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Genetic genealogy is the use of genealogical DNA tests, i.e., DNA profiling and DNA testing, in combination with traditional genealogical methods, to infer genetic relationships between individuals. This application of genetics came to be used by family historians in the 21st century, as DNA tests became affordable. The tests have been promoted by amateur groups, such as surname study groups or regional genealogical groups, as well as research projects such as the Genographic Project.
FamilyTreeDNA is a division of Gene by Gene, a commercial genetic testing company based in Houston, Texas. FamilyTreeDNA offers analysis of autosomal DNA, Y-DNA, and mitochondrial DNA to individuals for genealogical purpose. With a database of more than two million records, it is the most popular company worldwide for Y-DNA and mitochondrial DNA, and the fourth most popular for autosomal DNA. In Europe, it is the most common also for autosomal DNA. FamilyTreeDNA as a division of Gene by Gene were acquired by MYDNA, Inc., an Australian company, in January 2021.
Colleen M. Fitzpatrick is an American forensic scientist, genealogist and entrepreneur. She helped identify remains found in the crash site of Northwest Flight 4422, that crashed in Alaska in 1948, and co-founded the DNA Doe Project which identifies previously unidentified bodies and runs Identifinders International, an investigative genetic genealogy consulting firm which helps identify victims and perpetrators of violent crimes.
Dawn Olanick, previously known as Princess Doe, was an unidentified American teenage decedent from Bohemia, New York, who was found murdered in Cedar Ridge Cemetery in Blairstown Township, New Jersey on July 15, 1982. Her face had been bludgeoned beyond recognition. She was the first unidentified decedent to be entered in the National Crime Information Center. Olanick was publicly identified on the 40th anniversary of her discovery.
Marcia Lenore Sossoman (King) (June 9, 1959 – April 22, 1981) was a 21-year-old Arkansas woman who was murdered in April 1981 and whose body was discovered in Troy, Ohio approximately 48 hours after her murder. Her body remained unidentified for almost 37 years before being identified via DNA analysis and genetic genealogy in April 2018. King was one of the first unidentified decedents to be identified via this method of forensic investigation.
Amy Marie Yeary was an American woman whose body was discovered on November 23, 2008, near Campbellsport, Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin. Her body remained unidentified for 13 years before investigators announced her identification via forensic genealogy and dental records on November 23, 2021.
Tammy Corrine Terrell was an American murder victim from Roswell, New Mexico. Her body was discovered on October 5, 1980, in Henderson, Nevada, and remained unidentified until December 2021. Her case has been the subject of extensive efforts by investigators and has been highlighted as inspiring other work to solve cold cases of unidentified murder victims.
Lyle Stevik was the alias used by an American man who, in 2001, committed suicide inside a motel room in Amanda Park, Washington. Although his body was quickly discovered, and fingerprints, DNA and dental information collected and recorded, there were no matches in any databases and the man's identity remained unknown until 2018.
CeCe Moore is an American genetic genealogist who has been described as the country's foremost such entrepreneur. She has appeared as a guest on many TV shows and as a consultant on others such as Finding Your Roots. She has helped law enforcement agencies in identifying suspects in over 50 cold cases in one year using DNA and genetic genealogy. In May 2020, she began appearing in a prime time ABC television series called The Genetic Detective in which each episode recounts a cold case she helped solve.
Investigative genetic genealogy, also known as forensic genetic genealogy, is the emerging practice of utilizing genetic information from direct-to-consumer companies for identifying suspects or victims in criminal cases. As of December 2023, the use of this technology has solved a total of 621 criminal cases, arrests made and/or cases closed with the 293 perpetrators who were brought to light. The investigative power of genetic genealogy revolves around the use of publicly accessible genealogy databases such as GEDMatch and FamilyTreeDNA. On GEDMatch, users are able to upload their genetic data from any direct-to-consumer company in an effort to identify relatives that have tested at companies other than their own.
Parabon NanoLabs, Inc. is a company based in Reston, Virginia, that develops nanopharmaceuticals and provides DNA phenotyping services for law enforcement organizations.
GEDmatch is an online service to compare autosomal DNA data files from different testing companies. The website gained significant media coverage in April 2018 after it was used by law enforcement to identify a suspect in the Golden State Killer case in California. Other law-enforcement agencies started using GEDmatch for violent crimes, making it "the de facto DNA and genealogy database for all of law enforcement", according to The Atlantic's Sarah Zhang.
DNA Doe Project is an American nonprofit volunteer organization formed to identify unidentified deceased persons using forensic genealogy. Volunteers identify victims of automobile accidents, homicide, and unusual circumstances and persons who committed suicide under an alias. The group was founded in 2017 by Colleen M. Fitzpatrick and Margaret Press.
Mary Edith Silvani, known as "Sheep's Flat Jane Doe" and "Washoe County Jane Doe" while unidentified, was an American woman found shot to death near Lake Tahoe in Washoe County, Nevada in July 1982. She was unidentified for 37 years, the investigation becoming a cold case. The Washoe County Sheriff's Office announced her identity on May 7, 2019. Silvani was identified through DNA analysis and genetic genealogy with assistance from the DNA Doe Project and utilizing the public genealogy database GEDmatch.
Steven Alexander "Stevie" Crawford was a formerly unidentified toddler whose body was found in a reservoir in Ashland, Oregon, on July 11, 1963. He was identified in 2021 using GEDmatch.
