020 with felony murder in the killing of Michelle “Missy” Jones, police said. Jones was found dead on July 5. 1980. in a grapefruit grove in Fontana. California. the Fontana Police Department and the San Bernardino County district attorney said in press releases.

In January 2026, Nash was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison after being convicted of second-degree murder, and he is currently serving that sentence at the California Institution for Men in Chino, California.

The investigation that cracked the case began long after the stabbing stopped being a mystery to the people who loved Jones.

In spring 2020, Cpl. Kathryn Clark was assigned to work cold cases with two detectives at the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department. Clark works for the Fontana Police Department. She followed up on an unreported lead from 1980 in June 2020—40 years after Jones was killed—and interviewed Nash after investigators say he left DNA tied to the crime.

Police say the new direction started with a family connection. Clark learned Jones had an older sister, Phyllis, who was dating Nash in 1980. The family held a Fourth of July party in 1980 in Rancho Cucamonga at the home Phyllis and Nash shared. Clark said. The next day, around 4:40 p.m. on July 5. 1980. Jones’s body was found in a field about 11 miles east of where the family’s party was held.

Investigators swabbed the victim’s genitals and made a slide using the DNA after Jones’s body was discovered in 1980. but technology at the time wasn’t advanced enough to process it. Decades later, investigators sent the evidence to a laboratory for processing and established a DNA profile of the killer. The profile was entered into the Federal Bureau of Investigations’ DNA database, but no matches were found.

Clark says that as she looked back at men Jones had been associated with. she ruled them out one by one. One man had been arrested in 1980 but released. Clark said the man told police he picked Jones up after the family’s barbecue. they had sex. and he dropped her off at around 4:30 a.m. on July 5 at her home in Pomona. When the man realized the family suspected him of killing her. he provided a statement to police and passed multiple polygraph tests. Clark said investigators also corroborated his statements.

Clark’s renewed work then shifted to Nash.

The details Clark collected in 2020 relied on information that police say investigators didn’t have in 1980. In June 2020, Clark traveled to Arizona to interview Phyllis, who told her about what she noticed before Jones was found dead.

Phyllis told Clark that on July 4 that year, Nash left after the barbecue ended. Phyllis said she was supposed to go to another event with Jones and Nash but she was too tired. Clark reported that Phyllis said she wasn’t 100% certain where Nash went after he left.

On July 5, 1980, Phyllis made what Clark described as a suspicious discovery in the home she shared with Nash. Clark said Phyllis pulled back the shower curtain of the upstairs bathroom and saw Nash’s suit coat hanging in the shower. On the suit coat was a foxtail. Clark said Phyllis was startled because she didn’t know why the suit coat was hanging in the shower.

Phyllis also reported seeing mud or dirt on Nash’s shoes in the closet, Clark said. She told investigators this was information investigators didn’t have back in 1980, and that no one had spoken to Nash at the time.

When Clark asked why Phyllis didn’t report the coat, foxtail, or dirty shoes to police, Clark said Phyllis replied, “I was 19 years old. I told my stepdad and I figured he told the police.”

Clark also learned that Jones did not like Nash. Clark said Jones had come on to her multiple times and at one point Jones lived with her sister and Nash. Clark quoted Jones describing how she felt about him: Jones told her mom that Nash “makes me feel uncomfortable. He keeps trying to come on to me. I don’t want nothing to do with him. He won’t leave me alone.”.

Clark said Jones’s best friend also recalled the 18-year-old being afraid of Nash. Clark reported the friend remembered sitting down with Missy at a park and that Missy actually looked afraid of Leonard.

To pursue Nash in a way the 1980 evidence couldn’t, Clark said investigators needed something they could test.

When Clark learned about Nash’s alleged interest in Jones. the dirty shoes in the closet and Nash’s coat hanging in the shower. she said she knew investigators needed to get his DNA. Police say they first made contact with Nash on the phone, asking whether he remembered Jones. Clark said Nash replied he knew her but needed to call back.

