DNA: ID

Episode 126 The Calgary Murders Part 1 of 2

At long last, Canadian listeners who have been requesting a case get their wish! There was a horrific series of murders of girls and young women in the Calgary area in the 1970s and early 1980s. In particular, teenagers Patsy McQueen and Eva Dvorak, and young women Barbara MacLean and Melissa Rehorek stood out. There was no overt evidence of rape. Some of the deaths weren't even certain to be homicides. No one was sure which cases, if any, were linked. All the cases fell in RCMP jurisdiction, and thousands of hours were spent investigating them. Task forces were formed and folded, wagons were circled… it was all for naught. Until a genealogy team and some dedicated CPS detectives partnered up … and what they uncovered was shocking. In this case, Jess gets unprecedented cooperation from the RCMP about the cold case investigations and the yearlong inquiry into the unmasked killer.

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Episode 125 Doe ID: Peggy Joyce Shelton

On July 19, 1972, the body of an unidentified woman was found by a young boy in Hernando County, Florida off of State Road 50 and High Corner Road in Brooksville. She had been dead for a few months. It was immediately clear to investigators that she was a murder victim who had been strangled to death. The victim was described as between 30 and 40 years old, approximately 5 feet tall, weighing between 125 and 145 pounds, with short brown hair, and they noted she had only six upper and six lower teeth. Police were searching for a mysterious White 1961-1962 Ford Fairlane that they may be connected to the murder. Police didn't have much else to go one other than the bedspread her body had been concealed in. It was described as a "Pineapple Damask" print, and it had three square corners and a rounded corner. The case went cold and the Jane Doe was buried in a Pauper's grave. Decades later, police felt that they could ID their 1972 Jane Doe using forensic genetic genealogy. They exhumed her body, but was in very poor condtion, and they were worried that they would not be able to extract a DNA profile. After much effort, they were able to obtain a file and finally identified the Jane Doe as Peggy Joyce Shelton. When they looked into Peggy's background, they realized that her husband, Jerry Lee Fletcher, was connected to a motel that used bedspreads like the one Peggy was found in. It turns out that he never reported his wife missing. When police looked at his background, they found evidence of other victims with similar MO, and came to realize that he may have been a serial killer. Fletcher died in prison in 2014. Peggy Joyce Shelton finally has her name back, and this is her story.

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Episode 124 Maria Honzell Part 2 of 2

This is the conclusion of the Maria Honzell case. If you have not listened to part one now, please stop now and go back and listen to that part first.

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Episode 124 Maria Honzell Part 1 of 2

In February 1977, 14 year old Maria Honzell was babysitting for two little boys in her apartment complex. While everyone thought the boys were asleep, someone stabbed her to death and left he bloodied body in the bedroom. But the boys weren't asleep – and one of them witnessed the crime. His description of the killer drove the investigation for years to come – but didn't help solve the case. It took CeCe Moore and forensic genealogy to do that. When the police learned the name of the killer … it did not answer a lot of questions about what led up to the murder of Maria Honzell.

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Episode 123 Doe ID: Melissa Highsmith

This Doe ID episode is a bit different from most other ones, because the victim in this case is alive and well. In August, 1971, when Melissa Highsmith was just 22 months old, her mother Alta; desperate for a babysitter, allowed a stranger she didn't know to watch over her little girl in Fort Worth, Texas. Alta was terrified when the woman never contacted her again, and took Melissa with her. The woman had provided Alta with fake information, and no real way to contact her. With not much to go on, police were not much help. Alta prayed and believed in her heart that the woman who took Melissa did so because she wanted a little girl and would raise her and keep her safe.

Decades later, Alta along with her family members who never gave up hope that Melissa was out there someplace, began to do their own investigation, and called upon genealogy to help find her. After uploading their DNA profiles to a public database, they found family members that they believed to be biological children of Melissa. More digging proved that they were correct, and they were finally reunited with Melissa who had indeed been raised by a woman she thought was her mother under an assumed name; Melanie Miyoko . Although Melissa had many struggles in her life, she was alive, and happy to reunite with her real family. She now has her real name back; it's Melissa Highsmith, and this is her story.

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Episode 122 Patricia Stichler Part 2 of 2

This is the conclusion of the Patricia Stichler case. If you have not listened to part 1 yet, please stop now and go back and listen to that part first.

