The New Haven Police Department, along with other agencies, kept the case open and entered Andrea into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs). Multiple age-progressed images were created over the years in hopes someone would recognize her.
Technology Solves Longtime Mystery
In 2023, the department’s Special Victims Unit revisited cold cases and prioritized the Reyes abduction.
With help from Othram Labs through their Project 525 initiative, and collaboration with RTI International (which manages NamUs), a DNA comparison was performed between Andrea and the man believed to be her father. The results confirmed a match.
“Detective Nivakoff was able to establish contact with Andrea and, in partnership with the DNA testing company Othram, confirm the relationship between father and daughter, leading to Andrea and her father being in contact for the first time in over twenty years,” police said in a news release.
