Othram - General Discussion

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New case solve! Not sure there is a Websleuths thread for this one, but here is the link below. In a collaboration with the NC Unidentified Project, Othram was able to assist the Chatham County Sheriff's Office in identifying 26-year-old Army vet Jimmy Mack Brooks. He was brutally murdered in 1976 only a few years after leaving the service.

Chatham County Sheriff's Office and NC Unidentified Project Partner with Othram to Identify a 1976 Homicide Victim
From Chatham County Sheriff's Office
PITTSBORO — An ongoing partnership between the Chatham County Sheriff’s Office, North Carolina Unidentified Project, and Othram Inc., has led to the successful identification of a victim from a 46-year-old murder case.
In March of 1976, Chatham County deputies opened a homicide investigation after the body of an unidentified man was found in Moncure, NC. Early investigation into the case was hampered by a lack of basic information or viable clues, but with advancements in forensic DNA testing, members of the Chatham County Sheriff’s Office remained open to new methods and opportunities to identify the deceased.
Sheriff’s Office Investigator Ricky Culberson eventually connected with the NC Unidentified Project, an initiative was co-founded by Dr. Ann Ross (Board Certified Forensic Anthropologist and Director of the NC Human Identification & Forensics Analysis Lab at North Carolina State University in Raleigh) and Leslie Kaufman (Forensic Genealogist with First Genes, LLC, and member of the Carolinas Cold Case Coalition) in 2020 to raise and provide funding or assistance with unidentified person cases. Forensic testing can quickly drain the resources of any law enforcement agency, so the NC Unidentified Project obtained a small grant to begin funding DNA extraction and analysis on behalf of participating agencies.
The NC Unidentified Project worked with Othram Inc. to employ Forensic-Grade Genome Sequencing to build a genealogical profile from skeletal remains. Ultimately, a DNA link to the 1976 case led investigators to a family member of the victim who identified the deceased subject as Jimmy Mack Brooks. Brooks, an unmarried Army veteran, was only 26 years old when he was killed.
“It is bittersweet to be able to share this information with his loved ones who never stopped looking for him,” says Lieutenant Sara Pack of the Chatham County Sheriff’s Office. “Although his identity has finally been revealed, there are many more questions to be answered. We will continue to seek justice for Jimmy and his family.”
“I have worked on criminal cases all over the state, but cases involving unidentified bodies really speak to my heart,” explains Kaufman. “These men and women deserve to have their names known and their stories told… That’s what drives me to do what I do.”
Jimmy Mack Brooks is the seventh victim so far to be positively identified by the NC Unidentified Project as well as the second Chatham County victim to be identified by the group using advanced DNA technology; in April, the Sheriff’s Office revealed the previously unknown identity of another homicide victim, Alexander “Alex” Brown, Jr., who was reported missing out of Baltimore, MD, in December 1978.
“Identifying these victims has given us a new launch point and fresh leads to follow,” says Chatham County Sheriff Mike Roberson. “We are endlessly grateful for all of the hard work and partnerships that led to these amazing revelations. We are hopeful that such technology will lead to similar breakthroughs in other unsolved cases.”
“Leslie [Kaufman] and Dr. Ann Ross of the NC Unidentified Project are providing an incredible service to law enforcement agencies and families of victims throughout the state. They are brilliant at what they do, and we are excited to continue partnering with them in the future,” explains Pack. “We are also deeply appreciative of the support we have received from the NCSBI Cold Case Investigation Team, Othram Inc., and the NC Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. Without their assistance, none of this would be possible!”
The Chatham County Sheriff’s Office is now asking other members of the public to share what they know regarding the life and death of Jimmy Mack Brooks. Investigators say a single small detail could potentially lead to the next big leap in the case. Anyone with information pertaining to events or circumstances leading to the disappearance and murder of Jimmy Mack Brooks is asked to call the Chatham County Sheriff’s Office at 919-542-2911.
 
