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 107 Doe: ID Jeffrey Kimzey

On April 15, 1997, a young boy in Union Grove, Alabama decided to skip school and go fishing at his favorite spot off of Eagle Rock Drive. When he got to his spot, he made a gruesome discovery. He found a decomposing body in the water, and raced home to tell his parents. Police responded to the scene, and when they retrieved the body from the water, the gruesome find became even more shocking. The body, which belonged to a man, had been mutilated. His hands, feet, and head had been removed. In addition, his heart had also been taken. It was believed that he had been shot or stabbed to death. There was no ID with the body, and in the days before DNA, there wasn't much that the authorities could do to identify the man. Their best guess was that he was a White male between 20 and 30 years old, who weighed about 150 pounds and was five feet, nine inches tall. Since police had no missing men in that area who fit that description, they believed he was traveling through the area, and not a local. Their only clues were a bunch of air fresheners found close to the victim, and an eyewitness who spotted a very distinct truck in the area before the body was found.

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Michael Morford Michael Morford

Episode 106 Rita Curran Parts 1 & 2

The brutal 1971 murder of Rita Curran in her own bedroom rocked the tight-knit town of Burlington, Vermont. The circumstances of Rita’s death seemed so random – yet pointed to an insider. The mystifying slaying had no apparent motive and no good leads, and perplexed generations of frustrated investigators. The case was so out there, Ted Bundy was considered a viable suspect, with good reason. Fifty years later, modern DNA technology would reach back in time and give a name to Rita’s killer, helping finally to assuage the heartache of Rita’s family and allowing Burlingtonians to put the tragic murder in their midst behind them.

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Michael Morford Michael Morford

Episode 105 Doe: ID 'Mary Jane Doe' Tabetha Slain Murlin

In may, 1992, a construction worker renovating a home in Fort Wayne, Indiana made a gruesome discovery. In the flooded basement of the home, he discovered a woman's body wrapped in a blanket. Investigators were unable to determine an exact cause of death due to the condition of her remains, although they did make one important discovery; she was about 26 weeks pregnant when she died. Although police suspected foul play, they didn't have much in the way of leads to ID a suspect in her death, and they didn't even know who she was. Efforts to ID her came up empty, and she was laid to rest with the moniker 'Mary Jane Doe'.

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