CHILLING cold cases around the world are finally being solved with at-home DNA tests, a forensics expert has revealed.
With the help of kits combined with AI and algorithms, individuals who have committed serious crimes are being apprehended quickly, often through the DNA provided by their family members who sent samples to uncover their heritage or locate distant relatives.
Genetic genealogy, also referred to as DNA testing, is a method that has proven to be effective in identifying suspects, such as in the case of the alleged quadruple homicide perpetrator at the University of Idaho.
An important breakthrough in the investigation occurred when a knife sheath discovered at the scene of the 2022 murders was connected to Bryan Kohberger, the 28-year-old suspect, using genetic genealogy.
A trial date has still not been set in the case against him.
And a notorious 27-year-old murder mystery was recently solved after an Ancestry DNA test resulted in an arrest.
TikToker Jenna Rose Gerwatowski, 23, revealed in a video that a DNA test led to her grandmother’s arrest in an open cold case.
An actress also found a suspect in a cold case murder of teenage sweethearts using a DNA ancestry website.
Even the Golden State Killer was found after genetic experts and investigators found and studied his third cousins.
Then other information like genealogical records, approximate age and crime locations helped to narrow the search down to the sick murderer, his real name Joseph James DeAngelo.
When you have unknown DNA at the crime scene, there’s no right to privacy for that individual
Dr Ray Wickenheiser
He terrorised the state of California for more than two decades – earning other monikers such as The Night Stalker, The Visalia Ransacker, and The East Area Rapist.
Dr Ray Wickenheiser is a recent retiree from the New York State Police Crime Laboratory System where he has been incredibly active in the forensic investigative genetic genealogy department.
He told The Sun that cops are moving away from the usual law enforcement databases that store DNA, and trying new routes to catch the world’s most heinous criminals.
At-home DNA tests have become an extremely effective way to track down those who have spent years hiding away from serving time for their crimes.
Dr Wickenheiser explained how normally using law enforcement databases, cops do what is called “direct matching”.
This is where if somebody is in your “national DNA index” and cops also have DNA from the crime scene, they’re able to “look for exactly that individual”.
But cases have turned cold and victims have not had justice served as an exact match is needed to find those in the police database.
And Dr Wickenheiser said if it doesn’t match, “well, you’re pretty much done”.
A lot of criminals would not be in the cop’s database if they’re first-time offenders, nor their relatives – leading experts to publicly access information on genealogy sites.
While there has been uproar in the past on how ethical the method is, Dr Wickenheiser argues that using the sites is justified as those directly involved in a crime have “no right to privacy”.
He said: “Genealogy is one of the biggest hobbies in the US and probably around the world.
“People want to know where they came from, who their family tree is. It’s just a very interesting thing.
“So using essentially what’s already in place for a hobby enterprise, and it’s the same concept – I’m searching for a long lost relative. I have this profile that’s at the crime scene. I want to find a related individual because that’s a known person.
“And then through building the family trees, I can figure out who this unknown person is.
“So when you have unknown DNA at the crime scene, there’s no right to privacy for that individual. The existing profile we put into that DNA database, we didn’t get a direct match.
The fact that you share that DNA with your family tree is allowing us really, frankly, to do our job
Dr Ray Wickenheiser
“Now, what we’re doing is using the existing tools of genealogy, searching for a long lost relative, and then using those known people to build a tree, to then try to get back to who could this person be, who was at the scene of the crime, do they have the right age, the right sex, the right location.
“We’re using existing tools, but we’re applying it in a new way.”
There are currently two sites which, with informed consent, put forward kit users’ DNA to law enforcement – GEDmatch and FamilyTreeDNA.
Both sites also allow users to transfer DNA data from other sites like Ancestry, FamilyTreeDNA and 23andMe into their database.
These can then be accessed by law enforcement who are looking to identify perpetrators of crimes.
GED match website reads: “Your kit WILL be compared with kits submitted by law enforcement to identify perpetrators of violent crimes.
“The operators of GEDmatch encourage everybody to select this option.”
AI and algorithms have created a quicker process of catching those at the scene as they map out different DNA before searching and comparing it to others on the database.
Dr Wickenheiser explained: “You have search algorithms that do things that we could never do.
“You can appreciate there are at this point, for different companies, a total of 40 million people worldwide who have done the same thing.
“The idea is you’re doing this very complex DNA comparison, but it distils down to a simple number.”
But Dr Wickenheiser pointed out how there are drawbacks from using AI and various algorithms to catch criminals using genealogy.
He described how “so many errors” can occur and potentially catch the wrong people, like those who have been adopted into families.
Dr Wickenheiser said: “Genetically there’s going to be nuances, there’s going to be misappropriated parentage, those things happen and people have to be able to know.”
While modern tech and genealogy data work hand-in-hand to solve crime – this would not be possible without experts looking over it too and comparing it with other evidence.
Dr Wickenheiser said: “We’re really cognisant of how big of a deal it is. The fact that every country, including England and their match rate, maybe it’s 70 percent of the database.
“It still means that you have 30 percent of cases where you have a perpetrator at large, you have their DNA at the crime scene and you haven’t been able to find a match.
“So those are the cases that we can solve with this technique.
“We just want to make sure we know what’s going to be scrutinized.
“We just want to make sure it’s done right and that people can see that it’s done right.
“It’s those fail safes that you want to use technology.
“But we have this new magical tool that using the relatedness, other pieces of DNA, other features of DNA, the fact that you share that DNA with your family tree is allowing us really, frankly, to do our job.”
Who were the four victims of the Idaho murders?
FOUR University of Idaho students were brutally killed in November 2022.
The four students identified by the police on November 14, 2022, were Ethan Chapin, 20, Xana Kernodle, 20, Madison Mogen, 21, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21.
The students’ bodies were found near campus, in a rental house in the city of Moscow, Idaho, on November 13, 2022.
Ethan Chapin, 20
College officials report that Ethan Chapin was a freshman and member of the Sigma Chi fraternity from Conway, Washington, majoring in Recreation, Sport, and Tourism Management.
He was one of a set of triplets who were also students at the University of Idaho and had spent the night before his death with both of his siblings at his sister’s sorority dance.
According to social media posts, he was dating Xana Kernodle.
Ethan didn’t live in the house but was staying over the night of the murder.
Xana Kernodle, 20
Xana was a junior at the University of Idaho majoring in marketing at the College of Business and Economics.
She was also a member of the Pi Beta Phi sorority.
Xana was allegedly the last of the four students killed in the bloody rampage, and she fought until the very end.
An unnamed source told News Nation: “Xana Kernodle put up a fierce fight when the attacker set upon her, repeatedly grabbing the attacker’s knife.
“So much so that she sustained deep cuts to her fingers and that her fingers were nearly severed.”
Madison Mogen, 21
Madison Mogen was a senior from Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, majoring in Marketing.
She was the sorority’s director of PR and Marketing and was best friends with fellow victim Kaylee Goncalves.
Kaylee’s father even told the public that the girls had been sharing a bed on the night of the murders.
At a vigil weeks after the murders, Goncalves’ father Mr Goncalves told how the two “absolutely beautiful” young women first met in sixth grade and became inseparable.
“They just found each other and every day they did homework together, they came to our house together, they shared everything,” he said at the time.
“Then they started looking at colleges, they came here together. They eventually get into the same apartment together.
“And in the end, they died together, in the same room, in the same bed.”
Kaylee Goncalves, 21
Kaylee Goncalves was a senior pursuing a General Studies major.
She was from Rathdrum, Idaho, and a member of the Alpha Phi sorority.
She planned to move to Austin, Texas, in June after graduation.