From Chatham County Sheriff's Office
PITTSBORO — An ongoing partnership between the Chatham County Sheriff’s Office, North Carolina Unidentified Project, and Othram Inc., has led to the successful identification of a victim from a 46-year-old murder case.
In March of 1976, Chatham County deputies opened a homicide investigation after the body of an unidentified man was found in Moncure, NC. Early investigation into the case was hampered by a lack of basic information or viable clues, but with advancements in forensic DNA testing, members of the Chatham County Sheriff’s Office remained open to new methods and opportunities to identify the deceased.
Sheriff’s Office Investigator Ricky Culberson eventually connected with the NC Unidentified Project, an initiative was co-founded by Dr. Ann Ross (Board Certified Forensic Anthropologist and Director of the NC Human Identification & Forensics Analysis Lab at North Carolina State University in Raleigh) and Leslie Kaufman (Forensic Genealogist with First Genes, LLC, and member of the Carolinas Cold Case Coalition) in 2020 to raise and provide funding or assistance with unidentified person cases. Forensic testing can quickly drain the resources of any law enforcement agency, so the NC Unidentified Project obtained a small grant to begin funding DNA extraction and analysis on behalf of participating agencies.
The NC Unidentified Project worked with Othram Inc. to employ Forensic-Grade Genome Sequencing to build a genealogical profile from skeletal remains. Ultimately, a DNA link to the 1976 case led investigators to a family member of the victim who identified the deceased subject as Jimmy Mack Brooks. Brooks, an unmarried Army veteran, was only 26 years old when he was killed.
“It is bittersweet to be able to share this information with his loved ones who never stopped looking for him,” says Lieutenant Sara Pack of the Chatham County Sheriff’s Office. “Although his identity has finally been revealed, there are many more questions to be answered. We will continue to seek justice for Jimmy and his family.”
“I have worked on criminal cases all over the state, but cases involving unidentified bodies really speak to my heart,” explains Kaufman. “These men and women deserve to have their names known and their stories told… That’s what drives me to do what I do.”
Jimmy Mack Brooks is the seventh victim so far to be positively identified by the NC Unidentified Project as well as the second Chatham County victim to be identified by the group using advanced DNA technology; in April, the Sheriff’s Office revealed the previously unknown identity of another homicide victim, Alexander “Alex” Brown, Jr., who was reported missing out of Baltimore, MD, in December 1978.
“Identifying these victims has given us a new launch point and fresh leads to follow,” says Chatham County Sheriff Mike Roberson. “We are endlessly grateful for all of the hard work and partnerships that led to these amazing revelations. We are hopeful that such technology will lead to similar breakthroughs in other unsolved cases.”
“Leslie [Kaufman] and Dr. Ann Ross of the NC Unidentified Project are providing an incredible service to law enforcement agencies and families of victims throughout the state. They are brilliant at what they do, and we are excited to continue partnering with them in the future,” explains Pack. “We are also deeply appreciative of the support we have received from the NCSBI Cold Case Investigation Team, Othram Inc., and the NC Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. Without their assistance, none of this would be possible!”
The Chatham County Sheriff’s Office is now asking other members of the public to share what they know regarding the life and death of Jimmy Mack Brooks. Investigators say a single small detail could potentially lead to the next big leap in the case. Anyone with information pertaining to events or circumstances leading to the disappearance and murder of Jimmy Mack Brooks is asked to call the Chatham County Sheriff’s Office at 919-542-2911.
Thanks for sharing. Stayed tuned for more announcements shortly.
 
@victoriarobinson642 , start a thread for Mr. Brooks! LE is looking for tips and you know how we turn up bits of info!

jmho ymmv lrr
Thanks @ victoriarobinson642 for starting thread..
 
Third case this week... With the generous support of Audiochuck, who funds many of our cases, we are grateful to share that we were able to help Fulton County Medical Examiner's Office identify a victim of a home fire in Atlanta, Georgia. An investigation into the fire and his death continues.

 
For Memorial Day, we want to call attention to many of the unidentified that are veterans, lost to family and friends. Here are some recent examples:

- Chatham County John Doe (1976) is Identified
- After 5 years, Meridian John Doe (2018) Is Identified
- Murdered World War I Veteran from Queens is now Identified
- After 41 years, Snohomish Jetty Doe is Identified

Cases involving unidentified remains are hard to fund and they often take a backseat to other investigations. Help us fund these cases on DNASolves & Help families get the answers they deserve.
 
This young nurse's horrible murder is still unsolved although LE have some DNA and a partial handprint..
 
New case solve announced:


 
New case solve announced:


RIP Suzanne
 
Private companies such as Parabon NanoLabs, Bode Technology, and Othram work with law enforcement to identify decedents through the application of FGG. In recent years, websites such as Othram's www.DNASOLVES.com have assisted cold case investigations submitted directly by law enforcement and death investigation agencies and have provided opportunities for crowd sourcing of funds to support the associated costs of FGG for UHRs. As of November 10, 2021, DNASolves and Othram have aided in the resolution of 39 UHR cases, illustrating the impact FGG has on cold case investigations.

THE WOODLANDS, Texas — Othram, the leading forensic sequencing laboratory for law enforcement, is pleased to announce the identity of human remains found on a Charleston, Missouri farm in 1979. In Feb. 2020, Dr. Jennifer Bengston, Ph.D., Associate Professor from Southeast Missouri State University, partnered with the Othram laboratory and lead genealogists, Lee and Anthony Redgrave, to utilize the latest forensic genealogy technologies to help identify human remains held at the University as part of Dr. Bengtson’s forensic anthropology program.

