Information you share about your family's DNA
might be helping authorities catch suspects
wanted for violent crimes.
Fayetteville police
used genetic genealogy DNA testing to help locate Bowden.
While Mesa police announced an arrest
in the 2006 murder of Scott Martinez.
Virginia Freeman stabbed and strangled.
DNA and genealogical research has pinpointed a killer.
A mother's torment as her daughter's killer
is sentenced for molesting
and killing little April Tinsley.
We're so numb and emotional right now.
Ce Ce Moore, head of the genetic genealogy
unit at Parabon NanoLabs.
Her unit cracked the cold case after her lab
combined DNA evidence samples from the case
with the public genealogy database.
Law enforcement here and around the country
using genetic genealogy to solve cold cases
and give victims' families justice.
I think about the victim's family all the time
when doing the work.
I most see there's hope that it brings a sense
of closure and peace.
Well, so you understand, CeCe's work helped arrest
a suspect, Darold Wayne Bowden,
in the Ramsey Street Rapist case.
But she has never met Coby in person until now.
CeCe, come out and please meet this young woman.
(audience clapping)
It's so nice to see you.
How're you doing?
Really good. Oh, I got some makeup on your chin.
That's okay.
Hi.
Good to see you, how are you?
Nice to see you again.
I know Dr. Phil better than you might think.
Yes, uh.
(laughing)
Ce Ce knows a lot about me and a lot about my family,
because I did a show called Finding Your Roots
on PBS, with Professor Gates and you did
all the DNA work.
Here is an example of how Ce Ce narrows
in on a suspect
and it all starts with the match.
And Ce Ce, kind of walk us through this.
So the crime scene DNA is compared to a database
called GenMatch and there's about 1.2 million people
in that database.
We're looking for people that share significant
stretches of DNA with that suspect.
And then, based on how much DNA someone shares with him,
I can reverse engineer his family tree
based on their family trees.
So, our chart here shows two different matches.
They each share about 1% of their DNA
with our unknown suspect,
which means they're probably third cousins with him.
They also share DNA with each other,
which means they should have a common ancestral couple.
So, if I can figure out how match number one
and match number two are related,
then I know that the suspect also has to descend
from that same common ancestor.
This particular case was a little bit
more complicated than that.
But, this is sort of the general idea
of the work that I'm doing.
It helps them go identify a suspect,
then they can start the investigation from there
as opposed to just shooting in the dark.
Right.
I'm providing this highly scientific tip,
but the investigators still have
to build that case against that person.
Right.
There's no way they would arrest
based on genetic genealogy.
They'd only be able to do that
if they could confirm my findings
and build a case against that person.
And there have been a lot of cases
that have been solved, uh, Raymond Charles Rowe
murdered and raped a 25 year old elementary school teacher.
The case was 25 years old.
You helped identify him and he plead guilty.
John Dale Miller murdered and molested
an eight year old girl.
The case was 30 years old.
He was identified and plead guilty.
Spencer Glen Monnett raped a 79 year old woman.
The case was three months old.
He was identified and plead guilty.
So, these are just some of the cases
that through this work, they were identified.