Hey Youtube, Jim here!
Welcome to Top 10 Archive!
Recently, there’s been a lot of buzz about the Golden State Killer being caught after
many thought he’d get away with impunity.
GSK was caught thanks to DNA samples taken from his family members that matched the DNA
on file.
He’s not the only one, however.
This is the golden age of DNA, false confessions, and a lot more progress leading to plenty
of cold cases being solved!
Want to see the culprits caught by their own sweat?
Well, it’s more complicated than that, but let me tell you all about it.
But before I lay out the Top 10 Cold Cases Solved By DNA Evidence, why not become an
archivist today by clicking that subscribe button and notification bell so you don't
miss out on any future uploads!
If you end up enjoying this video, let us know by giving it a thumbs up and in the comment
section, tell us your thoughts on any unsolved cases!
10.
Krystal Beslanowitch, 1995 Krystal Beslanowitch was murdered in Utah
in 1995 at age 17.
She was killed with a blow to the skull.
She was a sex worker, which often gets cases overlooked for being taboo, or for the individuals
being in “high-risk” activities.
However, the original investigator of the case saw past that and kept the image of her
body, thrown in the Provo River, in his mind for decades.
In 2013, they extracted DNA from the rock that was used to kill her.
Suddenly, they had a match.
Joseph Michael Simpson, a resort bus driver in the area was the culprit and was promptly
arrested and sentenced to life without parole.
9.
Sherri Miller and Pam Jackson, 1971 In 1971, two young women, Sherri Miller and
Pam Jackson, disappeared while driving to a party.
Then, in 2013, a fisherman noticed a car upside down in the water.
Authorities were called and they removed the car from the creek where it was partially
submerged.
Inside, were the skeletons of the two women.
They were just half a mile from the gravel pit where they were headed for the party.
While their disappearance is solved after all these years, and their families can finally
mourn, the question remains, how did they get there in the first place?
8.
Pamela Shelley, 2001 Pam Shelley died in 2001 on her way to the
hospital after being shot in the head at her Texas home.
She lived there with her boyfriend, not long after ending things with her husband, and
moved with her kids from Arkansas.
She moved into a family friend’s house, Ronnie Joe Hedrick.
At first, investigators thought she’d taken her own life, but seven years later, an investigator
by the name of Carl Bowen, who was on patrol during the incident, spoke out.
He said that the cause of death never made sense to him.
They gathered enough evidence to indict Ronnie Joe Hendrick and set a trial.
Just before the trial, Hendrick decided to plead guilty to murder and was charged to
22 years in prison.
Luckily, this officer spoke out and the family was given a name and peace.
7.
Jay Cook and Tanya Van Cuylenborg, 1987 In 1987, a young Canadian couple was murdered
in Washington State.
Jay Cook was just 20 years old, and Tanya 18, both raped and murdered.
For years, no one knew just who had done this terrible atrocity.
Finally, in 2019, they not only identified the suspect with DNA and genetic genealogy,
they actually took him to trial.
William Talbott II was the man and he was found guilty, much to his apparent surprise.
This was all thanks to the fact that the DNA from the crime scene was uploaded to the GEDMatch,
the public genealogy website.
Two second cousins of his were found, and the case was built from there.
Police actually staked him out and took his discarded coffee cup for DNA.
6.
Darlene Krashock, 1987 It’s actually common practice to grab discarded
DNA from a suspect after he’s been identified in the system, to verify.
It happened in the cold case of the murder of Darlene Krashock, who died in 1987.
She was 20 years old at the time and was a soldier.
The 32-year-old case may have gone cold, but certainly not forgotten, as the young girl’s
parents carried her photo in their Bible all the while.
Her killer was only caught after the DNA was matched to three of his distant relatives
who used an at-home DNA kit.
The data led police much closer and one day, Michael Whyte stopped at a fast food place,
ate, and didn’t realize he’d left evidence that would be used to catch him.