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Episode 122 Patricia Stichler Part 1 of 2

New Years' Day 1985 should have rung in an exciting new year for Patti Stichler and her three young daughters. Instead, in the middle of the night on January 1-2, someone slashed and stabbed Patti to death in her bedroom. Her three girls, ages 11, 9 and 6, were in their bedrooms just feet away. The oldest, Andrea, was the one to find her mom, and also found the most significant clue the police had – the open window in the blood-stained bathroom, and the gaping curtains that had been cut away from it. A knife sheath was found right outside, but the killer eluded police for decades. Sylvania, OH investigators focused on people Patti knew, but could not link anyone in her inner circle to the crime. Decades later, a very complex forensic genealogy analysis that required interpreting one-sided DNA matches, piercing adoption records, and a lot of luck, finally provided a name – and it was not who anyone suspected.

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Episode 121 Doe: ID 'Oscar Talley Road Jane Doe' Shawna Beth Garber

In December, 1990, a couple discovered a human skull on an abandoned farm on Oscar Talley Road near Lanagan, Missouri. A search of the area by police revealed more bones, and clothing. The remains were determined to be that of a woman, but she carried no ID. A white towel had been wrapped around the woman's head, and she was tied with several types of bindings made up of ropes, cords, and coax cables. Due to the state of decomposition, the cause and manner of death could not be determined, but police were confident that the woman had been the victim of a homicide. The dead woman was given the name 'Oscar Talley Road Jane Doe' and police went about trying to figure out how she died and who was responsible; but first, they needed to find out their victim's name, and it would take decades. Along the way, her remains would even be misplaced, and finding them became an investigation within the investigation. In 2021, after more than three decades, genealogy and DNA were used to identify 'Oscar Talley Road Jane Doe' as Shawna Beth Garber. She was 22 years old when she died in 1990. As tragic as the end of her life was, as investigators dug into her background, it seemed as if Shawna never had an easy life; instead it was filled with abuse, and being separated from her family. Now that police knew who their victim was, they focused on finding the person that killed her, and they zeroed in on a man named Taffey Reeves. Unfortunately, Reeves was dead by the time this case was solved, and when investigators looked into his background, they found a disturbing pattern of crimes that led them to believe he was a serial killer. The investigation into Reeves and whether he has other victims is ongoing. After more than three decades, 'Oscar Talley Road Jane Doe' has her name back; it's Shawna Beth Garber, and this is her story.

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Episode 120 Melinda Salazar and Carrole Ann White

Starting in 2017, someone started killing women in southwest Detroit, MI. The killer struck at night, and always used the same weapon – his car. Detroit police realized that they had a serial killer on their hands. His MO was always the same – pick up a white, female sex worker; have a sexual encounter with her in his vehicle; and then, run her down with that vehicle and rob her. He was brazen, ruthless, and active, with at least five cases fitting his MO. Despite all the trappings of modern technology at detectives' disposal, they could not identify the Hit and Run Killer. Finally, the application of forensic genealogy in an active investigation gave detectives what they needed – a name. This episode features an exclusive interview with CeCe Moore on her genealogy analysis, and brings to listeners a case that received very little media coverage.

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Episode 119 Doe: ID 'Chimney Doe' Ronnie Joe Kirk

In 1989, a custodian in a music store in Madison, Wisconsin discovered human remains in the chimney. At first, it was not clear that the remains were of a male or female, and remnants on clothing though to be a dress fueled confusion. An expert told police that the remains certainly belonged to a man, but since there was no ID with the body, they had no idea who the person was, nor did they know how their body had managed to get down the very small opening of the chimney, or if he was a homicide victim. For years the case remained a mystery, and the man was named 'Chimney Doe'. Eventually, DNA & genealogy proved that the remains were that of Ronnie Joe Kirk who dropped from sight in 1970 after losing contact with his family. Kirk was born in Oklahoma and is known to have travelled through Alabama, California, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Texas and Wisconsin. Authorities now know who he is, but how his remains got where they were found, and whether or not he's a homicide victim, remain a mystery and police are still trying to put the pieces together. Chimney Doe now has his name back; it's Ronnie Joe Kirk, and this is his story.

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