DNA: ID

Episode 118 Donna Sue Hyatt

Donna Sue Hyatt was a loving daughter, sister, mother and grandmother who faced some challenges in life. She relied on her friends, family and faith to help her put a smile on her face every day, and she was always friendly, chatty and sunny – until someone murdered her on her living room floor. There were plenty of suspects both in Donna Sue's life and in the larger Carlsbad, NM area she called home. But police could not pin the crime on any one of them, although they had their suspicions. Eventually the case went cold. DNA testing in 2010 revived the case, but could not solve it. It would take the advent of forensic genealogy to link a repeat offender to Donna's brutal slaying – someone who had gotten away with it before.

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Episode 117 Doe ID: 'Rhinelander John Doe' Norman Grasser

On March 19,1980, a deceased man was found off of Highway 17, between Rhinelander and Eagle River in Wisconsin. He carried no ID, and the authorities came to the conclusion that he had died as a result of hypothermia, perhaps after falling in the cold and never waking up. The man didn't appear to have the ideal clothing or shoes for walking out in such a cold area, and he didn't carry any ID. After feeling comfortable that they had resolved how he died, the authorities struggled to find anyone in the area who they felt could be a match for him, and his prints were not found to be a match to any on file. The dead man was dubbed 'Rhinelander John Doe'. Finally after advancements in DNA and genealogy, authorities decided to make a new attempt to ID Rhinelander John Doe, and in In January 2023, the Oneida County Sheriff's Office enlisted the assistance of Ramapo College of New Jersey Investigative Genetic Genealogy Center to help solve the case. The plan worked, and Rhinelander John Doe was identified as Norman Grasser of Chicago. Just how he came to be in Wisconsin remains a mystery. His family had searched for him after filing a missing persons report, but unfortunately, authorities in Chicago never linked their missing persons case to the John Doe in Wisconsin. 'Rhinelander John Doe' finally has his name back; it's Norman Grasser, and this is his story.

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Episode 116 Terry Paquette

Terry Paquette worked 60+ hours a week as manager of the Lil Champ convenience store on Clarcona Ocoee Road in Lockhart, FL. It was there that he was stabbed 73 times in the store bathroom in 1996. The investigation was approached from several angles, including that Terry was slain in the course of a robbery, or that he was killed in a hate crime. Detectives investigating the case over the years felt certain that Terry knew his killer, but a thorough dissection of his personal life failed to turn up any viable suspects. When forensic genealogy came along, it pointed to someone detectives had never heard of – someone who had more connection to Terry and the Lil Champ than anyone had guessed.

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Episode 115 Doe ID 'Rock Collection John Doe' Captain Everett Leland Yager

A strange mystery unfolded after a boy in Arizona inherited a rock collection from his grandfather in 2002. The boy's mother while looking through the collection found something disturbing; something she knew was not a rock. It was a partial human jawbone containing several teeth. She contacted the Yavapai County Sheriff's office about the disturbing find. It was theorized at first that the remains could have come from a nearby Native American burial grounds, but they soon discounted that theory, and without any kind of clues to go on, they dubbed the remains 'Rock Collection John Doe'.

In 2023, The Ramapo College of New Jersey's Investigative Genetic Genealogy Center, decided to take on identifying the remains. They were successful; the remains belonged to a Captain Everett Leland Yager. There was just one problem, Captain Yager had died in plane crash in California in 1951, and he was laid to rest in his home state of Missouri. The identification of the Captain's remains solved one mystery, but opened up another; how did Captain Yager's jawbone wind up in Arizona decades after he was laid to rest in another state?

After more than two decades, 'Rock Collection John Doe' finally has his name back; it's Captain Everett Leland Yager, and this is his story.

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Episode 114 Michella Welch

In this episode we cover the conclusion of the Michella Welch case. If you haven't listened to the Jenni Bastian case, (ep113) please go listen to that one first, as many details about Michella's case are addressed there. Michella would finally see justice of her own in 2022, nearly 40 years after her murder became inseparably linked to Jenni Bastian's. And, we talk to Detective Lindsey Wade about her role in solving these cases, and her brilliant book, "In My DNA: My Career Investigating Your Worst Nightmares."

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Episode 113 Jennifer Bastian Part 2 of 2

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

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Episode 113 Jennifer Bastian Part 1 of 2

On March 4th, 1986, the unthinkable happened for the Bastian family of Tacoma, WA. Their sweet, energetic and athletic little girl Jenni, age 13, didn't come home from a bike training session in Point Defiance Park. Police believed Jenni and her bike had been taken from the park by a predator, and the FBI counseled the family to await a ransom call. But the call never came. And when Jenni was found murdered and hidden in a cleverly disguised cave among the brush, her case joined another horrific child murder in being attributed to a child serial killer plaguing Tacoma. Michella Welch had been killed just four months earlier in another Tacoma park, and her case, too, was unsolved. For the next quarter century, Tacoma investigators pursued the child killer who had taken two of Tacoma's innocents in such brutal fashion. But with the advent of modern DNA testing and analysis came answers – and they were not what anyone was expecting.

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Episode 112 Doe: ID Possible LISK Victims Karen Vergata and Valerie Mack

During the 1990's and 2000's, the remains of several murder victims; mostly female sex workers, were found on Long Island's beaches. To police it seemed clear that they were the victims of a serial killer, or even more frightening, two serial killers who were dumping victims in the same area. The killer or killers, were given the moniker LISK, or Long Island Serial Killer. Many of the victims were identified, but while police hunted for the killer, they also needed to ID the rest of the victims, and they succeeded finally in identifying two of them; Karen Vergata and Valerie Mack.

Finally, in 2023, an arrest was made following a lengthy investigation of a suspect; architect Rex Heuermann. Searches of his home and vehicles, as well as an extensive investigation, seem to have uncovered a treasure trove of evidence pointing to his involvement in many of the murders. As the suspect awaits his day in court, police continued to try and ID the remaining Doe victims. For now though, Karen Vergata and Valerie Mack have their names back, and this is their story.

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Episode 111 Lindy Sue Biechler Part 2 of 2

This is the second part of the Lindy Sue Biechler case. If you have not listened to part 1 yet, stop now and go back to listen to part 1 first.

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Episode 111 Lindy Sue Biechler Part 1 of 2

The vicious, brutal 1975 stabbing murder of sweet, shy newlywed Lindy Sue Biechler haunted Lancaster, PA. Lindy was stabbed 19 times right inside her front door, and a butcher knife left embedded in her neck, and police couldn't determine any motive in the case. The 19 year old had no enemies, and no one had seen or heard anything. It was considered the most puzzling unsolved mystery in the area for decades. Then, in 1997, a breakthrough in lab testing hinted at a motive – but not at a suspect. Two decades later, even the powers of forensic genealogy came up short. But in pondering the genealogy, CeCe Moore detected a genetic pattern that she linked to immigration to Lancaster from a specific region in Italy. Fortuitous records of Italian immigrants to Lancaster helped her focus her search. And when she considered these records alongside the phenotype information, she stumbled on a name – someone who had a connection to Lindy. A coffee cup casually thrown into a garbage can at Philadelphia International Airport proved her hunch right, and Lindy's family had answers at long last.

To listen to every episode of DNA: ID ad-free and get other benefits, simply visit our channel page on Apple Podcasts to get started with an AbJack Insider subscription. Of course, you can also support DNA: ID with a Patreon subscription.

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