Criminal investigations when DNA is found at a crime scene are now getting solved more often. And the developing science of investigative genetic genealogy (IGG) is bringing killers to justice decades later.
On February 10, 2022, the Pennsylvania State Police announced they had solved the 58-year–old cold case of 9-year-old Marise Ann Chiverella. They used DNA genealogy to identify James Paul Forte as the murderer.
According to a February 18th press release from the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office, authorities arrested Edward Morgan, 60, for the murder of Mary Jane Thompson, 21. And the police got the bad guy using old DNA and ever-growing genetic databases.
Morgan’s arrest comes 38 years after Thompson was discovered behind a warehouse in Dallas, Texas. She was sexually assaulted and murdered in February of 1984.
Cold cases being solved
The now-solved cases are appearing in headlines across the country almost daily. And some of these mysteries have been open for a long time.
