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Usage by law enforcement
Cadetrain: Cadetrain moved page Usage by law enforcement to List of perpetrators of crimes arrested or identified with GEDmatch.com: name not good enough
In December 2018 police forces in the United States said that, with the help of GEDmatch and genetic genealogy, they had been able to find suspects in a total of 28 cold murder and rape cases in the year 2018.Also in December 2018, [[Family Tree DNA]] allowed the law enforcement agencies including the FBI to upload DNA profiles from crime scenes to help solve cold crimes. So from then onwards GEDmatch was not the only site that could be used by law enforcement officials to solve crimes using genetic genealogy.
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* California law enforcement investigating the [[Golden State Killer]] case uploaded the [[DNA profile]] of the suspected serial rapist/killer from an intact [[Rape kit|rape kit]] in Ventura County to GEDmatch. It identified 10 to 20 distant relatives of the Golden State Killer, and a team of five investigators working with genealogist [[Barbara Rae-Venter]] used this to construct a large family tree, which led them to identify former police officer Joseph James DeAngelo as a suspect. Investigators acquired samples of his DNA from items he discarded outside his home, one of which definitively matched that of the killer. The process took about four months, from when the first matches appeared on GEDmatch, to when DeAngelo was arrested in April 2018.
* In September 2018, [[Roy Charles Waller]] was arrested as a suspect in a series of more than ten rapes between 1991–2006 in Northern California (the "Norcal Rapist") after DNA evidence from crime scenes were matched on GEDmatch to a relative. Police then constructed a family tree and using the known characteristics of the rapist narrowed the suspects down to Waller. It took little more than a week to identify and arrest the suspect. He was charged with a total of 40 counts of rape which took place in different counties — [[Sonoma County, California|Sonoma]], [[Solano County, California|Solano]], [[Contra Costa County, California|Contra Costa]], [[Yolo County, California|Yolo]] and [[Butte County, California|Butte]].
In cooperation with American law enforcement organizations, [[Parabon NanoLabs]] started uploading [[DNA evidence]] from crime scenes to GEDmatch in an attempt to identify perpetrators. Parabon said in November 2018 they said they were working on 200 cases and about half had produced matches.
* In 2018, the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office announced the arrest of William Earl Talbott II, a former truck driver, as a suspect in the double murder of [[Murder of Jay Cook and Tanya Van Cuylenborg|murder of Jay Cook and Tanya Van Cuylenborg]]. Law enforcement investigators from the state of [[Washington (state)|Washington]] investigating the murder had worked with Parabon NanoLabs to assemble a digital DNA profile of the suspected murderer and uploaded it to GEDmatch. The website had two relatives who were a close match to the DNA profile, and within three days the genealogist [[CeCe Moore]] was able to narrow down the profile to one suspect.
* Law enforcement in [[Lancaster County, Pennsylvania]] working with [[Parabon NanoLabs]] used GEDmatch to identify a relative of the murderer in the 1992 sexual assault and murder of the schoolteacher Christy Mirack in her home in [[East Lampeter Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania|East Lampeter Township]]. Raymond Charles Rowe (also known as "D.J. Freez"), was arrested in June 2018. He and Mirack frequented some of the same clubs, and Rowe's route to work took him past Mirack's apartment, Lancaster County District Attorney Craig Stedman said, Stedman said Rowe did not provide a motive when he confessed. Rowe was sentenced to life without parole. He has since been moved [[State Correctional Institution - Waymart]]
* Law enforcement officers also used GEDmatch to narrow down suspects to two brothers in the 1986 rape and murder of 12 year old Michella Welch in [[Tacoma, Washington|Tacoma Washington]]. Gary C. Hartman, one of the brothers, was arrested and charged in June 2018.
* GEDmatch was also used to identify the murderer of 40 year old Virginia Freeman in [[Brazos, Texas]] in 1981, as James Otto Earhart, who had been executed in 1991 for another murder.
* In July 2018, John D. Miller confessed to the [[Murder of April Tinsley|1988 rape and murder of 8 year old April Tinsley]] near [[Fort Wayne, Indiana]], after DNA samples were sent to GEDmatch and used to identify his relatives. Miller was sentenced to 80 years in prison.
* Spencer Monnet was identified using GEDmatch and arrested in July 2018 for the burglary and rape of a 79-year-old woman in Utah, 14 weeks after the crime had been committed.
* In August 2018, Darold Wayne Bowden was charged with being the Ramsey Street Rapist, a serial rapist who assaulted women in [[Fayetteville, North Carolina]] from 2006 to 2008. DNA samples uploaded to GEDmatch were linked to him.
