Cold Cases and Forensic Genetic Genealogy
Cases in which investigators used forensic genetic genealogy: comparing DNA from a crime scene or from unidentified remains against public genealogy databases to build a family tree that points to a name. The list includes victims and suspects identified this way and unidentified-remains cases where the work is still under way. ColdCaseIndex lists 43 cases on this theme, of which 13 are recorded as unsolved.
- Unsolved 13 (30%)
- Partly resolved 10 (23%)
- Charges or trial pending 3 (7%)
- Solved or convicted 14 (33%)
- Closed without conviction 3 (7%)
By type
By state or country
All 43 cases
Amore Wiggins ("Opelika Jane Doe")
Skeletal remains of a young girl found at an Opelika, Alabama, mobile home park on January 28, 2012, went unidentified for almost 11 years. In January 2023 police named her as Amore Joveah Wiggins, born in 2006.
Lori Erica Ruff
A Texas woman known as Lori Erica Ruff died by suicide on Christmas Eve, leaving behind evidence she had been living under a stolen identity for decades.
York County Jane Doe (Biddeford Jane Doe)
On July 25, 2009, the cranium of a teenage girl or young woman was found wrapped in seaweed near the tide line on a beach in Biddeford, Maine.
Dana Lynn Dodd (Lavender Doe)
On October 29, 2006, the burning body of an unidentified young woman was found on an oil lease near Kilgore, Texas; she became known as Lavender Doe after the sweater she wore.
"Lyle Stevik" (John Doe)
A man who checked into a Grays Harbor County, Washington, motel under the alias "Lyle Stevik" was found hanged in his room in September 2001, and his identity eluded investigators for nearly 17 years.
Peggy Lynn Johnson (Racine County Jane Doe)
The battered body of a young woman was found in a cornfield in Raymond, Racine County, Wisconsin, in July 1999, and she was known only as "Racine County Jane Doe" for two decades.
Tanya Jackson ("Peaches")
A dismembered torso found at Hempstead Lake State Park in Lakeview, New York on June 28, 1997 was identified in April 2025 as Army veteran Tanya Jackson, 26, long known as "Peaches." Andrew Dykes, the father of her daughter…
Angie Dodge
Angie Dodge, 18, was raped and killed in her Idaho Falls apartment on June 13, 1996. Christopher Tapp was convicted in 1998 on the basis of a confession he later said was coerced; he served about 20 years and was exonerated in…
Jason Callahan ("Grateful Doe")
A young man killed in a 1995 car crash near Emporia, Virginia, went unidentified for two decades and became known as "Grateful Doe" for the Grateful Dead concert tickets found with him.
Susan Lund ("Ina Jane Doe")
In 1993, the severed head of a woman was found in a state park near Ina, Illinois, and she remained unidentified for nearly 30 years as "Ina Jane Doe." In 2022 forensic genetic genealogy identified her as Susan Lund, a mother of…
Dana Ireland
Dana Ireland, 23, was abducted, raped and fatally beaten on the Big Island of Hawaii on Christmas Eve 1991. Three men were wrongfully convicted and later exonerated; in 2024 DNA identified a new suspect who died before arrest.
Glenn Powers (Quincy John Doe)
Skeletal remains of a man were found in a shallow grave in woods off Quarry Street in Quincy, Massachusetts, on March 21, 1991; the medical examiner ruled the death a homicide by blunt force trauma.
New Britain Jane Doe
On October 11, 1991, a survey crew found the badly decomposed body of a woman in garbage bags near railroad tracks off Myrtle Street in New Britain, Connecticut, across from the former Fafnir Bearing plant.
Sarah Yarborough
Sarah Yarborough, 16, was sexually assaulted and strangled at Federal Way High School near Seattle in 1991. The case went cold for nearly three decades until forensic genetic genealogy identified Patrick Nicholas, who was…
Susan Negersmith
Susan Negersmith, 20, of Carmel, New York, was found dead behind a Wildwood, New Jersey, restaurant on May 27, 1990. Her death was first ruled accidental and later reclassified as a homicide.
Aundria Bowman
Aundria Bowman, 14, disappeared in 1989 from her adoptive family's home near Hamilton, Michigan, after alleging her adoptive father molested her, and was long treated as a runaway.
April Tinsley
April Tinsley, an 8-year-old girl, was abducted, raped, and murdered in Fort Wayne, Indiana, in 1988, in a case made more chilling by taunting notes the killer left for years.
Julie Doe (Pamela Leigh Walton)
On September 25, 1988, the remains of an unidentified woman were found in the Green Swamp off County Road 474 near Clermont, Florida.
Toni Gordon & Sheila Cummings (Charlotte Avenue Jane Does)
On November 17, 1987, Nashville police found the skeletons of two women buried beneath the dirt-floor basement of a house at 3509 Charlotte Avenue.
Michella Welch
Michella Welch, a 12-year-old girl, was abducted, sexually assaulted, and killed after disappearing from a park in Tacoma, Washington, in 1986.
