At the same time our family will always feel the emptiness and the sorrow of her absence, said Carmen Marie Radtke, Marises sister, during the news conference. For over 60 years, the identity of a girl whose body was found in an Arizona desert has been a mystery. A gruesome double homicide opened the year of 1956 in Great Falls, Montana. "When I looked at her, I just knew. Market data provided by Factset. In 1978, he was arrested for recklessly endangering and harassment, police said. In 2020, genealogist Eric Schubert contacted the state police offering to help free of charge and lend his unique skill set of tracing down family trees to find matches. It was the rare case in which a fleeting moment of conscience, and not new technology, was the key to unraveling a three-decade-old crime. After being interviewed by troopers in his Arkansas home in early August 2020, Branch died by suicide. DNA collected from crime scenes can now be uploaded to an online service that compares it to DNA submitted by people using companies like 23andMe to explore their genealogy. "The babysitter called the mother later, saying she really wanted the job, had a nice big yard and cared for other children as well.". The case went cold. Although police had fingerprints and photographs of Kelly, they believed that they had done all DNA testing possible in 2004. But years turned into decades, and police still didnt know who the suspect was. This, combined with re-interviewing witnesses and reviewing statements, led investigators to finally gather enough evidence for an arrest. This finally happened in 2022, when DNA information provided to public websites by members of the killer's family allowed authorities to focus on Scott Grim, a resident of the area who had never been charged with any crime. Published Recent groundbreaking technology has revolutionized the way law enforcement investigates cold cases and has led to breaks in dozens of previously unsolved cases in 2022 alone. After more than three decades of questions and grief, Tamika Reyes finally knows who killed her mother. They later determined that it matched the DNA on the envelope from 1990, confirming investigators belief that the person behind the letter was the killer. Online records show he is not eligible for parole in that state until 2030. Louise was eventually arrested for the double homicide in 2022.[3]. Nathan Trate said at the news conference. The team has. The 1980 murder of Asenath Dukat was one that shook the Columbus, Ohio community for a simple reason. After she hadn't been responding to calls from her family, her father and two maintenance workers made their way into her apartment. She was a firecracker very outgoing, not afraid of anything, very honest, blunt and caring, she said. The family of Melissa Highsmith provided this photo of her as a baby. More evidence, including Curran's clothes, was sent to a lab in Florida in 2022 where they performed new DNA-extracting techniques. Investigators said they identified Grim as the killer using genetic genealogy, which combines DNA evidence and traditional genealogy to find biological connections among people. He then resurfaced in San Francisco in 1974 when he met his second wife, Sarah Hepting. At the time of their deaths, Dean and Tina had a baby daughter, Holly, who was less than a year old. Ted Bundy, Jack the Ripperand DNA: New techsolvingmurders. She was strangled in 1988. Anna Kane. Melissa said she had a troubled childhood: "I didn't feel loved as a child. Police determined that Mr. Smith had indeed lived in the area at the time and had, in fact, been arrested for but never convicted of sexual assault and attempted murder in Las Vegas in 1998. According to A&E, of the 285,000 cold cases in the United States, just one in five will ever officially name a new suspect. The cases of Sophie Sergie and Marise Ann Chiverella went unsolved for decades, but thanks to DNA a. 12:45 PM EDT, Fri March 18, 2022. When 53-year-old John Stagner was beaten to death in his bed in Orlando, Florida, in 1992, police honed in on a suspect almost immediately, according to Fox 35 Orlando: Ronald Cates, a friend of Stagner's who happened to be a drug addict. 00:22 Sophie Sergie04:45 Marise Chiverella07:56 Roxanne Leig. The night of July 19, the couple had a fight and William DeRoos went for a walk to get some air. She was more than that, she was a victim. To law enforcement agencies everywhere, arguably one of the greatest of these technologies would be the myriad uses of DNA profiling and, more recently, forensic genealogy. CNN Sans & 2016 Cable News Network. "Let this serve as a warning to every murderer, rapist, and violent offender out there," said Keri Farley, special agent in charge of the investigation. ". Police say they identified her killer after he licked an. Investigators said the biggest breakthrough in the case happened this year after they obtained a new sample of Grims DNA to compare with the older evidence. Over 4,000 pages of information have been compiled in this case over the years. A match was made, confirming Edward Geddes as the murderer and giving a modicum of closure to the family of Lina Reyes Geddes, who