By the time he called back, Clark said the investigators had just settled down to grab a bite to eat at a Thai restaurant. They invited Nash, who needed a ride, to come meet them.

The plan, Clark said, was to pick up Nash, bring him to the restaurant, and—once the interview was over—collect items like napkins, a plate, a straw, and other items for DNA testing.

In case that didn’t work, investigators also bought a bottle of water and placed it in the center console of the car, hoping Nash would drink from it.

Clark said the interview and collection effort started with the ride and ended with a cup.

“We drove to a gas station where he asked us to pick him up,” Clark said, describing what happened when Nash joined them. “He walked out with a styrofoam cup in his hand, a Wingstop styrofoam cup.”

Clark said once Nash sat in the front seat. he took the bottle of water and poured it into the Wingstop cup. Clark said once they got back to the restaurant, Nash threw the Wingstop cup in the trash. Clark said she then locked eyes with her partner. and she described how her partner went to collect the cup and place it in his vehicle while Nash sat inside.

During questioning about Jones, Clark said Nash told investigators he danced with Jones but never had sex with her.

After the team finished eating and interviewing Nash. Clark said the investigators asked him to go outside and look at some photos. As he left, Clark said an investigator collected Nash’s fork, napkin, and straw. Police say the team was then able to get those items. along with the Wingstop cup. to a lab in California.

Analysts, Clark said, compared the DNA from the Wingstop cup, the fork, and the straw to each other to confirm the profiles belonged to the same person—Nash. Then they compared the DNA from the Wingstop cup to the slide from 1980. Clark said they got a match.

Clark said the DNA collection took place in June 2020, lab work was done by August, and by September she had what she needed to get an arrest warrant for Nash.

Police in Las Vegas arranged for Nash’s arrest and then extradited him to California, Clark said.

The moment a case breaks open often lands in places no courtroom can fully measure.

This spring, six years after Nash’s DNA matched the crime scene evidence, the San Bernardino County district attorney hosted an event for National Crime Victims Rights Week, where Jones’s younger sister, Kymberly Jones, spoke.

Kymberly described her sister’s personality and presence—saying Jones had her own style, was feisty, protective of her family, classy, and always had a smile on her face. Clark’s account placed the sisters within a large family of eight siblings—and Kymberly said July 4, 1980, changed everything.

Kymberly said on that day, her sister left the house saying she’d be right back. She described watching Jones walk out wearing a blue skirt and a blue top and then never coming home.

“I watched her walk out of that door in her blue skirt and her blue top, and she never came home,” Kymberly said on April 20 at the Sunrise Church Rialto Campus. “Missy was gone.”

Jones’s little sister was 11 years old when her big sister was killed. She said the years carried trauma that distorted reality until the evidence could catch up.

“I thought she had gone undercover and she was still out there somewhere,” Kymberly said. “That’s what trauma does. It protects you from the truth until you are ready to understand.”

Kymberly said her family had lived with anger, unanswered questions, and grief for more than 45 years. She said the family moved around a lot after Jones’s death.

Kymberly pointed to a turning point in 2019, when DNA technology allowed investigators to look into Jones’s case. She thanked the advocates and investigators who made the progress possible.

“To every family that’s still waiting, I won’t tell you that this was easy,” Jones’s little sister said on April 20. “But I will tell you this: Don’t stop.”

A 1980 homicide, long sealed behind limits of DNA technology, was reopened after Clark and her partners returned to the details that didn’t fit—shower-curtain discoveries, a closet with mud, and, eventually, a Wingstop cup left behind at a Thai restaurant in 2020.

Now, with Nash sentenced to 15 years to life in prison, the case has moved from a cold file to a sentence—and the family’s wait has finally found an ending, even if the years can’t be undone.

Wingstop cup DNA Leonard Nash Michelle Missy Jones Fontana murder cold case DNA Kathryn Clark San Bernardino County district attorney FBI DNA database DNA match California Institution for Men in Chino