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

Michael Morford Michael Morford

Episode 83 Cheryl Thompson

Cheryl Thompson was missing for 15 days in 1978 before her body turned up dumped on a riverbank in Loveland, Ohio. Investigators weren’t certain whether she’d been held captive, alive – and they also weren’t sure what to make of the story her boyfriend told. It involved car chases, blown tires, shaggy haired strange men – all on the last night Cheryl was seen.

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Michael Morford Michael Morford

Episode 82 DOE: ID 'Frog Boy Winston ‘Wint’ Maxey III

In July, 1971, some teen boys in Coos Bay, Oregon discovered a decomposed body along Snedden Creek. The body was that of a young male in his teens, but due to the condition of the body, the medical examiner could not determine exactly when the young man had died, or a cause of death, but he deemed it suspicious. Since there was no ID with the body, investigators didn't know who the young man they affectionately called 'Frog Boy' was, and their efforts to find someone missing from the area that matched his description came up empty.

For decades, the identity of Frog Boy remained a mystery until advancements in DNA & genealogy finally provided a name for him; Winston 'Wint' Maxey III, who had left his Idaho home as a teenager, and had never been reported missing. It turned out that his daughter, who was born weeks after Wint went missing and put up for adoption, had been looking for him.

Questions remain to this day. How exactly did Wint die, and was he the victim of foul play?

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Michael Morford Michael Morford

Episode 81 Lisa Holstead Parts 1 & 2

Lisa Holstead vanished sometime between 2:30 and 3:30 a.m. on the night of August 12th-13th, 1986. Her boyfriend told the police Lisa had jumped out of his car after an argument, and he never saw her again. Police were skeptical of this story, even after two witnesses said they saw Lisa getting out of the vehicle at a stop light. Lisa was found the next day in a nearby marsh. She’d been strangled by her own braided hair. Her boyfriend became the target of the family’s suspicions and the police investigation for years to come. Not until forensic genealogy pointed modern investigators in another direction altogether was Lisa’s case finally cracked, and her real killer brought to justice.

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