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

[RosalindaA]

Ok, well this (if true) has to top the list for things you did not expect to find by taking a DNA test. I cannot see any other articles at first glance about this, but I am in the UK so this may affect this. The source looks to me to be a mainstream local news outlet but others will be able to judge better than me:

DNA test reveals connection between North Carolina woman and killer wanted by FBI

This adopted woman, Kathy Gillcrist, of North Carolina, claims that her DNA test shows that her father was Brad Bishop, family annihilator of Bethesda, Maryland (1976), who has never been traced despite being on the FBI's most wanted list for many years. The woman's age is not given but from her photo she looks to me that she would have born before Bishop became a murderer, not after, so if true this isn't going to yield any info about his whereabouts after he disappeared.

Of course genetic genealogy is complex and presumably she has verifiable evidence that her DNA results do show this exact relationship to the Bishop family. She has been helped by a genealogist who is a family member. Quite likely that Brad Bishop went on to create another family, I wonder if what happened to him will one day be solved when one of them takes a DNA test?

 

[Legally Bland]

Baby Boy Doe, who was found dead in a trash can at a 24-hour Lake City convenience store more than 23 years ago, is buried in Section 18 at Seattle’s Calvary Cemetery, his grave stone adorned with a teddy bear in one corner.

Seattle police on Thursday arrested the infant’s now 50-year-old mother and booked her into the King County Jail on investigation of homicide, according to jail records and an item posted on the police department’s online blotter.

[...]

Genealogist Barbara Rae-Venter, of Monterey, California — who helped crack the Golden State Killer case in 2018 and was named one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people the next year — worked on Seattle’s Baby Boy Doe case, Seattle police homicide detective Rolf Norton said.

[...]

Rae-Venter, who works for DNA Solutions, generated a list of possible names and police then compared photographs to video-surveillance footage from the Chevron station in the 8700 block of Lake City Way Northeast, where the baby was found, Norton said. He said detectives were able to rule out several people before obtaining a sample of the woman’s DNA during an undercover operation.

Seattle woman arrested 23 years after her infant son was found dead in a Lake City trash can

 

[Otterly]

Not solved, but they're using GG in this case:
_____

Using new technology, investigators from the Littleton Police Department (LPD) said Wednesday they're going over every piece of evidence from a triple murder from 2002 hoping to bring the killer or killers to justice.

[...]

Bobby Zajac, 23, Erin Golla, 26, and 29-year-old James Springer were shot to death inside the AMF Broadway Bowling Alley located at 5485 S. Broadway in Littleton shortly before midnight on Jan. 27, 2002.

Golla and Springer were the last two closing employees and Zajac had been bowling and was going to get a ride home from Springer, LPD said.

After closing the alley, Golla called her a friend at 11:40 p.m. to come pick her up. Sometime after she made that call, the three victims came into contact with an unknown person or people and were shot to death during an apparent robbery.

Investigators said Wednesday around 11:50 p.m. that night, a middle-aged white man with a bald head was seen exiting the bowling alley wearing a knee-length trench coat. He got into a dark-colored, newer model pickup truck and left the area heading south.

Five minutes later at 11:55 p.m. the friend who had come to pick up Golla discovered their bodies inside.

[...]

The FBI is already following up some new leads that were gathered using genetic genealogy, according to Morrissey.

"We're going to continue this work until we find the individual or individuals responsible for these murders," he said.

Littleton bowling alley murders: AMF bowling shooting is unsolved | 9news.com

I was wondering where the investigators were hoping to find genetic material from the perpetrator since this was a shooting (no blood from the attacker as is common in stabbings) during a robbery w/o any (publicly disclosed anyway) sexual assault. Thankfully I read the whole article and found out that "Investigators are retesting and reviewing evidence including items from the trash can in the men's room as well as other items on the property,".
With DNA ever advancing, and often (usually?) being recovered in sexual assault killings, I suspect robbery, road rage, hit and run, etc. murders like this one will increasingly become the ones that remain unsolved as they are less likely to include DNA evidence left behind by killers.

 

[dixiegirl1035]

I did a quick name search and don't see in this thread yet.

This case was on 20/20 Last night - 20/20 "Stranger Than Fiction: The Murder of Angie Dodge." Noveliist Scott Turow will discuss.

Per @ReadySet, "CeCe and team beginning work on the case. The DNA was so degraded they had a very difficult time. But eventually they came up with sons,six sons or grandsons, but only one lived in Idaho. But after getting some DNA, it wasn't a match.