for 20 years had been known to Utah law enforcement only as the "Maidenwater victim," after the area in which she was found. A Warner Bros. On February 3, the result confirmed his DNA matched. Behind every long-term missing person or unsolved murder case is a family who continues to look for answers. Her coworker discovered her lifeless body in her bedroom. Like how you go from what little information you have to building a case like that was truly impressive, he said. In January 1981, the remains of a man and a woman were found murdered in woods outside of Houston, TX. Did you encounter any technical issues? Moore, who was at the news conference via Zoom, credited the databases of DNA that are now available to scientists because of genealogy testing and the detectives who collected evidence at the time of the murder. Syed had been convicted of murdering his high school ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee, in 1999. On September 19, 2022, a federal judge vacated the conviction of Adnan Syed, the subject of the 2014 podcast Serial and the 2016 HBO docuseries The Case Against Adnan Syed, after 23 years. Lee had disappeared and her body was found several weeks later, strangled. Amazingly, the cold case was solved within 20 minutes by YouTubers Adventures with Purpose (AWP). The case was revived in 2021 when Sgt. After he'd moved to Texas, and his letters had stopped coming, his mother says she was contacted by a member of the organization about returning his car. That detail was a small mole on Geddes' right ear, which was enough for police to make a tenuous connection to Geddes. Cold Cases We Were Surprised And Relieved To See Finally Solved Rima Pundir February 23, 2022 2.9k votes 606 voters 31.4k views List Rules Vote up all the cold cases that were closed in unexpected ways. Raymond Moody, now 62, pleaded guilty during an Oct. 19, 2022, hearing in Georgetown, South Carolina. On Aug. 23, 1971, the woman picked up Melissa from the mothers apartment, where a roommate had been watching the child while her mom was at work. A local newspaper, the Reading Eagle, ran a front-page story seeking information on Kanes death. Theyre trying to determine whether he knew Kane, and have urged anyone who knows the nature of their relationship to reach out. The young couple was then positively ID'd as Dean and Tina Clouse, who had recently relocated to Lewisville, TX from central Florida. (Yavapai County Sheriff's Office). Wise died in a car crash in 1999, but that fact did nothing to diminish the power of the statement given by the FBI's Atlanta office in the wake of the resolution of the case. All rights reserved. There was just intimate details about where she was disposed of, how her clothes were displayed, stuff like that, Womer said. The family reunited with Melissa, who now goes by Melanie, in Texas on the night of Thanksgiving and learned that she had grown up just minutes from where she was taken. The Ontelaunee Trail in Perry Township, where Kane's body was found, as seen in October 1988. But while her killer was soon arrested and convicted, her identity turned out to be a longer mystery. Throughout the years, more than 230 members of the Pennsylvania State Police worked on the case to no avail. Reyes was 9 when her mother was killed, and said she thinks about her every day. According to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, the Highsmith family had just moved to the Fort Worth area, and Melissa's mother placed a local newspaper ad seeking a babysitter. NEBRASKA MAN ID'D AS MINNESOTA COLD CASE MURDER VICTIM, The real Melissa Highsmith beside a colorized photo illustration of what she was believed to look like from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. 10 Unsettling Unsolved Cold Cases - Listverse Crime | April 26, 2022 10 Unsettling Unsolved Cold Cases by Estelle fact checked by Darci Heikkinen The saying goes, "the truth always comes out in the end." And for the most part, through life's twists and turns, that saying seems to ring true. Going over the old case files, they zeroed in on Larry David Smith, who had been interviewed in connection with the slaying in 1973 but was never seriously considered a suspect. She was only 9 years old. We will be examining cold cases that were solved in 2022. Police theorized that the killing may have been part of a pattern of attempted child abductions going on at the time, and over the years following, they investigated a slew of potential suspects, even resorting to the not-so-solid technique of hypnotizing subjects in their attempts to elicit a confession. In addition, forensic genetic genealogy has given back the names of Jane and John Does who had remained unidentified for decades. 