DNA Solves Cold Cases/Parabon Nanolabs & GED/Match.

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Sept 18 2020
1984 Wisconsin cold case: Nancy Grace true-crime series on murder
''"Bloodline Detectives," a new syndicated series debuting the weekend of Oct. 2, shows how DNA profiling technologies, genetic genealogy and familial searching are used to solve cold cases.''

''In Milwaukee, "Bloodline Detectives" will air late Sunday nights — technically, at 1 a.m. Mondays — starting Oct. 5 on WVTV-2 (Channel 24), branded as My24. The Hammerberg episode airs at 1 a.m. Oct. 12.

Other Wisconsin stations carrying "Bloodline Detectives" include WAOW/WYOW-TV in Wausau and WXOW/WQOW-TV in La Crosse. Check local listings for times. ''
 
Phenomenal detailed article on how Valerie Mack came to be identified using commercial DNA databases even though New York does not allow such searches. The new head of the Suffolk County Police Department, Geraldine Hart, is my hero! Also fascinating article for anyone interested in LISK and Suffolk County corruption.

The Gilgo Beach Murders Were a Cold Case. Then a New Police Chief Arrived.

But Ms. Hart soon learned that New York State has some of the nation’s most restrictive policies regulating the use of DNA. While many other police departments are free to approach commercial labs like 23andMe for information — and Los Angeles certainly did for the Golden State Killer case — those in New York cannot. Privacy advocates say that’s for good reason: Patrons of genetic genealogy labs, they argue, have not consented to having their genetic material used by the police for any purpose.

Ms. Hart needed a workaround. That’s where her old colleagues at the F.B.I. came in. Since it was declared an official partner in the Long Island investigation, the F.B.I. was able to reach out to private businesses with DNA databases where the Suffolk police could not. As that process crawled along, Ms. Hart decided to engage the public’s grim fascination with the case.
 
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Efforts by the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office and the Layton Utah Police Department have led to the closure of two cold case sexual battery cases, perpetrated by the same man. He died in South Carolina in 2015.

The Okaloosa victim was 26 when robbed and attacked on Okaloosa Island in September 1986. She now lives in New York and says she is grateful the identity of her attacker is finally known. The case in Utah occurred in 1996.

[...]

The investigation ultimately led to Mort Snyder, Jr. who briefly lived in Freeport with his father following his 1984 retirement from the military. Snyder also lived in Utah during the timeframe the sexual battery in question was committed.

Genetic genealogy testing helps solve sexual battery cold case
 
Legally Bland said:
The daylight rape was as shocking as it was brazen. A 19-year-old woman, walking alone in the pastoral Norristown Farm Park, had a gun pressed to her head in the waning days of summer 2017 and was pulled into a secluded wooded area.

And for two years, Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin R. Steele had obsessed over the case. He and his staff, Steele said Monday, began to “think outside the box.” They posted a $10,000 reward. They consulted with prosecutors in California who caught the “Golden State Killer.” And they submitted their only clue, the attacker’s DNA, to strenuous testing at a lab.

[...]

The key break in the case came from a genetic profile created for investigators by Parabon NanoLabs, a scientific laboratory in Virginia, using DNA left behind after the assault.

With that profile, investigators began to essentially work backward, looking for the then-unidentified suspect’s family members in publicly available databases. They found some local matches, and after interviewing them, developed two suspects, according to Steele.

One of them was Hall, who detectives later discovered had been arrested in Norristown a month after the rape was reported, according to the affidavit of probable cause for his arrest. In that case, the teen was arrested for allegedly vandalizing a car with a hammer.


The instrument, stained with Hall’s blood after he cut his hand on the auto glass, was still in evidence, the affidavit said. With help from Philadelphia police, county detectives in September compared the blood with the DNA from the park.

It was a match. Hall was taken into custody at his home late last week after trying to flee from police, Steele said.

DNA links Montgomery County teen to violent 2017 rape in Norristown Farm Park
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This guy got sentenced a week ago.

An Arlington man was sentenced to 65 years in prison Friday for the rape of two northern Virginia lifeguards, one in 2016 and one in 2014.

[...]

Bjerke pleaded guilty in Alexandria October 2019 to rape, sexual penetration, abduction with the intent to defile and three counts of use of a firearm in the commission of a felony. In March of this year, he was indicted in Fairfax County on similar charges. Fairfax County transferred venue to Alexandria City Circuit Court for a joint plea agreement and sentencing, which happened Friday.

He was sentenced to 35 years for the Alexandria City sexual assault and 30 years for the Fairfax County sexual assault.

