In 1975, 19 year old free spirit Teree Becker was found in a Westminster, CO field, after hitchhiking toward home two days earlier.  Police did everything they could to solve her case, but could not identify the culprit. Then, in 1991, it happened again – this time in Las Vegas, NV.  The victim this time was Cherrie Bridgewater.  The cases bore some similarities, but as they were 16 years and states apart, they were not connected until DNA linked both murders to the same man.  And that man would not be named for another decade, when a complex genealogy analysis finally named the despicable rapist and murderer who had snuffed out the lives of these two young women. 

On May 24, 1995, the partially nude body of an unidentified woman was found by a highway worker in a drainage ditch on Cottonhall Road in Yemassee, South Carolina. Authorities believed that the woman, who was Hispanic, had been strangled to death. Police didn't have much to go on, but they scoured missing persons cases across SC and nearby states looking for a victim who might fit the description of their Jane Doe, but they could not find one. They theorized that she had been driven quite some distance before her remains were discarded. With no leads to go on her case went cold. In 2020, officials turned to the victim's DNA for help, and began the process of identifying her through genealogy. They hit pay dirt in 2022. The Yemassee Jane Doe was actually Maria Telles-Gonzalez, a 36 yr old woman who vanished from Kissimmee, Florida in May, 1995

The brutal, bloody murder of single mom Cathy Sue Swartz in her own home rocked the community of Three Rivers, Michigan. Cathy had been chased down and slain by her killer as her baby lay in her crib in the next room. Investigators had ample evidence to help them identify Cathy’s killer: a fingerprint, a footprint, and a possible eyewitness. Over 1000 people provided finger and footprints to police in this case…and yet the killer eluded them.  It took the powers of forensic genealogy to identify him, and when they did, police were astonished to learn who he was.  But they did not get all the answers they sought – Cathy’s killer had the last laugh.