Today in our unsolved series,
we take a deep dive into DNA.
Monday, we talked about cold cases that
went unsolved for decades that are now
solved thanks to new DNA technology.
It's come a long way in recent years,
and part of the reason is you.
We never thought that the technology
was going to come this far. If anyone
knows how far DNA technology
has come, it's Yvonne Woods. I'm
a forensic scientist at the Colorado
Bureau Investigation Crime Lab.
I've actually been working
cold cases for 29 years.
In her nearly 3 decades in the field,
she's seen the advancements first hand.
When DNA first started in the 1980s,
you needed about 1/4 size
sample of DNA and the test
took approximately a month to.
Complete. Right now we only need
about 10 cells and we can turn
around in a number of hours.
It's taken decades to get here.
In the mid 80s,
the advent of testing someone's DNA
using biological matter like blood,
semen and saliva began.
In the late 80s we saw the first person
convicted of murder using DNA technology.
That happened in the UK in 1990.
Codis, an acronym for combined
DNA Index system, was developed.
This is a national database.
In the stores and compares DNA
from any crime scene or offender.
In the late 90s,
new DNA technology called short
tandem repeat or STR was created,
which helps separate multiple people's DNA,
let's say from a sexual assault
victim and a perpetrator.
And then about five years ago,
genetic genealogy started playing a big
part in solving crimes and cold cases.
We've begun work on approximately 50
genealogy cases in the last three years,
and we've solved almost half of those.
And with this new technology?
Well, I handled the first
DNA case in Denver in 1989.
Mitch Morrissey is a former
Denver District Attorney.
He turned his passion for
justice into a second career.
I am the chief of operations
of United Data Connect.
Most of what we do is called
investigative genetic genealogy.
That's comparing DNA from
online databases to find anyone
related to a person of interest.
Morrissey does this job.
To help those most vulnerable,
about 90% of the crimes we solve with DNA.
Women are the victims of those crimes.
The 10% that are left,
it's about 9.59 point seven are kids.
This is so important because
these are violent crimes,
rapes and murders that are
committed by men against the women
and children in our communities.
I'm just going to tell you it's not
a happy job, not happy or easy,
and not for anyone seeking
instant gratification.
The oldest cold case that
I've ever worked with just
recently solved last year.
So, and I had worked on
that case for 28 1/2 years.
It's a deep desire to help and the
search for answers that keeps them going.
I do believe that we provide
the information that families
have longed for for years.
So we talked about forensic
genetic genealogy.
When people hear that,
they think of 23andMe or ancestry.com, right?
Those are really common.
However, law enforcement can't use
information from those databases.
You have to upload your information from
those sites to one of two free databases,
Jed match or Family tree.
Those can connect you to more relatives,
but also help investigators link
the DNA to victims or suspects,
which help solve more crimes.
I find this incredibly fascinating,
and I think this is really helpful for a
lot of people who are in the situation.
That they may be somebody involved
in one of these cold cases.
I'm curious to know if more people are
signing up to have their case kind of
be reviewed with this new technology,
given the fact that we are seeing
some of them being cracked.
Well, we, you know,
we saw a couple years ago how popular these
23andMe and ancestry things became, right.
People wanted to know their family tree.
They wanted to know their lineage.
And so by signing up on these other websites,
you're expanding that even more to
find relatives, but more and more
people are signing up to put their.
DNA on there in hopes of connecting
to help investigators find,
you know the answers to some
of these cold cases.
And this isn't just suspects,
this can be victims as well.
Like let's say there's a Jane Doe from
many years ago that they can't identify.
Well, if they have a profile and
people start uploading their DNA they
can start closing some of the Jane
does and you know that are out there.
Absolutely. That is interesting.
We're going to have to see how much
further this further this technology
continues to advance and and how
many more cases are solved because
I think this is really great.
Just getting better and better,
easier and faster, which is great.
Well, great reporting.
Thank you. I appreciate that.