5 Decades-Old Cold Cases Finally Solved Twenty-three-year-old Tonya McKinley had gone to Darryl's Bar & Grille in Pensacola, Florida, to celebrate the upcoming new year of 1985 but never returned home to her 18-month-old son. Ten days prior to the discovery of her remains, little Sharon was abducted by two people who had allegedly been stalking her. Rita Curran was murdered in her Burlington apartment in 1971, and the case remained a mystery for years. In 2009, Dawn and Chad Drexel lived every parent's worst nightmare. We were fortunate enough to have most of the related family cooperate and provide us their DNA samples.. Market data provided by Factset. Crimes have become much easier to solve if DNA is present. A spot of blood on the victims shirt that seemed to suggest the culprit stood over the body and bled on the shirt as he ransacked the victims pockets. But in a Tuesday news conference, the Burlington Police Department announced that Curran's case was solved and the man responsible for the 24-year-old's murder, William DeRoos, died years ago. Police had gained new information about a party back in 2008 or 2009, where Rice allegedly admitted to the murder while intoxicated. Dahns family, including Mark Beyer, her then 2-year-old son who has no recollection of the incident, spent 34 years wondering who murdered her and why, but thanks to investigative genetic genealogy, investigators were able to track down the suspect, Warren Robertson, a man who also lived in the same apartment complex as Dahn in 1988, according to investigators. The keys to the car appeared to have been dropped between the drivers seat and the door and were not readily visible, the document says. As for the moniker "Little Miss Nobody," Yavapai County Sheriff David Rhodes had only one succinct comment: "I hope we never hear that name again. You know you have family, you know you have family who loves you, but sometimes you do feel alone all the time.. He died in the hospital three days later, and his murder would become the oldest such unsolved crime in the history of the county, according to the New York Post. But that doesnt mean there wasnt some connection that we havent figured out yet, Womer said. After what investigators called an exhaustive process, nine family trees were created with nearly 1,300 people connected to Robertson either through blood or marriage. Investigators determined Drexel was strangled. Investigators analyzed Kanes clothing and found traces of an unknown mans DNA. Nearly 58 years ago, Marise Chiverella was murdered and her body left in a hole in Hazleton, Pennsylvania. At a cemetery in Annandale, Virginia (pictured), the body of a middle-aged woman was found. Patrick Gilham pleaded no contest to murder of Roxanne Wood. A new division at the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office, dubbed the Cold Case Homicide Squad, took over the investigation in 2005 -- but it would still be another 16 years until a forensic. Today we take a look at 20 cold cases that were solved in 2022. The murder of 33-year-old Santa Cruz, California, restaurant owner Joette Smith was precipitated by what should have been an innocuous circumstance. In order to find another match to Mr. Originally from Rochester, New York, Drexel was spending her spring break vacation in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and was last seen walking from one hotel to another. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. In the world of unsolved mysteries, it is always satisfying to see some of. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. I felt a little bit of everything when I found out, she told CNN. Meanwhile, detectives sent the genetic evidence from the cigarette butt to a genealogy company to see if a bigger database of DNA could help them find the killer. A Danby, Vermont couple, George and Catherine Peacock, were murdered in September 1989. Colorado police solve four decades-old homicide cold cases with DNA from exhumed killer Vianne Falcon, Falcon-Dewey's mother, told CNN affiliate KING on Wednesday that she was emotionally. Reyes said shes still bothered by the image the media painted of her mother, who was unemployed at the time of her death. While police determined the murders to be connected and despite following many leads, the case eventually went cold. All of that stuff was preserved the way it should be, because they knew probably somewhere down the line whatever they collected could be that little piece of evidence (to solve the case), Trate said. In February 2019, DNA from Baggens clothes and body was submitted to a public genealogy database after previous attempts to match the DNA had been unsuccessful. A man named Michael Louise, who was the Peacocks son-in-law, was identified as a suspect a few weeks later. All rights reserved. Richard Cottingham and victim Diane Cusick. Nothing, that is, until 2018, when an amateur cold case enthusiast came forward with one tiny detail after police reopened the case. But, after 52 years, Curran's family finally has closure. No child should ever have to grow up without their mom.. Both were signed "Jane Doe," and despite their best efforts, police were unable to identify the woman who would become known as the "Christmas tree lady" (via DC News Now). The man who would eventually be named as her killer, Raymond Moody, had been a person of interest in Brittanee Drexel's disappearance as far back as 2012 but until just recently, they had nothing solid connecting him to the crime. Then Reyes got a call last week from a detective about a stunning development in the case. These two cases