Diane Downs: Springfield Oregon Child Shootings, Forensic Wound Trajectories & The Surviving Eyewitness
On the night of May 19, 1983, 27-year-old postal worker Elizabeth Diane Downs drove her blood-soaked red Nissan station wagon into the...
CATEGORY ARCHIVE
Category: Cold Cases Solved by DNA
Decades-old cold cases finally cracked through forensic genealogy and advanced DNA technology.
Betty Broderick: Dan & Linda Broderick San Diego Slayings, Revolver Ballistics & The Dual Retrials
In the early morning darkness of November 5, 1989, 41-year-old Elisabeth ‘Betty’ Broderick unlocked the front door of a home on Cypress...
Pamela Smart: Derry New Hampshire Murder Conspiracy, Wiretap Audio Forensics & The Life Sentence
On the evening of May 1, 1990, 24-year-old insurance agent Gregory ‘Gregg’ Smart was executed inside his condominium at 4 Ekron Place...
Rex Heuermann: The Gilgo Beach Serial Murders, Ocean Parkway Manhunt & Forensic Mitochondrial DNA
In December 2010, the discovery of four female bodies wrapped in burlap sacks and concealed in thick brambles along a remote stretch...
Bryan Kohberger: Moscow Idaho Student Murders, Ka-Bar Sheath Touch DNA & Genetic Genealogy
In the early morning hours of November 13, 2022, four University of Idaho undergraduate students—Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan...
Lori Vallow & Chad Daybell: The Idaho Doomsday Cult Murders, Pet Cemetery Excavations & Forensic DNA
Between September and October 2019, 16-year-old Tylee Ryan, her seven-year-old adopted brother Joshua ‘JJ’ Vallow, and 49-year-old school librarian Tammy Daybell were...
Dorothea Puente: The Sacramento Boarding House Murders, F Street Garden Excavations & Forensic Toxicology
In November 1988, Sacramento Police homicide detectives and forensic anthropologists initiated a grim excavation across the shaded yard and rose gardens of...
Belle Gunness: The La Porte Indiana ‘Hell’s Princess’ Murder Farm, Arsenic Forensics & The 1908 Excavations
In May 1908, the smoking ruins of a rural farmhouse on McClung Road in La Porte, Indiana, yielded one of the most...
Charles Starkweather & Caril Ann Fugate: The 1958 Nebraska Killing Spree, Forensic Ballistics & Roadblock Capture
In January 1958, an eight-day explosion of homicidal violence across the frozen plains of Nebraska and Wyoming claimed the lives of ten...
Kip Kinkel: Thurston High School Shooting, Forensic Ballistics & The 111-Year Oregon Sentence
On the morning of May 21, 1998, 15-year-old Kipland Philip Kinkel walked into the crowded cafeteria of Thurston High School in Springfield,...