DNADETECTIVES FE ATURE
In the US, hundreds of long-forgotten cold cases are being
reopened by detectives who mine new DNA databases for
leads, but it seems time might be running out...
by SIMON CROMPTONFAMILY TREE FORENSICS
hen she answers my call, Paula
Armentrout is buzzing with the
news that’s just come through.
Her company’s DNA analysis
and genetic genealogy service
has just led to the arrest of a
man for two murders that happened four
years ago. It’s the 101st case of serious crime
solved as result of genetic detective work
by Parabon NanoLabs. The service was
launched just two years ago, in May 2018.
The Cincinnati man who’s been arrested
beat a mother and son to death in their home
in 2016. He might have thought he’d got
away with it, as at the time of the initial
investigation, the DNA sample found at
the crime scene matched nothing on the
police databases. The case went cold.
But Virginia-based Parabon provided a
new analysis of the DNA sample, which
allowed it to be compared with hundreds
of thousands of other DNA samples –
not on police databases but on online
genealogy services by members of the public
wanting to find relatives through geneticW
similarities. Just as in 100 other cases, the
analysis revealed people related to the
suspect, some distantly. Parabon’s genetic
genealogists then reverse-engineered a
family tree, joining the dots between
the crime scene DNA and relatives using
official birth, death and marriage records
and obituaries, to produce a list of leads
and potential suspects for whom the time,
the place and the DNA fitted.COLD CASES
In case 101, the process led to 51-year-old
Jonathan Hurst. Mobile phone records
confirmed that Hurst was in the area of
the crime scene on the day of the murders.
Police then tested his DNA and confirmed
a match to the crime scene DNA.
“In this case, we’ve been assisting law
enforcement agencies as needed for around a
year and a half,” says Armentrout, Parabon’s
vice president. “There are a lot of our cases
in that stage, with agencies investigating
leads we’ve generated or following up
recommendations that we’ve given them
from our genealogical perspective.”
Genetic genealogy has suddenly become
big in United States law enforcement.
The explosion began in April 2018, when
California law authorities announced the
identification and arrest of the suspected
Golden State Killer, responsible for 12
killings, 51 rapes, and more than 120
burglaries in California between 1974
and 1986. Police had drafted in the help
of genetic genealogists, who pointed
to former police officer Joseph James
DeAngelo after they had uploaded their
new analysis of his DNA data to an 2“GENETIC GENEALOGISTS THEN
REVERSE-ENGINEERED A FAMILY TREE,
JOINING THE DOTS BETWEEN THE
CRIME SCENE DNA AND RELATIVES”
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