Like the Golden State Killer, Here Are 8 Cases that could Be Solved by DNA and Genealogy
Sometimes secrets hide among the branches of a family tree.
After the arrest of alleged Golden State Killer (GSK) Joseph James DeAngelo, police revealed the novel method they’d used to find him: forensic genealogy. As defined in a 2016 interview by practitioner Colleen Fitzpatrick, forensic genealogy is simply “the study of identity and kinship in legal contexts.”
So, DeAngelo’s arrest came in part from a relatively new and unexpected direction for a pursuit some once considered an absorbing hobby. Using the Golden State Killer’s DNA profile, police searched for a hit on GEDmatch, a kind of self-service site that allows people to find family connections
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A long-ago ancestor who’d lived in the early 1800s. Using forensic genealogy, investigators made meticulous family trees, tracing family relations, ever-expanding branches of mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, cousins and so on. In the end, they found DeAngelo, who fit their profile of GSK in too many ways to count.
After learning how the serial killer was fingered, anyone fascinated with cold cases immediately jumped to the next logical step: Who else is lurking in the shadows of the virtual forest of family trees?
At least one legendary unsolved serial case may already be on its way to answer. There are many others with available DNA evidence that’s never matched any existing DNA profiles in law enforcement databases. Leaving aside the huge questions about privacy regarding this kind of investigation for a moment, read about a sampling cold cases—some famous, others obscure—ripe for genealogical investigation below.
The Zodiac
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In November 1987, Jay Cook, age 20, and his 18-year-old girlfriend Tanya Van Cuylenborg traveled from Victoria, Canada into Washington State. The pair were kidnapped and murdered. Tanya was raped, and her body left in Skagit County, Washington. Jay was found dead later. He’d been strangled and beaten to death. Ominously, one official told Unsolved Mysteries that “the way Jay died was indicative of things that we’ve seen before inside the prison walls.” DNA collected, in this case, has been used by Parabon NanoLabs to create a physical profile. It seems like genealogical investigation might be the next logical
The Jonbenet Ramsey case has remained unsolved for twenty years now, and I realize, it might not ever be solved, but I do have a theory. My theory involves three different things, the build up, the murder and the cover-up. In the end, I do not think that there was an intruder that broke in the house, the evidence just doesn’t add up to that. I feel as if somebody in the family killed her, and the Ramseys covered it up. If you go even deeper, John Ramsey could have compensated John Mark Karr to take the blame, and to get some of all of the post-murder weight off of his chest. In order to find who killed J.B.R., we have to look into the Ramseys’ lives first. We know that the Ramseys had money, a lot of it. And the odd amount of money in the ransom note just doesn’t make any
The book Murder in the Bayou: Who Killed the Women Known as the Jeff Davis 8?, written by independent journalist and private investigator Ethan Brown, tells the horrific true story of the bayou town of Jennings, Louisiana located in the heart of the Jefferson Davis parish. During the four year duration between 2005 and 2009, the town of Jennings was on edge after the discovery of the bodies of eight murdered women were found in the filthy canals and swamps. The victims became known as the “Jeff Davis 8.” For years, local law enforcement suspected a serial killer, and solely investigated the murders based on that theory alone. The victims were murdered in varying manors, but when alive they all shared many commonalities and were connected to
As we learned this week, DNA databases are used by various governmental agencies for several different purposes. We all have seen new magazine shows such as, 20/20 or Dateline, that show the collection of DNA samples from suspects in a case that is compared to those collected at the scene of the crime. But what happens when the sample is an incomplete match, compromised, or contaminated? The answer is the wrongful conviction of innocent citizens. The case that I have decided to highlight, is the wrongful conviction of Herman Atkins. In 1986, Atkins was convicted of two counts of forcible rape, two counts of oral copulation, and robbery in the state of California. It was alleged that Herman entered a shoe store, and raped, beat, and robbed a
found behind the guest house was proven by DNA testing to have O.J.'s blood and
The murder of JonBenet Ramsey has become one of the nation's notorious unsolved murder mysteries. A wide range of crime scene investigators and police officials have searched for clues for JonBenet's killer, but countless authorities have already considered this murder to be one of the most inexplicable cold-cases in America. As the world marks the twenty first year anniversary of the tragic event with still no standing suspects, an abundance of evidence proven through research points to one suspect in particular.
