There's an effort underway to solve
some mysterious deaths in Minnesota.
In these cases, not only do they not
know what happened to the victims,
they don't even know who they are.
Remains that have been
unidentified for decades.
Goose tells us about the DNA DOE project
and what it means to families who've
gone years without answers. They are
minnesotas. Unnamed victims,
John and Jane Doe's bodies
found but never identified.
We grew up together, so to think that
she was missing was pretty scary.
Behind every John and Jane Doe, however,
are real people seeking answers.
What is it like as years and
decades go by and it's still
is a mystery in the family? I
I think it's just always a sad
thing and and maybe we didn't talk
about it a lot as years went by,
but just felt so bad for her mother.
Arlene Seifert lost her 10 and 14
year old sons in California in
1958 when her husband described a
newspapers as a religious fanatic,
led the boys into a gunfight with police,
then killed his own sons and himself.
Arlene moved her daughter Roberta to
Minneapolis where she raised her in
Dinky Town. But then in 1976, Roberta,
not quite 22 years old, disappeared.
What did you think had happened to Roberta?
I knew she had, you know,
a troubled life just starting from,
you know, losing her,
her brothers and her dad and.
I was afraid she maybe got mixed
up with somebody that wasn't good
company and they maybe hurt her.
I guess that's what maybe what I thought.
What Roberta's cousin and the
rest of the extended family didn't
know is that just weeks later,
workers in the Mississippi rivers
Lilydale Marina near the Mendota
Bridge found a badly decomposed body.
The coroner could tell it was a
woman in her mid 20s and put out
a description of her clothing,
but no identification was made and that
body was named the Lilydale Jane Doe.
Roberta's family never knew about the
body or any potential connection.
I am hardwired to help people.
Things changed in the last two years
after the Ramsey County Medical examiner
enlisted the help of the DNA DOE project,
helping to bring a name back to somebody
who's been without a name for many,
many, many years, sometimes decades.
Tracy Boyle and Megan Paseka are two
of the unpaid volunteers who work for
the nonprofit DNA DOE project using
investigative genetic genealogy.
To identify John and Jane
does through DNA, knowing
you have a loved one missing is something
nobody should ever have to go through.
Megan and Tracy worked together
on the 1976 Lilydale Jane Doe,
plugging data from a DNA sample
into two public DNA databases,
and began to create family trees
based on distant connections.
So we're able to trace back
to a man from Luxembourg who
was born in the early 1800s.
The fun part was that he had three wives.
And twenty children.
So we had to build down lines
for each of those children.
They aren't allowed to use
ancestry DNA in 23andMe,
the most popular sites,
but they're helped by public
records such as newspaper archives.
That's how they learned Arlene
Seafort's tragic story and that
she had a daughter named Roberta,
and we were able to confirm that
our dough was Roberta Seaford.
Providing answers to families is bittersweet,
because now you have a
family who is in mourning.
They have answers, yes.
But now they have to begin the
morning process all over again. You
always have that. Hope, maybe,
that she would be found somewhere
right in. Families really
don't want to give up on hope
exactly, and they shouldn't.
Besides Roberta Seifert,
in just the last couple years,
the DNA DOE project has solved
three other Minnesota mysteries.
Identifying Mary Jensen
founded Ramsey County in 1977,
Lewis Gratiano found in Rock County in 1981,
and James Everett found in Rosemount in 2014.
They're still working on four
other unsolved Minnesota cases,
hoping to provide some. Closure.
Some closure does mean something,
even if it's difficult.
Roberta's cousin, who's very spiritual,
actually felt peace when Roberta's
mother whispered while on her deathbed.
She spoke to me when I was in prayer and
said Robbie and the boys are with me,
and I had. I had a great piece.
She's very thankful for what these
skilled genetic genealogists are
willing to do for families like theirs.
I just find it really remarkable
that these people volunteer.
Their time. A lot of them,
and it's such an unselfish thing to do
for for people they don't even know.
I I just think it's wonderful.
Very giving.
Unfortunately, even though
Roberta has been identified,
the authorities have no leads to follow up
on and no way to investigate how or why
she ended up in the Mississippi River.
The cause and manner of death has
always been undetermined. Back to you.