DNA: ID
About the host:
DNA:ID is hosted by Jessica Bettencourt who co-hosts, co-produces, or writes and researches for other AbJack podcasts including Missing Persons, Scene of the Crime, Campus Killings, and Beyond Bizarre True Crime. She also does research and writing for True Crime Garage.
About the show:
We all hear stories almost daily now about cold cases being solved by investigative genetic genealogy. This new crime-solving tool answers the “who” question about these often decades-old crimes.... but what about the why? This podcast will look at crimes solved by genetic genealogy, and examine the connection - if any - between the victim and the killer, and why the crime occurred. Each case is unique, and has its own story behind the headline. DNA: ID is hosted by Jess Bettencourt, and publishes every other Saturday.
For DNA: ID Merch visit this link
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Latest Episodes
Episode 99 DOE ID: 'Bones 17' Lori Anne Razpotnik
On December 30, 1985 Auburn city employees 25 miles south of Seattle, Washington were investigating a car that had gone over an embankment. While surveying the area, they made a startling discovery; two sets of human remains. The remains, which turned out to be those of two young women, could not be identified at the time and were named Bones 16 and Bones 17. For investigators, it became clear that the remains were quite possibly victims of The Green River Killer who was responsible for the murders of potentially dozens of sex workers in the Seattle area.
Episode 98 Krista Martin
In October 1989, Krista Martin was found bludgeoned and raped in her apartment in Wichita, Kansas. Krista was a very social young woman with lots of friends and quite a bit of drama in her life – none of which led to her murder. Police investigated thoroughly, but were stumped for years. Krista’s case went cold until the WPD reopened it in 2020 with a focus on the DNA evidence. Like most of DNA: ID’s cases, this case never would have been solved without forensic genealogy – but in this case, the genealogical analysis uncovered a misattributed parentage event, and left one family relieved and thankful to have answers, and one family in complete denial and anger. We still don’t know what happened between Krista and Paul Hart on that day in 1989. But we do know the he lived just six houses away from Krista, and that he killed her.
Episode 97 DOE: ID Ada Fritz
In May, 1976, a group of boys fishing along Sessions Creek in Grand Bay, Alabama when they found what appeared to be a mannequin in the water. Closer examination told them that it was the dead body of an older woman, and they ran to get help. Police retrieved the dead woman from the water and found that she had been shot in the head. She carried no ID, and her hands and dentures were missing. Police were not able to match her to any specific women that were missing and she was cremated and her ashes place into a mass grave. That might have been the end of ever finding out who the dead woman was had it not been for a crucial piece of luck and old evidence from the case that was re-examined. Police eventually were able to get a DNA profile from the dead woman, and genealogy determined that she was Ada Fritz who seemed to drop from sight not long before her body was found. While police couldn't prove who killed her, they had a good guess.
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