* In August 2018, Michael Henslick was arrested as a suspect in the murder of 22-year-old Holly Cassano in 2009 in [[Champaign, Illinois]], after DNA evidence left at the scene was linked to him through GEDmatch.
* In September 2018, Marlon Michael Alexander was arrested as a suspect for a series of rapes in [[Montgomery County, Maryland]] between 2007-2011 after DNA samples from the rapes linked the perpetrator through GEDmatch to two relatives, one of whom, a female relative in Georgia, helped the local police identify Alexander.
* Luke Fleming was arrested in September 2018 as a suspect in the 1999 rape and murder of Deborah Dalzell in [[Sarasota, Florida]]. Using autosomal DNA from his sperm and GEDmatch, Parabon constructed a family tree which pointed to a Florida resident Joseph Fleming, who was dead, but had two living sons, one of whom, Luke Fleming matched DNA from the crime scene. Luke Fleming's trial date was scheduled for February 2020.
* In October 2018 Parabon used GEDmatch to identify [[Robert Eugene Brashers]], a "violent serial rapist and murderer," as the 1990 killer of 28 year old Genevieve Zitricki in [[Greenville, South Carolina|Greenville South Carolina]], as the rapist of a 14-year-old girl in 1997 in [[Memphis, Tennessee|Memphis Tennessee]] and the murder of 12-year old Megan Sherer and her mother 38-year-old Sherri Sherer in [[Portageville, Missouri]] in 1998. Brashers had committed suicide in 1999 after he was approached by police officers in [[Kennett, Missouri]]. His body was dug up in 2018 and confirmed a match to DNA from the crime scenes.
* Parabon's technology led to the arrest of Michael Wayne Devaughn in the murder case of 65-year-old Betty Jones and in the sexual assault case of 81-year-old Kathryn Crigler in [[Starkville, Mississippi]] in 1990, who died two months later (called the 'Labor Day Murder'). Devaughn, already in jail for a drug offense, was arrested in October 2018. He faces either the death penalty or life without parole.
* Parabon helped the [[Faulkner County, Arkansas]] police identify Edward Keith Renegar in October 2018 as the primary suspect of the kidnap, rape and murder of 32 year old Pam Felkins in [[Greenbrier, Arkansas|Greenbriar, Arkansas]] in 1990. Renegar was convicted of kidnapping a woman at knife-point in Arkansas 1994 but had died in 2002.
* In November 2018 the [[Fulton County, Georgia]] police with the aid of Parabon's DNA Genetic Genealogy unit, tracked down and arrested 61 year old Jerry Lee in Alabama for the 1997 murder of 28 year old Lorrie Ann Smith. It was obvious that Smith had fought for her life and Police were able to use blood from the murder scene to extract the killers DNA. The police noted at the time of the arrest that "Despite a reward of more than $30,000 and DNA tests conducted on more than 100 individuals over the last 21 years, Police had been unable to positively identify the suspect until this week."
* In November 2018 Maryland police, with the help of Parabon, arrested Fred Frampton Jr. for the armed robbery and shooting of 24 year old Michael Anthony Temple Jr. in [[Odenton, Maryland]] in 2010 leaving Temple a quadriplegic. Temple died in 2015 as a result of the 2010 attack. The robbery and murder was committed by two men but the second suspect, Jonathan Ludwig, had died in March 2018.
* In November 2018, Benjamin Lee Holmes was arrested as a suspect in the murder of University of Florida student Christine Franke 17 years earlier in October 21, 2001 when she was shot in the head during a robbery in [[Orlando, Florida]]. Parabon used a sample from the crime scene to put the DNA of the killer into GEDmatch and identified three distant cousins. They used genealogy techniques to narrow down to the most likely suspects. Law enforcement interviewed family members, collected DNA samples and compared them to the killer's DNA, Detective Micheal Fields said. " Through this testing, we were able to show the kinship relationship between the killer and different family members. We eliminated most of the family using genetic genealogy and eventually, we were able to narrow down the suspect list to two brothers, one of which was Benjamin Lee Holmes."
* Parabon helped the [[Carlsbad, California]] police In November 2018 identify David Marbrito as the suspected killer of 39 year old Jodine Serrin in 2007 using DNA matches to some of his relatives. Marbrito was an itinerant who had family in the area and had died in 2011. Police discovered they already had an unprocessed DNA sample from Marbrito that matched Serrin's killer.