Finally, through obituaries, CeCe finds that the suspect was carrying his step-father's name and LE tracks him to Caldwell, ID. Brian Dripps throws his cigarette out the window. But there are cigarette butts all over.

Then they try again, and this time they get the cigarette butt from the middle of the road. It's a match. It is interesting to hear first hand accounts from Carol Dodge, Chris Tapp, friends of Angie, CeCe Moore, and detectives."


An Idaho man has pleaded guilty to the 1996 rape and murder of Angie Dodge, a crime for which another man was wrongfully convicted nearly a quarter-century ago. Brian Leigh Dripps of Caldwell entered the guilty plea Tuesday morning as part of an agreement with prosecutors, the Post Register reported.

In exchange for his plea, prosecutors will recommend to the judge that Dripps serve up to life in prison, but be eligible for parole after serving at least 20 years.

Another man was falsely convicted and spent 20 years in jail until the genetic studies

Idaho man pleads guilty in cold case that led to wrongful conviction in teen's murder

GUILTY - ID - Angie Dodge, 18, brutally murdered at home, Idaho Falls, 13 June 1996 *Arrest in 2019*

 

[Mrs. Badcrumble]

New Castle County Jane Doe has been identified as Marie Petry Heiser with the help of Parabon Nanolabs.

"For three decades, police made no progress in the case.

In 2008, detectives submitted information about Heiser's discovery to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, which included a DNA profile of the woman's remains.

That was entered into the Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS, a national DNA database run by the FBI. Though police hoped something would turn up, the database returned no matches, and as it had 30 years before, the case stalled.

About a decade later, in February 2017, New Castle County police were told of a Virginia company, Parabon Nanolabs, which specializes in DNA phenotyping. Phenotyping is a process of predicting physical traits and ancestry from DNA.

Detectives sent the woman's information to a forensic artist at Parabon Nanolabs, who created a sketch. The lab also produced a digital image of Heiser and sent genetic information to ancestry databases to create a potential family tree.

The breakthrough came when Montgomery County, Maryland, police officer Steven Smugeresky got involved in the case in 2019.

New Castle County cold case detectives had consulted with Smugeresky after he held a law enforcement cold case seminar, and he agreed to help research Heiser's DNA ancestry.

(...)

Once police collected the samples, the Delaware Division of Forensic Science created DNA profiles and entered them into CODIS, where Heiser's information had been submitted years before. Forensic science personnel got back a "positive (DNA) comparison," police said."

Reconstructions vs. photograph of Marie Petry Heiser:

After more than 40 years, New Castle County homicide victim identified

Marie Petra Heiser's WS thread as New Castle County Jane Doe:
DE - DE - Townsend, WhtFem Skeletal 132UFDE, 33-63, off Route 13, Jun'77

 

[PaulaDC]

New Castle County Jane Doe has been identified as Marie Petry Heiser with the help of Parabon Nanolabs.

"For three decades, police made no progress in the case.

In 2008, detectives submitted information about Heiser's discovery to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, which included a DNA profile of the woman's remains.

That was entered into the Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS, a national DNA database run by the FBI. Though police hoped something would turn up, the database returned no matches, and as it had 30 years before, the case stalled.

About a decade later, in February 2017, New Castle County police were told of a Virginia company, Parabon Nanolabs, which specializes in DNA phenotyping. Phenotyping is a process of predicting physical traits and ancestry from DNA.

Detectives sent the woman's information to a forensic artist at Parabon Nanolabs, who created a sketch. The lab also produced a digital image of Heiser and sent genetic information to ancestry databases to create a potential family tree.

The breakthrough came when Montgomery County, Maryland, police officer Steven Smugeresky got involved in the case in 2019.

New Castle County cold case detectives had consulted with Smugeresky after he held a law enforcement cold case seminar, and he agreed to help research Heiser's DNA ancestry.

(...)

Once police collected the samples, the Delaware Division of Forensic Science created DNA profiles and entered them into CODIS, where Heiser's information had been submitted years before. Forensic science personnel got back a "positive (DNA) comparison," police said."

Reconstructions vs. photograph of Marie Petry Heiser:

After more than 40 years, New Castle County homicide victim identified

Marie Petra Heiser's WS thread as New Castle County Jane Doe:
DE - DE - Townsend, WhtFem Skeletal 132UFDE, 33-63, off Route 13, Jun'77

Never reported missing......that says a lot in my opinion. I live in the county of retirement of this family. It makes you wonder just how many people used to "escape" to Florida. Rather scary.

