In our final episode of 2023, we review the full length cases we covered this season on DNA:ID as well as the Doe mini episodes. We also touch on current events, trials, and news, that may affect past cases, and change the future of investigative genealogy.

DNA: ID will return for an all new season on January 29, 2024. Happy holidays to all of our listeners.

On July, 24th, 2000, an unidentified man's body was found floating 27 miles off the coast of Jonesport, Maine. Due to the lack of ID, and condition of his remains, not much could be gathered to help investigators determine who this John Doe was, or how he died, although they were able to determine that he did have some specific health issues. The man known as 'Jonesport John Doe' was cremated and buried in an area cemetery. A sample of his DNA was collected with hopes that he would one day be identified, although early attempts proved fruitless.

Eventually, genealogy made it possible to determine that Jonesport John Doe was actually a man named Philip Kahn who had been reported missing by his family in Las Vegas shortly before his body was found. Why Kahn left his family behind and how and why he wound up in Maine remains a mystery. Confounding the mystery is the fact that Philip Kahn may actually have been someone else altogether; creating a mystery within a mystery.

In 1987, someone broke into Edna Laughman’s home and suffocated and raped the 85 year old widow. She was found by her relative and best friend, Madeline Laughman. Within 2 weeks, Madeline’s son was arrested for Edna’s slaying. Barry Laughman “confessed” to the crime, and was tried, convicted, and spent 15 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. Barry was finally exonerated by updated DNA testing in 2003. But the investigation into who killed his elderly relative was back to Square 1. The case languished until forensic genealogy pointed the investigators to Edna’s killer – someone who had been right under their noses the whole time.