* Parabon used GEDmatch to point towards John Arthur Getreu as a suspect in the murder by strangulation of 21-year-old [[Stanford University]] graduate Leslie Marie Perlov in 1973 in [[Santa Clara, California]].After Police found Getreu's DNA matched the DNA from the scene of Perlov's death they arrested him.
* In December 2018 Christopher Quinn Williams was arrested in [[Montgomery, Texas]] as a suspect in multiple burglaries since October 2015. The burglar broke into homes and fondled sleeping women.
* In December 2018, Jerry Lynn Burns was arrested as the suspect in the December 1979 murder of 18 year old Michelle Martinko in [[Cedar Rapids, Iowa]] after Parabon used GEDmatch to build the suspect's family tree from his DNA left at the scene and from relatives who had entered their DNA.
* In January 2019, Florida Police announced Parabon had identified William Louis Nichols as the violent rapist of a 12 year old girl in [[Hernando County, Florida]] in 1983 using genetic genealogy but Nichols had already died in 1998 of cancer. Nichols had a history of sexual offences.
* In January 2019, Russell Anthony Guerrero was arrested in Arizona and had to be extradited to California. The [[Alameda County, California|Alameda County]] District Attorney's Office charged him with the December 17, 1990 murder in [[Fremont, California|Freemont, California]] of Jack Upton who had not shown up to work for several days. Officers went to the 30-year-old man's apartment and found his body. Police called it "a brutal homicide" when announcing the arrest.
* In January 2019, Zachary Bunney was arrested as a suspect in the June 2006, murder of Scott Martinez who was stabbed several times by a sword in [[La Mesa, California]].. Zachary faced a maximum of 26 years to life in prison.
* In January 2019, Portland police identified [[Jerry Walter McFadden]] as the man who strangled a 20-year-old woman found dead in her apartment in 1979 by matching crime-scene DNA to data in a GEDmatch.com, McFadden, was executed by lethal injection for the rape and slaying of an 18-year-old high school cheerleader, one of three people killed during a daylong murder rampage in 1986, about 100 miles east of Dallas. At the time of his arrest in those killings, he was on parole after three rape convictions.
* In February 2019, Jerry Westrom was arrested as the suspect behind the 1993 murder of Jeanne Ann Childs. In an interview after his arrest, Westrom denied being in the apartment. He said he did not know the victim, and said he did not have sex with any women in Minneapolis in 1993. When confronted with the DNA evidence, he told investigators he had no idea why his DNA would be present at that scene.
* In February 2019, Steven Downs was arrested for the 1993 Alaska murder of Sophie Sergie. Sergie's body was found by a custodian in the bathroom of an eight-story dormitory. She'd been sexually assaulted, stabbed and shot in the back of the head.
<br />
* California law enforcement investigating the [[Golden State Killer]] case uploaded the [[DNA profile]] of the suspected serial rapist/killer from an intact [[Rape kit|rape kit]] in Ventura County to GEDmatch. It identified 10 to 20 distant relatives of the Golden State Killer, and a team of five investigators working with genealogist [[Barbara Rae-Venter]] used this to construct a large family tree, which led them to identify former police officer Joseph James DeAngelo as a suspect. Investigators acquired samples of his DNA from items he discarded outside his home, one of which definitively matched that of the killer. The process took about four months, from when the first matches appeared on GEDmatch, to when DeAngelo was arrested in April 2018.
* In September 2018, [[Roy Charles Waller]] was arrested as a suspect in a series of more than ten rapes between 1991–2006 in Northern California (the "Norcal Rapist") after DNA evidence from crime scenes were matched on GEDmatch to a relative. Police then constructed a family tree and using the known characteristics of the rapist narrowed the suspects down to Waller. It took little more than a week to identify and arrest the suspect. He was charged with a total of 40 counts of rape which took place in different counties — [[Sonoma County, California|Sonoma]], [[Solano County, California|Solano]], [[Contra Costa County, California|Contra Costa]], [[Yolo County, California|Yolo]] and [[Butte County, California|Butte]].
In cooperation with American law enforcement organizations, [[Parabon NanoLabs]] started uploading [[DNA evidence]] from crime scenes to GEDmatch in an attempt to identify perpetrators. Parabon said in November 2018 they said they were working on 200 cases and about half had produced matches.
* In 2018, the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office announced the arrest of William Earl Talbott II, a former truck driver, as a suspect in the double murder of [[Murder of Jay Cook and Tanya Van Cuylenborg|murder of Jay Cook and Tanya Van Cuylenborg]]. Law enforcement investigators from the state of [[Washington (state)|Washington]] investigating the murder had worked with Parabon NanoLabs to assemble a digital DNA profile of the suspected murderer and uploaded it to GEDmatch. The website had two relatives who were a close match to the DNA profile, and within three days the genealogist [[CeCe Moore]] was able to narrow down the profile to one suspect.
