In July, 1971, some teen boys in Coos Bay, Oregon discovered a decomposed body along Snedden Creek. The body was that of a young male in his teens, but due to the condition of the body, the medical examiner could not determine exactly when the young man had died, or a cause of death, but he deemed it suspicious. Since there was no ID with the body, investigators didn't know who the young man they affectionately called 'Frog Boy' was, and their efforts to find someone missing from the area that matched his description came up empty.

For decades, the identity of Frog Boy remained a mystery until advancements in DNA & genealogy finally provided a name for him; Winston 'Wint' Maxey III, who had left his Idaho home as a teenager, and had never been reported missing. It turned out that his daughter, who was born weeks after Wint went missing and put up for adoption, had been looking for him.

Questions remain to this day. How exactly did Wint die, and was he the victim of foul play?

Lisa Holstead vanished sometime between 2:30 and 3:30 a.m. on the night of August 12th-13th, 1986. Her boyfriend told the police Lisa had jumped out of his car after an argument, and he never saw her again. Police were skeptical of this story, even after two witnesses said they saw Lisa getting out of the vehicle at a stop light. Lisa was found the next day in a nearby marsh. She’d been strangled by her own braided hair. Her boyfriend became the target of the family’s suspicions and the police investigation for years to come. Not until forensic genealogy pointed modern investigators in another direction altogether was Lisa’s case finally cracked, and her real killer brought to justice.

In September, 2002, a man using the name 'Edward C', checked into the low budget Time motel in Nogales, Arizona. He claimed to the hotel manager that he was there to get surgery in Mexico. Just days after checking in, the mysterious Edward C was found dead in his hotel room. An autopsy determined that the guest had died of an apparent accidental overdose. When the authorities tried to notify the man's next of kin, they discovered that he was using a false identity; one that had been stolen from a real Edward C, and he was alive and well in Florida. That began a years-long search for the man's identity.