 

[Seattle1]

Never reported missing......that says a lot in my opinion. I live in the county of retirement of this family. It makes you wonder just how many people used to "escape" to Florida. Rather scary.

I can understand the adult children keeping silent if they feared their dad but he's been dead since 2006. And now I learn her son is a retired police officer! No words except I'm sad for this mother that deserved better in both life and death.

Break In The Case, Murdered Woman Was Former Philly Cop’s Wife

 

[PaulaDC]

I can understand the adult children keeping silent if they feared their dad but he's been dead since 2006. And now I learn her son is a retired police officer! No words except I'm sad for this mother that deserved better in both life and death.

Break In The Case, Murdered Woman Was Former Philly Cop’s Wife

They didn't have a clue possibly. Now they do.

 

[Eloise]

She Vanished Decades Ago. Her Children Just Learned She Had Been Killed.

Sounds like Marie Heiser's kids are in denial that it was their dad that killed her (to be clear, it's my opinion that he killed her).

The younger Mr. Heiser said he was certain that his father had nothing to do with his mother’s disappearance.

“He would be the last person that would ever hurt anybody,” said Mr. Heiser, who followed his father into law enforcement and is retired from the Volusia County Sheriff’s Department in Florida. “He was a saint — took care of his family, never raised his voice or hands or argued or anything.”

 

[janewall]

She Vanished Decades Ago. Her Children Just Learned She Had Been Killed.

Sounds like Marie Heiser's kids are in denial that it was their dad that killed her (to be clear, it's my opinion that he killed her).

Agreed.

Whenever someone tries to characterize another person as a saint, I tend to think they're knee-jerk overcompensating for something.

At first, given the location where MH was found, I thought she might have been a very early, previously unknown victim of Steven Pennell. But given the backstory, including that her disappearance that was not reported by a spouse who was LE, I arrived at the same opinion as you.

May the investigation continue, so that she and her killer will both find belated justice with the discovery of the facts concerning her premature demise.

 

[Betty P]

She Vanished Decades Ago. Her Children Just Learned She Had Been Killed.

Sounds like Marie Heiser's kids are in denial that it was their dad that killed her (to be clear, it's my opinion that he killed her).

“He just said she just packed up her stuff and left,” Mr. Heiser said, even though some of her clothes and belongings were still in their house in Philadelphia.

BBM

As a retired LEO, he should know that's suspicious. Also kind of unusual that the children of a policeman back then were attending a boarding school. In the US? That's not typical for a working class family, now or in 1977.

The father sounded like a control freak who didn't want his children around to see how he treated their mother. Poor woman.

 

[DSCrime]

My condolences to Evelyn Colon's family

Identified! - PA - White Haven, 'Beth Doe' & Unborn Baby 169UFPA, 16-22, Dec'76 *Evelyn Colon* *Arrest*- #3

Family stunned to learn ‘Beth Doe’ was long-lost Jersey City teen

"The last time he heard from his then-pregnant 15-year-old sister, Evelyn, was 44 years ago, asking their mother to bring homemade Spanish soup to her Jersey City home off Tonnelle Avenue, Luis Colon said.

Luis, 61, spent years wondering what happened to Evelyn after neighbors told him she and her then-19-year-old boyfriend, Luis Sierra, had moved when the family tried to bring them that soup a week later. Luis hasn’t seen her since they lived together on Second Street in Jersey City all those years ago.

“I went inside, and I saw the baby carriage, it was like one of those 1940′s baby carriages, black with big wheels, in the kitchen but there was nobody there,” said Luis, who now lives in Stroudsburg, PA.

“(Sierra) wrote a letter to my mother on Second Street stating that ‘Don’t worry about them. They moved. They already had a baby boy. He was nine pounds.’”

Pennsylvania State Police announced Wednesday that female remains found on Dec 20, 1976, near the Lehigh River in the Pocono Mountains, have been identified as Evelyn Colon from Jersey City.

Evelyn was finally identified after police submitted a piece of her femur to a business in Texas to create a new DNA file last year, which was then submitted to public DNA databases. Luis said his son, Luis Colon Jr., was flagged as a relative of “Beth Doe” after submitting his own DNA to genetic genealogy company, 23 and Me.

Evelyn, known as “Beth Doe” for the last 44 years, was found near the riverbank, along with a nearly full-term fetus, in three suitcases beneath an Interstate 80 overpass, police said.

Police said Thursday they have charged Sierra, now 63, with homicide in Evelyn’s death. Sierra, who lives in Queens, New York, is currently in custody awaiting extradition to Carbon County, Pennsylvania."