* Law enforcement in [[Lancaster County, Pennsylvania]] working with [[Parabon NanoLabs]] used GEDmatch to identify a relative of the murderer in the 1992 sexual assault and murder of the schoolteacher Christy Mirack in her home in [[East Lampeter Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania|East Lampeter Township]]. Raymond Charles Rowe (also known as "D.J. Freez"), was arrested in June 2018. He and Mirack frequented some of the same clubs, and Rowe's route to work took him past Mirack's apartment, Lancaster County District Attorney Craig Stedman said, Stedman said Rowe did not provide a motive when he confessed. Rowe was sentenced to life without parole. He has since been moved [[State Correctional Institution - Waymart]]
* Law enforcement officers also used GEDmatch to narrow down suspects to two brothers in the 1986 rape and murder of 12 year old Michella Welch in [[Tacoma, Washington|Tacoma Washington]]. Gary C. Hartman, one of the brothers, was arrested and charged in June 2018.
* GEDmatch was also used to identify the murderer of 40 year old Virginia Freeman in [[Brazos, Texas]] in 1981, as James Otto Earhart, who had been executed in 1991 for another murder.
* In July 2018, John D. Miller confessed to the [[Murder of April Tinsley|1988 rape and murder of 8 year old April Tinsley]] near [[Fort Wayne, Indiana]], after DNA samples were sent to GEDmatch and used to identify his relatives. Miller was sentenced to 80 years in prison.
* Spencer Monnet was identified using GEDmatch and arrested in July 2018 for the burglary and rape of a 79-year-old woman in Utah, 14 weeks after the crime had been committed.
* In August 2018, Darold Wayne Bowden was charged with being the Ramsey Street Rapist, a serial rapist who assaulted women in [[Fayetteville, North Carolina]] from 2006 to 2008. DNA samples uploaded to GEDmatch were linked to him.
* In August 2018, Michael Henslick was arrested as a suspect in the murder of 22-year-old Holly Cassano in 2009 in [[Champaign, Illinois]], after DNA evidence left at the scene was linked to him through GEDmatch.
* In September 2018, Marlon Michael Alexander was arrested as a suspect for a series of rapes in [[Montgomery County, Maryland]] between 2007-2011 after DNA samples from the rapes linked the perpetrator through GEDmatch to two relatives, one of whom, a female relative in Georgia, helped the local police identify Alexander.
* Luke Fleming was arrested in September 2018 as a suspect in the 1999 rape and murder of Deborah Dalzell in [[Sarasota, Florida]]. Using autosomal DNA from his sperm and GEDmatch, Parabon constructed a family tree which pointed to a Florida resident Joseph Fleming, who was dead, but had two living sons, one of whom, Luke Fleming matched DNA from the crime scene. Luke Fleming's trial date was scheduled for February 2020.
* In October 2018 Parabon used GEDmatch to identify [[Robert Eugene Brashers]], a "violent serial rapist and murderer," as the 1990 killer of 28 year old Genevieve Zitricki in [[Greenville, South Carolina|Greenville South Carolina]], as the rapist of a 14-year-old girl in 1997 in [[Memphis, Tennessee|Memphis Tennessee]] and the murder of 12-year old Megan Sherer and her mother 38-year-old Sherri Sherer in [[Portageville, Missouri]] in 1998. Brashers had committed suicide in 1999 after he was approached by police officers in [[Kennett, Missouri]]. His body was dug up in 2018 and confirmed a match to DNA from the crime scenes.
* Parabon's technology led to the arrest of Michael Wayne Devaughn in the murder case of 65-year-old Betty Jones and in the sexual assault case of 81-year-old Kathryn Crigler in [[Starkville, Mississippi]] in 1990, who died two months later (called the 'Labor Day Murder'). Devaughn, already in jail for a drug offense, was arrested in October 2018. He faces either the death penalty or life without parole.
* Parabon helped the [[Faulkner County, Arkansas]] police identify Edward Keith Renegar in October 2018 as the primary suspect of the kidnap, rape and murder of 32 year old Pam Felkins in [[Greenbrier, Arkansas|Greenbriar, Arkansas]] in 1990. Renegar was convicted of kidnapping a woman at knife-point in Arkansas 1994 but had died in 2002.