Tracked down through DNA site, former Virginia nurse gets 65 years for 2 lifeguard rapes
 
Thank you @Legally Bland for those two new cases! I'm so excited that one of them is for 2014 and 2016 crimes! Maybe now that genetic genealogy has become a proven technology, it will be used on more recent crimes. Offenders won't be free for decades and more importantly they will be behind bars sooner so far fewer victims.

Legally Bland said:
SBM
An Arlington man was sentenced to 65 years in prison Friday for the rape of two northern Virginia lifeguards, one in 2016 and one in 2014.
Click to expand...

I'm with you @JudgeJoe - this is my favorite thread. I want to cue Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust" every time a new case is posted.

ETA - Sentenced to 65 years. Justice!
 
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momsof3 said:
Thank you @Legally Bland for those two new cases! I'm so excited that one of them is for 2014 and 2016 crimes! Maybe now that genetic genealogy has become a proven technology, it will be used on more recent crimes. Offenders won't be free for decades and more importantly they will be behind bars sooner so far fewer victims.



I'm with you @JudgeJoe - this is my favorite thread. I want to cue Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust" every time a new case is posted.

ETA - Sentenced to 65 years. Justice!
Click to expand...
And another one gone,
And another one gone,
Another one bites the dust,
HEY!
Doot doo doo
Doo doot doo doo dodoo...:cool:
 
Sam Little case unknown victim identified.

A year and a half after investigators released a sketch and clay rendering of Jane Doe, they now know her real name: Patricia Parker...
Investigators took DNA samples from Parker's son and compared them to DNA from Parker's bones. Friday we learned, they finally had a match.

Identified! - GA - Dade Co., BlkFem UP17657, pre-40, presumed Little victim, Sept'81 - Patricia Parker

UPDATE: Woman found 39 years ago off I-24 in Dade County identified as Patricia Parker

ETA - Another link

GBI Positively Identifies Woman Found 39 Years Ago in Dade County
 
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Suspect identified, arrested in 2010 former cold case murder of Sherry Black
''On Saturday, Unified Police arrested 29-year-old Adam Antonio-Spen Durborrow* of Orem in connection with the murder of Sherry Black, who was beaten and stabbed to death on Nov. 30, 2010 in South Salt Lake.

Durborow was arrested on aggravated murder and aggravated burglary charges, both first-degree felonies. He is being held without bail.

According to a probable cause for arrest statement, DNA was collected from Durborow on Wednesday, and it came back Thursday as a match to DNA evidence collected from the murder scene — B&W Billiards & Books, which the victim and her husband owned.''

"The diligent work of the detectives from both agencies over the last ten years has resulted in today’s arrest," Sheriff Rosie Rivera wrote in a statement. "I want to thank the detectives, investigators, and many others from UPD, SSLPD, DA, the Utah Crime Lab, and Parabon Nanolabs for working together in common pursuit of justice for the Black family."

Ws thread.
UT - UT - Sherry Black, 64, Salt Lake City, 30 Nov 2010 *arrest in 2020*
 
Huge, convoluted case just solved via Othram!
Ws thread
CANADA - Canada - Christine Jessop, 9, Queensville, Ont, 3 Oct 1984 - #2

Toronto police identify killer in Christine Jessop murder case from 1984
"Toronto police have identified the killer of nine-year-old Christine Jessop, who was abducted and murdered in 1984.

Calvin Hoover of Toronto has been identified through a DNA sample found on Christine Jessop's underwear. Hoover died in 2015. He would have been 28 in 1984. Police say he was known by family."
After 36 Years, Christine Jessop's Killer Has Been Identified
''After 36 year, advanced genetic testing helped the Toronto Police Service identify Christine Jessop's killer''
 
dotr said:
Huge, convoluted case just solved via Othram!
Ws thread
CANADA - Canada - Christine Jessop, 9, Queensville, Ont, 3 Oct 1984 - #2

Toronto police identify killer in Christine Jessop murder case from 1984
"Toronto police have identified the killer of nine-year-old Christine Jessop, who was abducted and murdered in 1984.

Calvin Hoover of Toronto has been identified through a DNA sample found on Christine Jessop's underwear. Hoover died in 2015. He would have been 28 in 1984. Police say he was known by family."
After 36 Years, Christine Jessop's Killer Has Been Identified
''After 36 year, advanced genetic testing helped the Toronto Police Service identify Christine Jessop's killer''
Click to expand...
Oh wow- a neighbor had been wrongfully convicted of this crime, then exonerated. I imagine some still judged him guilty though. So justice for Christine, justice for the neighbor and Calvin Hoover has his reputation (if there was one) destroyed after death. Since he missed out on his prison time, I’ll take that as the next best thing.
 