Forensic depiction of Charleston, Mo., John Doe.

Forensic depiction of Charleston, Mo., John Doe. (Photo/Anthony Redgrave)
The remains, found in 1979 in an agricultural field near Charleston, Missouri, had been burned prior to discovery. No identity could be established at that time and the remains were eventually turned over to Southeast Missouri State University. Dr. Bengtson and her students have been working on the case since 2013. In 2016, Dr. Bengtson and her students submitted the case to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs), a national clearinghouse and resource center for the missing, unidentified and unclaimed persons across the United States. Traditional STR profiling by the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification (UNTCHI) did not turn up any clues as to the person’s identity.

Dr. Bengtson and her team at SEMO sent a small sample of the remains to Othram in early 2020 in the hopes of solving this case while providing her students a valuable learning platform. The Othram laboratory specializes in extracting and enriching human DNA from degraded, contaminated sources such as bone. Once the lab digitized a full genome from the remains, lead forensic genealogists at Othram, Anthony Lukas Redgrave and Lee Bingham Redgrave, took the genetic data and worked with Dr. Bengtson and her students to recreate his genetic lineage.

“Having trained many law enforcement professionals in forensic genealogy, I was excited to work with students with a cross-disciplinary perspective to see their unique ways of looking at an unresolved case. Together, we came to a tentative identification within four days of uploading the DNA profile,” Anthony Redgrave stated.

As an example, Othram’s Forensic-Grade Genome Sequencing® method is based on MPS. Our method combines MPS and advanced informatics to digitize genomes that otherwise fail with SNP chip and other non-sequencing methods. Genomic information is pieced together, leveraging multiple layers of quality data for every DNA position that is measured, to ensure accuracy.
A critical and under-appreciated advantage of massively parallel sequencing is the ability to detect novel genetic variations with exactly the same efficiency as previously seen variants. This can be used to minimize the types of error and bias intrinsic to microarrays and other methods, especially when working with imperfect forensic evidence. It is possible to combine sequence data (this cannot be done for SNP microarrays) so if insufficient data is generated from an initial test, results from multiple sequencing runs can be combined to produce an accurate representation of the DNA markers. The ability to iteratively and accurately collect DNA data from forensic evidence is critical for detecting distant genetic relationships and enabling human identification of an unknown person.


Kristen Mittleman is the chief business development officer at Othram Labs, which created the site DNA Solves.

“Our technology looks at tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of markets,” Mittleman said.

DNA Solves helps Othram build a family tree of likely relatives to the person being tested. Mittelman said the company’s success rate is nearly 100%.

“Almost all of our cases are cases that have failed elsewhere or became a DNA dead end,” Mittelman said.

HELPING SOLVE CRIMES​


Othram said it’s working on hundreds of cases now. She said the technology is not just to identify remains but also to help solve crimes.

Investigators credit forensic genetic genealogy with catching the Golden State Killer, who murdered 13 people and raped nearly 50 more in the ’70s and’ 80s.
But while departments like Gwinnett’s embrace the help, the technology is not widely used.

“Our technology is fairly new and people do not know about it yet,” Mittelman said. “I think more and more people hear about what we do and see the difference, I think this will become the standard.”

That brings it back to the “Atwood girl.”

 
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Delafield John Doe seems like it's one that could be easily solvable with genealogy given there's a possible targeted location of where that decedent grew up. Would love to see him finally get to go home.
Madison Chimney John Doe is another one that I would really like to see solved.
The skeleton in the chimney
 
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For those that are able, we would be grateful for support. You can do that here: Help families get the answers they deserve. We have more an 100 cases waiting for funding.

For those who missed our live show yesterday with Dave i'll post it below but websleuths has commited to helping Othram fund some of their cases each month, we'll provide 20% of our donations to contribute to funding on a case each month ( if it needs more than a month we'll keep donating until its fully funded and then switch to another one)

you can listen to more below from our live show yesterday, you can also donate directly to a case you want to help fund at www.DNAsolves.com

 
For those who missed our live show yesterday with Dave i'll post it below but websleuths has commited to helping Othram fund some of their cases each month, we'll provide 20% of our donations to contribute to funding on a case each month ( if it needs more than a month we'll keep donating until its fully funded and then switch to another one)

you can listen to more below from our live show yesterday, you can also donate directly to a case you want to help fund at www.DNAsolves.com

Grateful! You all are very kind!
 
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