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but today we are discussing three more cold cases solved by dna evidence let's get into it
number one laurie nessen on the evening of september 27th 1974 fifteen-year-old laurie
nessen was one of many students cheering in the crowds at a high school football game
in columbus ohio after the game lori an eastmore high school's honors student joined her classmates
at several parties she was last seen leaving a party at 12 30 a.m but never made it home
on september 28th her body was found on rose hill road in reynoldsburg ohio she was left naked in a
ditch with her clothes scattered along the road for several miles laurie's death was
not initially classified as a homicide instead the coroner described it as death by asphyxiation from
an unknown means over the years her case would be reviewed twice more once in 1998 and again in 2007
to no avail with the lack of evidence and shortage of dna testing capabilities the
case went cold and remained that way for decades it wasn't until 2019 that the case was reopened
so lori nelson was a 15 year old girl that was found
naked on the side of the road and they didn't know what happened to her and this was 46 years ago so
over the years there's been multiple attempts at trying to elucidate you know who a suspect
could have been and what evidence might have been available and ultimately it was the tenacity of
the reynoldsburg police department to pursue this case and keep trying to find an answer that led us
to where we are today so the case was originally not classified as a homicide the coroner had
called it death by asphyxiation from an unknown means so just recently they were able to uh with
reynolds reynoldsburg's persistence they were able to get it turned over to a homicide there
were a lot of challenges just because the evidence collection and preservation um back in that time
period was much different than it is today because they didn't know about dna um so once we got the
evidence we realized that it had been packaged in plastic which is not good for dna and then we also
were concerned about the age of the of the evidence but we went ahead and moved forward with
testing anyway and due to advanced technologies in the field as well as just the persistence of
the law enforcement agency to get an answer we were able to develop a profile from the genes and
compare it to some suspects that they had developed and we made an inclusion so pretty
exciting so what was really cool about this case is that as this testing was in progress
the detective at reynoldsburg police department had contacted me and told me that he had been
having discussions with other area law enforcement to determine if there were any potential cases
that were similar to his since it was a pretty you know horrific crime it had some unique details
there are always issues with preservation of evidence over time just that the agency's
not understanding back then what they had and the potential for it to be used as evidence so
um when i i still remember opening that data set and looking at it and just being like oh my gosh
this actually gave us something it's a 46 year old piece of evidence and we were able to with
you know the perseverance of the law enforcement agency and the advancement and our technology
able to actually get a profile so it was definitely something that um we all hope
for in working these cases is to get an answer and be able to provide closure for the family so
it was really cool reynoldsburg patrol officer craig brafford solicited the coroner's office
to reopen and review the case based on a hunch he had he then went through the files and found many
inconsistencies that suggested laurie's death had involved foul play in september of 2020 officer
bradford presented the evidence to the franklin county coroner's office and laurie nesson's
death was officially ruled a homicide laurie's family had suspected foul play from the beginning
somebody knows something said laurie's sister tony hastings who was 13 at the time of her murder a
92 pound 15 year old girl does not lay down on the side of the road naked and die on her own
but that wasn't the end of the road for this case in december of 2020 a local news station in ohio
shared an article updating lori's case with the homicide ruling and then the police got a tip that
would change everything right after the segment aired police sergeant jim koslow received a phone
call from a cousin of the late karen adams whose story was sadly very similar to laurie nesson's
seventeen-year-old karen adams had been murdered six months after laurie on march 9th 1975. she had
disappeared while walking to a friend's home the next day karen's body was discovered in
a ditch in blacklick ohio less than four miles from reynoldsburg like lori karen's murder was
left unsolved for decades sergeant costlow reached out to the investigator who helped solve karen's
case in 2011 using advanced forensic technology which identified karen's killer as robert mayer
and charles webber by the time karen's murderers were identified one of them charles weber had
already died robert mayer on the other hand was now 70 years old he was arrested and sentenced
to 15 years in prison for the murder of karen adams and died while incarcerated although they
couldn't get a dna swab from charles weber his son offered a cheek swab to provide familial dna
that could confirm charles was involved in karen's murder detective chuck clark from the
franklin county sheriff's office told sergeant costlow he believed that these were likely the
same two men who were responsible for laurie's murder the ohio bureau of criminal investigation
was then able to confirm weber and mayor were the same men responsible for lori nessen's death
both men had a violent criminal history including murder robbery rape and kidnapping in 2021 lori's
family and friends gathered for a memorial to honor her life which jean adams brother of karen
adams also attended beforehand lori's sister tony visited laurie's grave to tell her of her killer's
identification and let her know that justice had been served laurie these are the pictures
of the men who assaulted and murdered you these were the people
that took your life and they are both dead i really hope that this opens the doors for other
cases for other families that have no answers tony hastings said in a statement to media
nobody should ever have to wait 46 years
number two judy nesbitt it was the day before thanksgiving weekend november 26 1980 in irvine
california while many people were preparing for the weekend's festivities the 42 year old mother
of four judith who went by judy nesbitt was going to the marina dunes yacht anchorage in
newport beach the nesbitt family had recently bought a home and decided to sell their boat
a 36-foot long cabin cruiser called the felicidad iv according to judy's son she received a phone
call at 9 30 that morning from a prospective buyer who booked a 1 pm appointment to see the yacht
judy obliged and left to meet the potential buyer but then hours passed by without a word
from her by 7 pm her husband fred was worried and decided to head down to the marina to check on her
upon entering the cabin of the boat he discovered the body of his wife scene
investigators found signs of a violent struggle which they suggested culminated in judy's death
she had been shot once in the head while the boat had not been ransacked cash credit cards and a
checkbook were missing from judy's purse pointing police towards robbery as a motive hairs from an
