Margaret Press

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Margaret Press (born 31 March 1947) [1] is a forensic genealogist [2] and an author of both true crime and mystery novels. [3] [4] She is also known for co-founding the DNA Doe Project with Colleen M. Fitzpatrick. [5]

Contents

Early life and education

Raised in Pasadena, California, Press earned a bachelor's degree in linguistics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1968, and a Ph.D. in linguistics from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1974., [6] with thesis work based on extensive field work in Chemehuevi, a nearly extinct dialect of the Uto-Aztecan family. [7] [8]

Career

After graduate school, Press worked as a speech and language specialist at a Boston-area school for multi-handicapped children. Later, she was a software engineer in financial services and also an author of mystery novels and true crime nonfiction. [9] [10] [11]

Press became interested in forensic DNA genealogy analysis after relocating from Salem, Massachusetts, to Sebastopol, California, to live near family. [6] She had begun working in genetic genealogy in 2007, helping friends and acquaintances find relatives, as well as helping adoptees find their biological parents. [6] Inspired by Sue Grafton's novel "Q" Is for Quarry, about a Jane Doe, Press became interested in using genetic genealogy to also identify unidentified homicide victims. [12] [13]

This interest soon led to her co-founding, with Colleen M. Fitzpatrick, the DNA Doe Project, incorporated as a 501(c)3 non-profit corporation in 2017, of which she remains a board member. [7] [8]

Published works

References

  1. Murphy, Austin (May 13, 2019). "Sonoma County grandmother identifies murder victims in decades-old cold cases". Sonoma Index-Tribune. Retrieved March 20, 2022.
  2. "DNA detectives are using new tools to solve decades-old cold cases". Wired UK. ISSN   1357-0978 . Retrieved 2021-10-04.
  3. Petski, Denise (2021-01-14). "'Blood Relative': Dawnn Lewis & Jude Elizabeth Mayer Join Fox Drama Pilot In Recastings". Deadline. Retrieved 2021-10-04.
  4. Hughes, Virginia (2021-05-03). "To Solve 3 Cold Cases, This Small County Got a DNA Crash Course". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2021-10-04.
  5. Zhang, Sarah (2018-04-27). "How a Genealogy Website Led to the Alleged Golden State Killer". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2021-10-04.
  6. 1 2 3 Hillin, E.I. "Finding Jane Doe's real name: Local DNA sleuth is on the case". Sonoma West Times. Archived from the original on 2018-08-13. Retrieved 2019-01-01.
  7. 1 2 All American Speakers Bureau, "Margaret L. Press"
  8. 1 2 "Margaret Press bio" (author's website)
  9. 1 2 "Elegy for a Thief". Kirkus Reviews. April 15, 1993.
  10. 1 2 "Requiem for a Postman". Kirkus Reviews. December 15, 1991.
  11. 1 2 "Counterpoint". Kirkus Reviews. July 15, 1996.
  12. Testa, Jessica (2018-09-22). "Nobody Was Going To Solve These Cold Cases. Then Came The DNA Crime Solvers". BuzzFeed News. Archived from the original on 2019-03-30. Retrieved 2019-01-01.
  13. Olsen, Lise (May 2020). "The Disappeared". Texas Observer. Vol. 112, no. 3.