Othram is an American corporation specializing in forensic genetic genealogy to resolve unsolved murders, disappearances, and identification of unidentified decedents or murder victims. The company also offers law enforcement agencies tools and programs to infer kinship among individuals, both closely and distantly related, through a combination of short tandem repeat and single nucleotide polymorphism testing, as well as forensic genome sequencing of DNA.
On March 18, 1964, Marise Ann Chiverella, a 9-year-old American girl, was raped and murdered while on her way to school by 22-year-old James Paul Forte in Hazleton, Pennsylvania.
Elizabeth "Lisa" Ann Roberts, otherwise known as Precious Jane Doe, was an American homicide victim found near Everett, Washington on August 14, 1977, who was an unidentified decedent for 43 years until being identified on June 16, 2020. She had been picked up by a male driver while hitchhiking and killed after refusing sex. Her assailant had strangled her with a cord and then emptied his gun into her head, complicating identification. Roberts was a teen runaway who left her Oregon home in July 1977, less than a month before her murder. She was given the nickname "Precious Jane Doe" by Detective Jim Scharf, who began investigating the case in 2008. The detective was quoted as saying, "This young girl was precious to me because her moral decision from her proper upbringing cost her her life [...] I knew she had to be precious to her family too, so I had to find them. We needed to give her name back to her and return her remains to her family." Roberts was 17 at the time of her murder, though initial police estimations of her age were much older. Her body was found by blackberry pickers, and the medical examiner determined she had been dead for approximately 5 days before discovery. She was discovered fully clothed in a pastel tank top and denim cutoffs. As her identity remained unknown, Roberts' case was relegated as a cold case. In 2020, genetic testing via hair samples was used to locate her biological family, who led to her adoptive family.
Harold Dean Clouse Jr. and Tina Linn Clouse, formerly known as the Harris County Does, were a pair of formerly unidentified murder victims found outside of Houston, Texas in January, 1981. After moving in the summer of 1980 with their infant daughter, Holly Marie, from Volusia County, Florida to Lewisville, Texas, the Clouses stopped contacting their families in October, 1980. Their remains were found in a wooded area north of Houston on January 12, 1981. The bodies were found within feet of each other, both significantly decomposed, with a post-mortem interval of approximately two months. Dean Clouse had been bound and beaten to death, and Tina Clouse was strangled. Holly Marie’s remains were not found with or near her parents' remains. After the two bodies were not identified and the case grew cold, they were buried in anonymous graves, where they remained unidentified for 41 years. In 2011, the Clouses’ bodies were exhumed for genetic testing. In 2021, forensic genealogists positively identified the Harris County Does as Dean and Tina Clouse, however, Holly Marie’s whereabouts remained unaccounted for. In 2022, Holly Marie was located alive in Oklahoma, with no memory of the traumatic events of her infancy.
Shirley Ann Soosay, formerly known as Kern County Jane Doe, is a formerly unidentified decedent found in an almond orchard in Delano, California on 14 July 1980. A member of the Samson Cree Nation, Soosay grew up in Maskwacis, in Alberta. For most of her adult life, Soosay lived in Edmonton and then later Vancouver, though she remained in regular contact with her family until 1979, when cards from her stopped coming. The last time she had been seen in person by her family, Shirley had given indication that she might visit Seattle, and so beginning in 1980, Shirley's niece Violet Soosay-Wolf began to search Seattle and British Columbia for Shirley. On 14 July 1980, Soosay's body was found deep into an almond orchard in Delano. Soosay had been raped and stabbed 29 times before being dumped at the site. Local police investigation into the victim's identity included following leads from her autopsy and opening tip lines to the public, but local authorities were unable to make significant progress. In 2012, DNA analysis of another unidentified woman who was murdered in Ventura County, California several days after Soosay's murder showed the crimes to be committed by the same perpetrator. In 2018, though both victims remained unidentified, Wilson Chouest was convicted of both murders. In 2018, investigators from Kern County reached out to the DNA Doe Project (DDP) for assistance identifying their victim. In February 2020, DDP volunteers were unable to proceed genealogical investigation because of a lack of Indigenous DNA in DNA databases. The DDP made a Facebook post appealing for help, which was quickly seen by Violet Soosay-Wolf. Soosay-Wolf submitted her DNA for comparison, and in February 2020 Kern County Jane Doe was confirmed as Shirley Soosay. Soosay's case is held up as one of the earliest examples of unidentified Indigenous American remains to be identified through investigative genetic genealogy.
References
- ↑ Murphy, Austin (May 13, 2019). "Sonoma County grandmother identifies murder victims in decades-old cold cases". Sonoma Index-Tribune. Retrieved March 20, 2022.
- ↑ "DNA detectives are using new tools to solve decades-old cold cases". Wired UK. ISSN 1357-0978 . Retrieved 2021-10-04.
- ↑ Petski, Denise (2021-01-14). "'Blood Relative': Dawnn Lewis & Jude Elizabeth Mayer Join Fox Drama Pilot In Recastings". Deadline. Retrieved 2021-10-04.
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ Zhang, Sarah (2018-04-27). "How a Genealogy Website Led to the Alleged Golden State Killer". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2021-10-04.
- 1 2 3 4 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.
- 1 2 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.
- ↑ Olsen, Lise (May 2020). "The Disappeared". Texas Observer. Vol. 112, no. 3.
- 1 2 "Elegy for a Thief". Kirkus Reviews. April 15, 1993.
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