A Placer County judge on April 30, 2026 handed 65-year-old Joseph Foster a sentence of more than 75 years to life for the 1992 murder of 85-year-old Alwin Schoefer in the Weimar area, finally closing a 34-year cold case that investigators say was solved after modern DNA testing identified Foster as the killer.
DNA Evidence Reopened The 1992 Case
Detectives say DNA developed from evidence collected back in 1992 linked Foster to the killing and set off a fresh push to prosecute him for murder. According to the Placer County Sheriff's Office, a bag recovered along a Nevada County road held Schoefer’s wallet, identification, coin purse and clothing. Not long after, Schoefer was found dead inside his Weimar home, which had been set on fire.
The sheriff’s post states that the 85-year-old had been beaten, stabbed and shot, and that padlocks had been secured on the exterior doors of the house, trapping him inside.
Foster's Prior Arrests And Convictions
Foster was hardly a free man when investigators circled back to the Schoefer file. Reporting from CBS Sacramento notes that he had been arrested in connection with a 1991 double-homicide in Weimar during a 2015 cold-case probe and was already serving a 50-years-to-life sentence for a 2006 kidnapping and rape conviction.
How Investigators And Prosecutors Built The Case
The Placer County cold-case unit, made up of detectives from the sheriff’s office working with an investigator from the district attorney’s office, pulled the decades-old files and pinpointed evidence that could be tested with current DNA technology. That testing produced a match in 2025.
After the DNA hit, a murder warrant was issued and Foster was transferred into Placer County custody on March 18, 2025. He pleaded guilty to first-degree murder on March 30, 2026 and was sentenced a month later, on April 30, 2026. According to the Placer County Sheriff's Office, the Placer County District Attorney’s Office prosecuted the case and secured Foster’s conviction. Sheriff Wayne Woo publicly praised the cold-case detectives and prosecutors for sticking with the investigation until it was resolved.
Local Impact And The Role Of DNA
Officials say the case highlights how carefully preserved evidence and advances in forensic testing can breathe life into murders long thought unsolvable. With this new sentence stacked on top of the terms he already serves, Foster is expected to spend the rest of his life behind bars.