5.
Denise Sharon Kulb, 1991 Almost thirty years went by after the murder
of Denise Sharon Kulb, before her killer was arrested and charged.
It wouldn’t even have happened if it weren’t for a yellow sock.
What?
Give me a second, we’ll come back to that.
27-year-old Denise was found dead in 1991 near the Pennsylvania-Delaware border.
Her killer, who was actually her boyfriend, had lied to police about the last time he
saw her.
They had been living together for two weeks and he alleged that he hadn’t seen her since
they’d used crack cocaine and been robbed at knifepoint.
He says he didn’t see her after he went to get help.
However, she had attended a funeral the day after the incident, so his “pin it on the
robber” scheme didn’t work.
The clothes she had on, namely the one yellow sock she was wearing, was what brought it
home.
Her boyfriend had returned all of her clothes back to her family, except the yellow sock
that matched.
He kept that one.
In 2015, Temple University offered to match the two socks and police got to work, resulting
in charges.
4.
Gwen Miller, 1968 A 50-year-old case, Gwen Miller was killed
in 1968 in Rapid City.
She was a 60-year-old pharmacist who lived alone.
She was missed when she failed to attend work one day and her coworkers thought she might
have had problems related to her diabetes.
However, the glass on her back door was broken on arrival.
She didn't have problems with her diabetes, but rather had been killed in her bed and
sexually assaulted.
Evidence was taken, but led nowhere until 2016, when they had a DNA profile and were
interviewing about 100 people.
They reached out to IdentiFinders, another DNA service, who came back with the last name
“Field” or “Fields”, which hadn’t come up in investigations at all.
So, they landed on Eugene Carroll Field, a ticketing agent for Western Airlines, who
lived in the house next door to Miller for several months in ‘63.
His ex-wives both reported being abused by him and his own brother gave a DNA sample
to aid the investigation.
99.23% probability later, there was enough evidence to charge Field.
Sadly, justice didn’t entirely play out as he died of a heart attack first.
3.
Angie Housman, 1993 In 1993, a man raped and murdered a nine year
old girl in Missouri.
He got away with it for 25 years, until justice caught up with him.
Back in 93, Angie Housman disappeared while walking home from the school bus.
Less than two weeks later, her body was found by a hunter.
Her underwear had DNA on it and would later reveal the answer to her parents’ worst
nightmare.
Just a pea-sized amount of DNA was enough to catch this poor excuse of a man who, when
caught, was already serving time for other horrible crimes.
2.
Jane Doe, 1983 An unnamed woman in Florida was sexually assaulted
in 1983 in Coral Springs.
A man held a steak knife to her neck at 6 a.m. after forcing his way into her house.
He said to her, terrifyingly, “I have loved you for months”.
Well, that’s some way of showing it.
Though she described him to police as a brunette slender male with strong cologne and a heavy
Southern accent, he wasn’t caught for over 30 years.
Luckily, the DNA connected to the crime was held and when technological advances were
available, the victim reached out to police requesting they revisit the evidence.
That’s how they found Timothy Morris, who was serving time for armed robbery.
1.
Jane Morton Antunez and Patricia Dwyer, 1977 and 1978
These two women didn’t know each other at all.
They were murdered separately during different years.
Antunez was found dead in her car in 1977.
She was sexually assaulted and her throat had been slit.
Patricia, was found stabbed to death and sexually assaulted in her home in 1978.
DNA evidence was recovered from both murders, but was held until technology advanced enough.
Then, decades later, a family member of the killer was arrested.
Authorities made the connection, reached out, and got items with the suspect’s DNA from
his girlfriend, which matched perfectly.
The culprit was Arthur Rudy Martinez, who was in prison for assault, where he died in
2014 of cancer.
Looks like, at least in Martinez’s case, even when you’re not caught immediately
for your crimes, a bad egg is a bad egg and ends up in prison anyways.