unknown person were extracted from the crime scene and kept as evidence but since this was
1980 dna testing had yet to come into the picture even though the marina dunes yacht anchorage was
identified as private property there were no security gates or security personnel on site
a fellow boaters cruiser had been stolen several days prior to the murder but it was soon recovered
by harbor police after talking with local boaters and witnesses police put together a description
of a man who was seen inspecting the boat on the day of the murder the man was described as 30 to
35 medium weight and between five foot seven and five foot ten you brown hair and aviator glasses
according to a los angeles times article witnesses also saw a man leaving the boat after they heard
screams and a gunshot this information was not immediately reported to police newport
beach police worked over the holiday weekend in an effort to solve the case but aside from the
suspect description they had few clues to go off of and so the case went cold in 2002 investigators
were able to build out a limited dna profile based on the roots of the hairs found at the crime scene
the profile was entered into the fbi's combined dna index system or codis which analogs dna
information gathered and used by law enforcement agencies but unfortunately they couldn't find
a match within the database years passed and although the police department never gave up on
their search for judy's killer they had no further leads then in 2018 there was a break in the case
green laboratories an independent testing lab was able to produce a more detailed dna profile
extracted from the remaining hair shafts found at the crime scene and on monday august 9th
2021 the newport beach police department announced they finally had identified judy nesbitt's killer
through the use of investigative genetic genealogy new forensic crime solving techniques and the
assistance of the genetic genealogist cece moore the newport police department identified kenneth
elwyn marks as judy nesbitt's killer the police determined that marx had been the
one to make the 1pm appointment under the guise of being a potential buyer for the
yacht he then followed judy into the sleeping quarters of the cabin where he accosted her
a violent struggle broke out before he murdered her stole the cash credit cards and checkbooks
and fled the scene marx was not considered a suspect during the investigation and is not
known to be connected to any other crimes he passed away from cancer in california in 1999
though officers are still looking to see if he may be connected to other coal cases
this was a landmark case as it included the first dna extraction of its kind to identify a murderer
during a criminal investigation in the united states in a statement newport beach police chief
john t lewis said kenneth marks has passed away but he no longer gets to hold the secrets of his
deeds through incredible advances in technology and the tireless dedication of these investigators
we now have some closure for all who knew and loved judy nesbitt
number three denise stafford on the evening of october 12 1985 28 year old denise stafford
was home alone with her daughter in sarasota florida denise was a new mom and her husband
frank was working a night shift at a local bar called the playground lounge while the
exact timeline of the events is unknown sometime between 11 pm that night and 3 10 the next morning
denise was attacked and strangled to death while standing in her bedroom her body was
found with her head placed at the foot of the bed leading investigators to believe that she
had been placed there after her murder police reviewed the crime scene as well as the stafford's
home and found no evidence of forced entry this led them to believe that denise knew her killer
and that they had been let into her house but they weren't able to produce a suspect leaving
the case to go unsolved for 20 years by 2020 dna and forensic technologies had advanced rapidly
investigators remain convinced that denise had been placed on her bed by her killer and that her
clothing would contain traces of the killer's dna from where they had to have touched her
to move her so in march of 2020 the clothes that denise was wearing at the time of her murder were
sent to be re-examined and they found something foreign dna had been discovered underneath the
knees and around the ankles of the pants denise had been wearing at the time of the murder
confirming the investigator's theory then in august of 2021 35 years after denise's
murder the sarasota police department announced they had found her killer the foreign dna found
on her pants belonged to convicted killer joseph megaletti so who was joseph magaletti
megaletti was a co-worker of denise's husband frank at the playground lounge over time magletti
had come to know frank's work schedule and had met denise and had visited them at their home
denise had also received seat covers for her car from magnuti while he was considered a person of
interest in the case at the time along with a few other people he was never officially developed as
a suspect megaletti died in prison in 2015 at the age of 64 while serving a life sentence for the
1995 murder of former neighbor kathleen leonard he had been arrested in 1999 and had been convicted
in june 2001 much like denise's murder there had been no sign of force entry at kathleen's home
and she too had been found lying on her bed so why did meghletti kill denise stafford civilian
investigator jeff birdwall said while there's no clear motive magletti was a known drug user
and had a record of committing crimes to support his drug use maybe the motive was
robbery maybe he knew the family had something an item that he could utilize i don't know the
motive that brought him into their house in october of 1985 i just know the results
but maybe the motive was robbery maybe he knew the family had something an item that he could utilize
i don't know i don't know the motive that brought him to their house on october of 1985 i just know
the results while no official motive may ever be known denise stafford's case was officially closed
thanks to the decades-long work of the sarasota police department and the many advances in
forensic technology denise's mother dorala nipper described her daughter as a loving person who is
missed by the entire family she says finding that mr magletti was the perpetrator and that
he's gone that he's not going to harm anyone else that has been my healing cry from the beginning i
didn't want to see another mother go through what our family has finding that mr megaletti was the
perpetrator and that he's gone he's not going to harm anyone else that was been my human cry
from the beginning i didn't want to see any other mother go through what our family has
investigator birdwell issued a warning to criminals who think they've gotten away with their
crime saying it's important for every suspect out there who hasn't been arrested to understand you
haven't gotten away with it we're still coming you still need to look over your shoulder with some
effort on our part and with technology your day is coming it's important for every suspect out there
who hasn't been arrested to understand you haven't gotten away with it we're still coming you still
need to look over your shoulder and with some effort on our part and with technology your day's
coming well that is it for this video as always please give this video a thumbs up if you like
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