were investigated separately until 2003, when the national DNA database CODIS revealed that samples from both crimes matched the same man. Today we take a look at 20 Cold Cases Solved In 2022. part one: https://youtu.be/djTovLJF. Missing Melissa Highsmith's mother poses next to a composite sketch of her daughter's suspected kidnapper in a Fort Worth Star Telegram newspaper article. The woman allegedly offered her clothes and sweets, but she refused, at which point she was forced into the vehicle. Here are a dozen of the most stubbornly unresolved cold cases that were finally put to bed in 2022. The 17-year-old had left home in Chili, NY, without telling her parents, who were going through a divorce. But in November 2022, a DNA test from the website 23andMe connected Highsmith's children to the family she was born into. He died in 1980 of natural causes, possibly a heart attack, according to police. In this case, investigators were looking for relatives whose DNA matched those of the unidentified suspect in Dahns murder. The circumstances around what led up to her death remain a mystery, 34 years later -- but DNA evidence points to her killer. The extensive family tree Schubert put together led investigators to James Forte, who had a record of violent sexual assault. Cates had developed a habit of borrowing and pawning power tools from Stagner, a city maintenance worker, in order to support this habit; even Cates' own family members had long suspected his involvement in the killing, but police were never able to gather enough evidence to support a probable cause warrant for his arrest. NYC 'TORSO KILLER PLEADS GUILTY TO 1968 MURDER OF LONG ISLAND WOMAN DIANE CUSICK, ADMITS TO KILLING 4 OTHERS. Before Drummond could be arrested, he died by suicide.[8]. CNN Sans & 2016 Cable News Network. 25, 2022 at 9:15 PM PDT. According to Garden Grove Deputy Police Chief Amir Al Farra, she was sexually assaulted and strangled to death. The letter writer also left his DNA when he licked the envelope. In announcing his identity, Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said Joseph had "experienced horrors that no one, no one should ever be subjected to. According to Mosby, the clothes had never been tested, and DNA evidence confirmed that Syed was not involved in his girlfriend's murder. The technique is used to create family trees based on genetic similarities to hopefully lead back to the owner of the unknown sample. The detectives careful preservation of DNA evidence in 1988 provided a solid foundation for todays investigators to examine with new technology, Pennsylvania State Police Sgt. In May 2020, investigators started using investigative genetic genealogy, which combines DNA evidence and traditional genealogy, to find biological connection between people. No one deserves what happened to her.. More evidence, including Curran's clothes, was sent to a lab in Florida in 2022 where they performed new DNA-extracting techniques. She also plans to remarry her current husband so her father can walk her down the aisle. The cops never took their eye off of Drummond despite the fact that he left the state shortly after committing the crime, and when improved DNA technology allowed them to develop a sturdy profile of Smith's killer, they zeroed in on him in earnest. While his identity was a major break in the case, police are still working to determine who killed Joseph and why. Detective Lt. Jason Moran, Cook County Sheriff's Office, Special Victims/Forensic Services Unit. 60, College student with passion for genealogy helps solve Marise Chiverella cold case, Detectives: Joette Marie Smith taught us to not give up, Willoughby Police solve cold case with new DNA technology, Authorities Arrest Man Linked To 1975 Pennsylvania Murder By DNA Testing, Ten Cold Case Killings That Have Puzzled Police for Decades, 10 Years-Old Cold Cases That Were Solved by Cigarettes, 10 Famous Cold Cases That Could Be Solved In 2021, Top 10 Mysteries, Cold Cases & Puzzles That Were, Top 10 Best Movies Of The Last 10 Decades, Top 10 Best Comedy Duos Of The Last 10 Decades, 10 Abducted Children Who Found Their Way Home Decades Later, Top 10 Bizarre Elements Of The Elisa Lam Case, 10 Awesome New Discoveries About the Human Past from DNA, Ten True Tales from Americas Toughest Prison, 10 Times Members of Secretive Societies and Organizations Spilled the Beans, 10 Common Idioms with Unexpectedly Dark Origins, 10 North American Animals with Misplaced Reputations, Top 10 Creepiest and Strangest Homes on Zillow, Top Ten Worst Book to Movie Adaptations Ever Filmed, Ten Seriously Spooky Unsolved Spring Break Mysteries, 10 Significant Biblical Archaeology Discoveries, 10 Huge Songs You Didnt Know Were Written for Movies, 10 Amazing Animals That Can Detect Human Diseases, Top 10 Grim Cold Cases With Recent Twists And Turns, 10 Tragic Unsolved Cases Of Murdered Families, 10 Twisted Facts About Peter Kurten, The Vampire Of Dusseldorf, 10 Atrocious Experiments Conducted By Unit 731, 10 Loving Fathers Who Snapped And Slaughtered Their Families, 10 Seemingly Innocent People Who Were Secretly Monsters. 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