On the night that Jessop’s body was found, the first snowfall of the season was challenging police to find any evidence related to the case at the scene. The police conducted their search ...
Forensics has changed the way our criminal system works now. A lot of cases are being solved because of the development of forensics. Even cold cases are being brought up to the light to be investigated again and a good percentage of the cases are being solved and criminals are being brought to justice. The green river killer is one case that really got me intrigued into forensics and I got mesmerized by the techniques that are being used to catch murderers and other crimes being committed. The green river killer had an interesting childhood that led him to be a serial killer. He committed multiple murders on prostitutes and left there families with agony and pain. But advances in DNA ultimately led to his demise, police officers were able to capture and arrest him and bring justice to a lot of family’s mourning for their sisters, mothers, and daughters. His story is intriguing and is one that I would like to tell.
It was summer hot and humid July but all was not well for homicide was in the air. Jeremy Ringquist had, after a divorce and begin unemployed, had taken up residence with his parents once again. Thirty-eight years of age Jeremy, was charged with the death of his parents and attempting to hide the bodies in a freezer.
Through the creation of the Murder Accountability Project, Thomas Hargrove developed the Hargrove Algorithm which “uses FBI homicide data to identify clusters of murders with an elevated probability of containing serial killings” (“Who We Are,” 2017). Therefore, the algorithm utilizes data mining to target cases with similar methods of killing in a specific geographical area. As serial killers are known to have a specific modus operandi, this data mining tool can efficiently detect hard to see patterns over large periods of time which would take criminal investigators years, if at all, to correlate. “The algorithm’s identification of 15 unsolved strangulations in Gary was corroborated in 2014 with the arrest of Darren Deon Vann, who confessed
People study history because they wish to strengthen human connections. The same can be drawn about the pursuit of genealogy. Whether it be connections to nobility, to a specific ethnic group or a specific event in history, there are diverse motivations to study genealogy According to Francois Weil, “Genealogy provides a powerful lens to understand personal and collective identities.” In essence Weil’s Family Trees: A History of Genealogy in America is a study of American identity over a span of four centuries through a discussion of genealogy and family history.
Office of the Inspector General. (2010). Review of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Laboratory’s Forensic DNA Case Backlog. U.S. Department of Justice.
DNA testing with the help of the Gov. Lastly, Butler was released in January 2000 and
The murder of JonBenet Ramsey was very shocking and caused a huge investigation that is yet unsolved. Family was one of the things that contributed to JonBenet’s murder. JonBenet Ramsey is a very special six-year-old girl with a successful family. She was a little pageant girl with blond curly hair and blue eyes; she was a very well known competitor since she had won many pageants (SV;SV) (Schneider). Her mother, Patsy Ramsey, was a former beauty queen; her father, John Ramsey, was a millionaire businessman (SV; SV) (Bardsley, and Bellamy).
Singer, Julie A. "The Impact Of Dna And Other Technology On The Criminal Justice System: Improvements And Complications."Albany Law Journal Of Science & Technology 17.(2007): 87. LexisNexis Academic: Law Reviews. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.
Through this research I have found that forensics and forensics anthropology work hand in hand. They seem to be closely related in regards (regards is an emotion, you mean regard) to solving criminal cases. A huge interest for me, while conducting this research is the impact the analysis has on cold cases. Cold cases are very important and require an extensive analysis of one’s life whose life? Mine?. Often victims in a cold case do not have strong family bonds, or persons that they are close to. It is imperative within life to have friends and persons, who will say something if you are not seen in a couple of days or weeks. Knowing where a person may be or what a person is involved is important in the case of a missing person. It is a vital part of forensics in relation to forensic anthropology. Within forensics anthropology you can find out more detailed information on the decomposition process. Steadman (2014) The information (what information?) can be used to identify a victim and maybe lead to clues of the perpetrator. New paragraph The study of a victim may also l...