Clackamas County Jane Doe, a.k.a. Still Creek Jane Doe, from 1986 has been identified as Wanda Herr.
the University of North Texas flagged the skull as having an existing DNA extract with extensive genetic information. Then, in December 2019, Parabon Nanolabs received the DNA extract and subjected it to in-depth genetic genealogy and DNA phenotyping.

The intensive genetic analysis revealed far more detail about the subject: The skull belonged to a female of Northern European descent with fair skin, hazel/brown eyes, brown hair, and some freckles.

This new info, combined with extensive genealogical research, soon revealed a likely name for the young woman: Wanda Ann Herr, born in 1957.

Detectives obtained Wanda's birth certificate and contacted her surviving sisters. Further DNA testing with the cooperation of the sisters confirmed it: The partial skull was that of Wanda Herr.
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Decades-old skull identified as belonging to young woman who died in 1970s; detectives seek tips | Clackamas County

This identification might be one of the first in a long line of identifications of Does in Oregon in the near future:

"In January 2019, the Oregon State Medical Examiner's Office received National Institute of Justice (NIJ) grant funds to perform forensic genetic genealogy and DNA phenotyping on 100 unidentified human skeletal remains cases."

~

Wanda Herr's WS thread:
OR - OR - Wanda Ann Herr, 19, Gresham, 1 June 1976

Wanda's WS thread as a Jane Doe:
OR - OR - Clackamas Co., WhtFem Skull 510UFOR, 18-24, on Mt Hood, Aug'86
 
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Just Following **
 
I know there's now a thread for Orthram, but thought I'd post this here too.
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5f96540e54ee8.image.jpg


MISSOULA, Mont. -- After waiting more than 45 years for answers, the family of a Missoula cold case victim says there is a huge development in her case. We're expecting an announcement from Missoula law enforcement Monday.

Five-year-old Siobhan McGuinness was abducted, sexually assaulted and murdered back in February of 1974.

Siobhan's father says his little girl was walking home from a neighborhood friend's home. He said it couldn't have been more than three blocks, but that's all it took for her killer to find her. Siobhan's body was found in the following days in the area of Turah, just east of town.

'I am absolutely amazed' - Family of 1974 Missoula Cold Case finally gets answers


Richard William Davis of Cabot was identified as the suspect in Siobhan’s murder, as well as the attempted abduction of an 8-year-old in New York one year prior. Davis died in 2012, but through forensic genetic genealogy testing, Siobhan’s case was opened once more.

Now, the FBI is looking closer to home and searching for answers. “This is across state lines, this is in very separate parts of the country,” said Connor Hagan with FBI Little Rock. “If he’s been linked to these cases, what we’d like people to do is come forward if they have any information or any suspicions that he may have been involved in similar cases.”

A Montana cold case has new suspect with ties to Arkansas | KLRT - FOX16.com


FBI ViCAP Alert:
https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/vicap/ho...hard-william-davis/vicap-davis-10-26-2020.pdf


Orthram announcement:
After 46 years, Siobhan McGuinness's Killer Has Been Identified


Siobhan's WS thread:
MT - MT - Siobhan McGuinness, 5, Missoula, 5 Feb 1974 *killer deceased*


ETA: Eugh, just seen he worked around kids:

Davis lived in North Little Rock from the 70’s through the 80’s, and worked as a security guard for the Arkansas school for the Deaf and Blind. He also spent time volunteering with Big Brothers, Big Sisters and was a truck driver in Cabot until the end of his life.

A Montana cold case has new suspect with ties to Arkansas | KLRT - FOX16.com
 
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Murder from 1969 and the suspect is still alive.
____________

90


When Mary Scott missed work the next day — Nov. 20, 1969 — a friend went to her neatly kept City Heights apartment. She found furniture overturned, chairs flipped, an ashtray smashed.

Scott was nude on the living room floor, her nightgown ripped off. She had been raped and strangled.

Five decades after San Diego woman was raped and strangled, DNA and genealogy lead to an arrest


San Diego police announced Tuesday they’d arrested a 75-year-old Pennsylvania man on suspicion of murder in Scott’s killing. John Sipos was taken into custody Saturday at his home in Schnecksville, not far from Allentown on the east side of the state.

Sipos remained jailed in Lehigh County, Pa., on Tuesday and was awaiting extradition to San Diego County. His attorney, John Waldron, said he is still evaluating how to address the extradition matter, but has not yet met Sipos in person. The Pennsylvania-based attorney said the jail’s COVID-19 precautions mean a three-week quarantine for his client, who he said has medical concerns including diabetes and three prior heart attacks.

Police say Scott’s killer left behind DNA evidence. That, coupled with forensic genealogy, helped lead them to Sipos.

Five decades after San Diego woman was raped and strangled, DNA and genealogy lead to an arrest
 
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