Bear Brook Murders (Allenstown Four)
In 1985 and 2000, the remains of a woman and three young girls were found in barrels near Bear Brook State Park in Allenstown, New Hampshire; all four had died of blunt force trauma.
Grim Sleeper Victims
Lonnie Franklin Jr., known as the Grim Sleeper, was convicted of killing 10 women in Los Angeles between 1985 and 2007. He appeared to stop killing for years (hence 'Grim Sleeper') and was identified through familial DNA from…
Lily Janelle (Frenchville Baby Jane Doe)
On December 7, 1985, a dog carried the frozen body of a newborn girl from a gravel pit in Frenchville, Maine, to a nearby home. The infant, known for decades as Baby Jane Doe, was identified through genetic genealogy in 2022…
Vernon County Jane Doe
On May 4, 1984, three teenagers found the body of an unidentified middle-aged woman beside a rural road near Westby, Wisconsin. She had been beaten to death and both of her hands had been removed, apparently to prevent…
Alisha Heinrich (Delta Dawn)
On December 5, 1982, the body of an unidentified toddler was recovered from the Escatawpa River near the Interstate 10 bridge in Moss Point, Mississippi.
Carolyn Celeste Eaton ("Valentine Sally")
A teenage girl's body was found beside Interstate 40 near Williams, Arizona, on Valentine's Day 1982, and she was known for nearly 40 years as "Valentine Sally." In February 2021 genetic genealogy identified her as 17-year-old…
Dawn Olanick (Princess Doe)
The body of a teenage girl, beaten beyond recognition, was found beside Cedar Ridge Cemetery in Blairstown Township, New Jersey, on July 15, 1982.
Mary Edith Silvani (Sheep's Flat Jane Doe)
On July 17, 1982, hikers found the body of an unidentified woman in the Sheep's Flat area off the Mount Rose Highway above Incline Village, Nevada; she had been sexually assaulted and shot in the back of the head.
Matthew Isaac Doe (Northfield Baby Boy Doe)
On April 1, 1982, schoolchildren waiting for a bus in Northfield, Vermont, found a deceased newborn boy inside a plastic garbage bag after a dog dragged it along the road.
Louise Virginia Peterson Flesher ("Belle in the Well")
A woman's body was found weighted down in a rural well in Lawrence County, Ohio, in April 1981, and for 38 years she was known only as "Belle in the Well." In 2019 the DNA Doe Project identified her as Louise Virginia Peterson…
Eklutna Annie
Eklutna Annie is the name given to an unidentified young woman whose body was found on July 17, 1980, in a shallow grave near Eklutna Lake Road outside Anchorage, Alaska.
Sherri Ann Jarvis (Walker County Jane Doe)
On November 1, 1980, the body of a teenage girl who had been raped and strangled was found beside Interstate 45 north of Huntsville, Texas.
Debra Jackson ("Orange Socks")
A young woman's body was found in a culvert off Interstate 35 near Georgetown, Texas, on Halloween 1979, wearing nothing but a pair of orange socks.
Michelle Martinko
Eighteen-year-old Michelle Martinko was stabbed to death in her family's car in a Cedar Rapids, Iowa, shopping mall parking lot in December 1979.
Patricia Ann Tucker ("Granby Girl")
On November 15, 1978, the skeletal remains of a woman who had been shot in the temple were found buried under leaves off a logging road in Granby, Massachusetts.
Evelyn Colon ("Beth Doe")
The dismembered remains of a pregnant young woman were found in three suitcases along the Lehigh River near White Haven, Pennsylvania, in December 1976.
Margaret Fetterolf (Woodlawn Jane Doe)
On September 12, 1976, the body of a teenage girl who had been beaten, sexually assaulted, and strangled was found near Lorraine Park Cemetery in Woodlawn, Baltimore County, Maryland.
Sumter County Does (Pamela Buckley & James Freund)
On August 9, 1976, a truck driver found a man and a woman shot to death beside Locklair Road, a rural dirt road in Sumter County, South Carolina.
Patricia 'Trisha' Meleady Newsom (East Haven Jane Doe)
On August 16, 1975, a truck driver found the body of a young woman — bound, gagged, and wrapped in a tarp — in a drainage ditch behind the Bradlees department store on Frontage Road in East Haven, Connecticut.
Carla Walker
Carla Walker, 17, was abducted at gunpoint from a Fort Worth bowling-alley parking lot in February 1974 and found murdered three days later.
Golden State Killer Victims
The Golden State Killer committed at least 13 murders, 50 rapes, and 100 burglaries across California. Joseph James DeAngelo, a former police officer, was identified in 2018 through genealogy DNA testing and pleaded guilty in…
Ruth Marie Terry (Lady of the Dunes)
On July 26, 1974, the mutilated body of a woman was found in the Race Point dunes of Cape Cod National Seashore in Provincetown, Massachusetts.
Katherine Ann Alston (Bedford Jane Doe)
On October 6, 1971, the decomposing body of a young woman was found off a logging road in a wooded area of Bedford, New Hampshire.