 

[ZaZara]

As above, some of us don't subscribe to those, is there a summary or link to more info somewhere? TIA

According to 'google'

DNA Technology Identifies Suspect in Woman's Unsolved Valentine's Day 2007 Killing

There is also some info dating from 2019 about the case on this thread, but the link no longer works (at least not for me).

 

[Legally Bland]

Some of this is a bit strange:
_______

A 64-year-old man has been arrested in the killing of a Lone Tree man in 1985, authorities announced Friday.

Michael Jefferson faces charges of first-degree murder, felony murder and kidnapping in the death of Roger Dean, who was 51 when he died on Nov. 21, 1985.


Douglas County Sheriff Tony Spurlock said Dean was apparently being robbed at his home when he was killed during a scuffle inside the home. Dean was shot five times and died en route to a hospital.

Spurlock said investigators used genetic genealogy DNA testing connect evidence from the crime scene to Jefferson, who was arrested in Los Angeles and extradited to the Douglas County jail. Jefferson lives in New Orleans, Spurlock said.

https://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/crime/arrest-made-in-1985-killing-of-douglas-county-man


An intruder reportedly entered Dean’s home in the early morning on Nov. 21, 1985. When Roger tried to run from the house, the intruder shot him five times. Then in 1990, Dean’s widow received a threatening letter from someone claiming to be his killer. The writer demanded $100,000 from her and threatened to kill her daughter, Tammy, if she didn’t hand over the money.

In 1991, the case was featured on Unsolved Mysteries in season four, episode eight, with Robert Stack.

Spurlock was at the scene at the time and was the lead detective on the case. He told the TV show he believed several items found at the house were red herrings, planted to give the impression that Dean had been blindfolded and bound.

“We believe that Roger hired an individual to come over to basically kidnap him, take him to his bank, withdraw $30,000 from their account, and then obviously drop Roger off someplace so Roger could report a robbery and he would have that $30,000 to himself,” Spurlock said in an interview for the series.

Michael Jefferson Arrested In 1985 Murder Of Roger Dean, Cold Case Featured On 'Unsolved Mysteries'

 

[ZaZara]

Some of this is a bit strange:
_______

A 64-year-old man has been arrested in the killing of a Lone Tree man in 1985, authorities announced Friday.

Michael Jefferson faces charges of first-degree murder, felony murder and kidnapping in the death of Roger Dean, who was 51 when he died on Nov. 21, 1985.


Douglas County Sheriff Tony Spurlock said Dean was apparently being robbed at his home when he was killed during a scuffle inside the home. Dean was shot five times and died en route to a hospital.

Spurlock said investigators used genetic genealogy DNA testing connect evidence from the crime scene to Jefferson, who was arrested in Los Angeles and extradited to the Douglas County jail. Jefferson lives in New Orleans, Spurlock said.

https://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/crime/arrest-made-in-1985-killing-of-douglas-county-man


An intruder reportedly entered Dean’s home in the early morning on Nov. 21, 1985. When Roger tried to run from the house, the intruder shot him five times. Then in 1990, Dean’s widow received a threatening letter from someone claiming to be his killer. The writer demanded $100,000 from her and threatened to kill her daughter, Tammy, if she didn’t hand over the money.

In 1991, the case was featured on Unsolved Mysteries in season four, episode eight, with Robert Stack.

Spurlock was at the scene at the time and was the lead detective on the case. He told the TV show he believed several items found at the house were red herrings, planted to give the impression that Dean had been blindfolded and bound.

“We believe that Roger hired an individual to come over to basically kidnap him, take him to his bank, withdraw $30,000 from their account, and then obviously drop Roger off someplace so Roger could report a robbery and he would have that $30,000 to himself,” Spurlock said in an interview for the series.

Michael Jefferson Arrested In 1985 Murder Of Roger Dean, Cold Case Featured On 'Unsolved Mysteries'

That sure is a strange story.
Reading the report at the Denver Channel, it becomes even stranger. So I had to watch the part of Unsolved Mysteries, and now I wonder: did Roger Dean owe anyone money and why? Or was it all a set up (and why would that have been?) And was the extortionist who called his widow the same person as the killer?

 

[Legally Bland]

That sure is a strange story.
Reading the report at the Denver Channel, it becomes even stranger. So I had to watch the part of Unsolved Mysteries, and now I wonder: did Roger Dean owe anyone money and why? Or was it all a set up (and why would that have been?) And was the extortionist who called his widow the same person as the killer?

I haven't watched the UM video yet, but a staged kidnapping doesn't seem to make sense if one conspirator kills the other one before they get the money.