* In November 2018 the [[Fulton County, Georgia]] police with the aid of Parabon's DNA Genetic Genealogy unit, tracked down and arrested 61 year old Jerry Lee in Alabama for the 1997 murder of 28 year old Lorrie Ann Smith. It was obvious that Smith had fought for her life and Police were able to use blood from the murder scene to extract the killers DNA. The police noted at the time of the arrest that "Despite a reward of more than $30,000 and DNA tests conducted on more than 100 individuals over the last 21 years, Police had been unable to positively identify the suspect until this week."
* In November 2018 Maryland police, with the help of Parabon, arrested Fred Frampton Jr. for the armed robbery and shooting of 24 year old Michael Anthony Temple Jr. in [[Odenton, Maryland]] in 2010 leaving Temple a quadriplegic. Temple died in 2015 as a result of the 2010 attack. The robbery and murder was committed by two men but the second suspect, Jonathan Ludwig, had died in March 2018.
* In November 2018, Benjamin Lee Holmes was arrested as a suspect in the murder of University of Florida student Christine Franke 17 years earlier in October 21, 2001 when she was shot in the head during a robbery in [[Orlando, Florida]]. Parabon used a sample from the crime scene to put the DNA of the killer into GEDmatch and identified three distant cousins. They used genealogy techniques to narrow down to the most likely suspects. Law enforcement interviewed family members, collected DNA samples and compared them to the killer's DNA, Detective Micheal Fields said. " Through this testing, we were able to show the kinship relationship between the killer and different family members. We eliminated most of the family using genetic genealogy and eventually, we were able to narrow down the suspect list to two brothers, one of which was Benjamin Lee Holmes."
* Parabon helped the [[Carlsbad, California]] police In November 2018 identify David Marbrito as the suspected killer of 39 year old Jodine Serrin in 2007 using DNA matches to some of his relatives. Marbrito was an itinerant who had family in the area and had died in 2011. Police discovered they already had an unprocessed DNA sample from Marbrito that matched Serrin's killer.
* Parabon used GEDmatch to point towards John Arthur Getreu as a suspect in the murder by strangulation of 21-year-old [[Stanford University]] graduate Leslie Marie Perlov in 1973 in [[Santa Clara, California]].After Police found Getreu's DNA matched the DNA from the scene of Perlov's death they arrested him.
* In December 2018 Christopher Quinn Williams was arrested in [[Montgomery, Texas]] as a suspect in multiple burglaries since October 2015. The burglar broke into homes and fondled sleeping women.
* In December 2018, Jerry Lynn Burns was arrested as the suspect in the December 1979 murder of 18 year old Michelle Martinko in [[Cedar Rapids, Iowa]] after Parabon used GEDmatch to build the suspect's family tree from his DNA left at the scene and from relatives who had entered their DNA.
* In January 2019, Florida Police announced Parabon had identified William Louis Nichols as the violent rapist of a 12 year old girl in [[Hernando County, Florida]] in 1983 using genetic genealogy but Nichols had already died in 1998 of cancer. Nichols had a history of sexual offences.
* In January 2019, Russell Anthony Guerrero was arrested in Arizona and had to be extradited to California. The [[Alameda County, California|Alameda County]] District Attorney's Office charged him with the December 17, 1990 murder in [[Fremont, California|Freemont, California]] of Jack Upton who had not shown up to work for several days. Officers went to the 30-year-old man's apartment and found his body. Police called it "a brutal homicide" when announcing the arrest.
* In January 2019, Zachary Bunney was arrested as a suspect in the June 2006, murder of Scott Martinez who was stabbed several times by a sword in [[La Mesa, California]].. Zachary faced a maximum of 26 years to life in prison.
* In January 2019, Portland police identified [[Jerry Walter McFadden]] as the man who strangled a 20-year-old woman found dead in her apartment in 1979 by matching crime-scene DNA to data in a GEDmatch.com, McFadden, was executed by lethal injection for the rape and slaying of an 18-year-old high school cheerleader, one of three people killed during a daylong murder rampage in 1986, about 100 miles east of Dallas. At the time of his arrest in those killings, he was on parole after three rape convictions.
* In February 2019, Jerry Westrom was arrested as the suspect behind the 1993 murder of Jeanne Ann Childs. In an interview after his arrest, Westrom denied being in the apartment. He said he did not know the victim, and said he did not have sex with any women in Minneapolis in 1993. When confronted with the DNA evidence, he told investigators he had no idea why his DNA would be present at that scene.
* In February 2019, Steven Downs was arrested for the 1993 Alaska murder of Sophie Sergie. Sergie's body was found by a custodian in the bathroom of an eight-story dormitory. She'd been sexually assaulted, stabbed and shot in the back of the head.
February 20, 2019 at 04:49AM