One of the most famous cold cases of the last four decades experienced a breakthrough this year — thanks to family trees.
DNA evidence has been used to solve crimes for many years, but this time, it was used differently. Investigators took suspects’ DNA and searched for matches on genealogy websites, particularly GEDmatch.com, a public online database that law enforcement is able to use. Through the site, they find distant cousins and relatives, then create a family tree to trace a suspect.
Here’s a rundown of the cold case crimes in which GEDmatch has helped law enforcement solve or discover a lead in 2018:
The Golden State Killer
The notorious serial rapist and killer terrorized California in the 1970s and '80s, but police came up blank searching for a suspect. The DNA evidence never matched anyone in the national law enforcement database.
Then, an investigator submitted the killer’s DNA to GEDmatch and found a match in a distant relative. That information led to Joseph James DeAngelo, a former police officer. He was arrested in April 2018.
The NorCal serial rapist
GEDmatch was also used to track down a suspect in a series of rapes in Northern California from 1991 to 2006. Investigators found a partial DNA match and traced it to Roy Charles Waller, a safety specialist at the University of California, Berkeley. He was arrested in September 2018 and faces a dozen felony counts.
The murders of a Canadian couple on vacation
The method used in these cases has now become known as genetic genealogy and helped crack the case of a murdered Canadian couple. In 1987, 20-year-old Jay Cook and 18-year-old Tanya Van Cuylenborg were killed while on vacation in Washington state. Police found second cousins of the suspect, built out a family tree and pinpointed William Earl Talbott II. He would’ve been 24 at the time and lived just seven miles from where Cook’s body was found.
The slaying of a Texas realtor
In 1981, 40-year-old Texas realtor Virginia Freeman went to a meet a potential buyer and was later found stabbed to death. Investigators used DNA found underneath Freeman’s fingernails, uploaded it to GEDmatch and discovered several distant cousins. After filling in the branches of a family tree, they concluded the likely killer was James Otto Earhart, who was executed in 1999 for killing a 9-year-old girl. His body was exhumed in June to confirm the DNA evidence.
The Christmas murder of a Pennsylvania teacher
Just days before Christmas in 1992, 25-year-old schoolteacher Christy Mirack was sexually assaulted and strangled to death. Police were stumped by the cold case until they created a profile on GEDmatch using crime scene DNA. It matched a relative of Raymond “D.J. Freez” Rowe, a wedding and event DJ in Pennsylvania. To confirm their findings, undercover detectives recovered a water bottle and chewing gum from a party he attended. He was arrested in June and faces charges.
The teen girl killed in the park
In 1986, 12-year-old Michella Welch was playing with her sisters in a park near their home in Tacoma, Washington. She left to get sandwiches and never returned. Using GEDmatch, investigators traced crime scene DNA to two brothers. In June, police were able to obtain a napkin used by one to confirm a DNA match and arrested Gary C. Hartman, a nurse. He has pleaded not guilty to the crime.
The kidnapped girl who found her family
And here is the case that inspired authorities to begin using GEDmatch to solve cold cases.
Lisa Jensen was abandoned by her father in 1986 when she was just 5 years old. It turned out he wasn’t her father at all. He later was arrested for killing his girlfriend and died in prison, never revealing the truth of Jensen’s identity.
A detective named Peter Headley persisted in helping Jensen discover her true background. He turned to Barbara Rae-Venter, a genetic genealogist who advised Jensen to submit her DNA profile to sites like Ancestry and 23andMe. They found a distant cousin and then using GEDmatch, found others.
Through dogged sleuthing, they finally traced her family tree back to her grandfather and then pinpointed her identity: She was Dawn Beaudin. And at a family reunion, she met her grandfather and cousins.