 

[Legally Bland]

Auto-captions from the UM video above:

25:33
Authorities know only that the suspect
25:35
is white, about six feet tall, and uses
25:37
an extensive vocabulary.
25:39
Interestingly, they feel that the extortion
25:41
letters were written by a man and a woman
25:44
working in conjunction.

BBM.

Pic of suspect:

https://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/crime/arrest-made-in-1985-killing-of-douglas-county-man

I'm inclined to think the initial police investigation wasn't very good, but who knows.

 

[Mrs. Badcrumble]

The Ludlow Does has been identified as Pamela Dianne Duffey and William Everette Lane through a GEDmatch hit.

"Christine Marie Salley (dob: 09-17-79), a resident of the State of Virginia, always knew she had been adopted and wanted to find her biological parents. In April of 2018, she hired a private investigator to assist her in locating her parents. The private investigator submitted Salley’s DNA. DNA from the female victim had already been uploaded into the GEDmatch DNA files after the victims’ DNA was extracted from her remains. After Salley’s DNA was submitted to the GEDmatch database on December 11, 2020, a match indicated a parent/child relationship between Salley and the female Ludlow victim. Investigators contacted Salley, and she provided them with her birth mother’s information. She told investigators that her biological mother was Pamela Dianne Duffey. The information was included in the adoption paperwork Salley obtained through the private investigator. To confirm the match, investigators collected another DNA sample from Salley and submitted it to the California Department of Justice Lan in Richmond, CA. Both samples were analyzed by DOJ, and in April of 2021, tests confirmed the samples matched and positively identified the victim as Pamela Dianne Duffy."

"Christine Salle also told investigators she learned her mother, before going missing, was associated with a male subject known only as “Digger Lane.” Salley had information that Digger was serving time in a Virginia prison, and when he was released from prison, her mother was to meet him and travel across the United States. The travel plan specifics were unknown. (...) His arrest reports included a listed home address in Jacksonville, Florida. Based on that address, investigators were able to locate several family members, including Lane’s biological mother. Investigators collected DNA from Lane’s mother, and the sample was sent to the California Department of Justice Lab for comparison. In April of 2021, the male homicide victim from Ludlow was positively identified as William Everette Lane."

https://local.nixle.com/alert/8671874/

1980 cold case cracked after bodies buried in San Bernardino County desert are ID’d, linked to Mississippi killer – San Bernardino Sun

Adopted daughter's DNA helps identify victims of 1980 double homicide


Pamela Dianne Duffy and William Everette Lane's WS thread as the Ludlow Does:
Identified! - CA - Ludlow, Suspect in Custody, Pamela D Duffey, 21, William E Lane, 20, Nov'80

 

[Legally Bland]

Thanks for the heads up. This is the only cold case I've found so far for 1993 in Snohomish Co.:

Melissa Ann Lee spoke with her mother on the phone the night she disappeared.

She was at home. Three hours later, when her mom returned from work, the 15-year-old girl was gone.

The front door was open. There were signs of a struggle inside the Bothell house.

The next day a couple spotted Melissa’s body in a brushy ravine under the Edgewater Creek Bridge near Mukilteo.

She was strangled to death.

The killer has never been arrested.

‘93 slaying hangs over mother’s life | HeraldNet.com

I can't find a thread for Melissa, but it looks like it's not going to trial.

A man charged in connection to the 1993 kidnapping and murder of a 15-year-old Bothell girl has been indefinitely committed to a psychiatric hospital in Pierce County.

A Snohomish County judge found Alan Dean, 63, incompetent to stand trial and ruled he be held at Western State Hospital, where he is currently residing. The first-degree murder charge against him has now been dismissed without prejudice, according to court documents.

Man charged in 1993 murder of Bothell teenager Melissa Lee committed to psychiatric hospital | king5.com

 

[Legally Bland]

The KCSO, with the help of the Ventura County District Attorney's Office and the DNA Doe Project, was able to identify Jane Doe 1980, a homicide victim from over 40 years ago.

Shirley Soosay was found stabbed to death in an almond orchard near Delano on July 14, 1980. She was a victim of suspected serial killer Wilson Chouest.

...

According to a news release from the DDP, Soosay is one of the first indigenous peoples to be identified using genetic genealogy.

KCSO identifies murder victim from 1980 cold case

WS thread:

Identified! - CA - Delano, Hisp/Ntv Fem 59UFCA, 30-34, 'Shirley, Seattle' tattoo, Jul'80 - Shirley Ann Soosay