Othram in
the news.

7 September, 2023

A Florida man has been convicted and sentenced to life in prison for stabbing an unarmed convenience store clerk 73 times. Using DNA evidence linking him to the crime scene, a jury found Kenneth Stough Jr. guilty in August of murdering Terrance Paquette. A Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) analyst uploaded a DNA profile into CODIS, but no matches were ever made. In 2021, FDLE contracted with Othram, a forensic genetic genealogy laboratory in The Woodlands, Texas. Through that partnership, Kenneth Stough Jr. was identified as a suspect.

7 September, 2023

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has identified a murder victim whose skeletal remains were found more than 40 years ago in rural East Tennessee. Kenneth Levall Thompson, of Detroit, Michigan, was named as part of the TBI's Human Remains DNA Initiative, the agency announced Wednesday. In December, TBI agents submitted a sample of Thompson's remains to Othram Laboratories in Texas for forensic genetic genealogical DNA testing, and scientists provided information about possible relatives.

6 September, 2023

It's been more than five years since a pet dog brought its owner the remains of a newborn infant and still the case hasn't been solved. But local and state law enforcement authorities have not forgotten about it. "We have sent other evidence to a lab in Texas to see if they can help us, too" Chandler said. The lab is named Othram and is based in The Woodlands, Texas. "They have pulled up familial DNA to figure out who other relatives might be to trace the baby’s foot back to in this case," Chandler said. The case remains active and ongoing, Chandler said.

3 September, 2023

A grisly discovery near Butte in 2012 when two hikers found a pair of human legs in a trash bag. The Montana State Crime Lab performed an autopsy, but the case went cold in 2013 with no hard leads. Six years later the State Department of Justice turned to a Texas lab with new technology. Scientists at Othram Labs collected DNA from the victim's legs and built up a DNA profile. Finally, 11 years after the legs turned up, officials identified the victim as 46-year-old Michael Wayne Canada.

30 August, 2023

Othram is now helping solve cold cases that once seemed unsolvable by using genetic DNA testing. It’s a tool that’s so effective one Texas Senator is trying to pass legislation that would provide funding, so law enforcement agencies can clear old cold cases. "This sort of technology is critical to solving crime and protecting public safety," says Senator John Cornyn. So Senator Cornyn will be proposing the Carla Walker Act which will provide federal grants to law enforcement to pay for the test.

25 August, 2023

Dennis Rader was sentenced in 2005 after pleading guilty to killing 10 people between 1974 and 1991. Investigators are looking into whether Rader is linked to the strangulation death of Shawna Beth Garber. Investigators sent DNA from her remains to NamUs, but there wasn't a positive match in CODIS. In 2020, the McDonald County Sheriff's Office contacted Othram and worked with them in the hopes of positively identifying her or at least finding a living relative by creating a DNA profile and family tree. Othram positively identified Garber in March 2021.

23 August, 2023

A body — too decomposed to recognize when found last year in the Cowlitz River — has been identified. Using advanced forensic DNA testing, the Cowlitz County Sheriff’s Office announced earlier this week they identified the body as Bryan M. Heinrich, Sr., 55. The Cowlitz County Sheriff's Office collaborated with Texas-based business Othram, a private company specializing in forensic DNA testing.

18 August, 2023

A homicide victim has been identified 26 years after his body was found in Flagler County. The victim was unidentifiable until 2021, when his bones were submitted to Othram, a private forensic genetic genealogy corporation. With the help of their genetic genealogy team, the victim was identified as Robert Bruce McPhail, who was 58 at the time of his death.

17 August, 2023

Brandon Elkins, who is a special agent with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, said it was in October of 1981 when hunters found skeletal remains of a young girl at an old landfill off Highway 249 in Ashland City. Investigators couldn’t identify the young girl. A DNA profile was developed and entered into CODIS and NamUs. “Unfortunately, there were no matches,” said Elkins. The TBI submitted this and 10 other cases to Othram in December 2022. Four decades later, they finally had a name – Linda Sue Karnes.

9 August, 2023

A hiker stumbled upon human remains in a wooded area in 2014. DNA testing identified them as Randall Reed Priborsky, the Pend Oreille County Prosecutor’s Office said in an Aug. 7 news release. An advanced DNA profile was sent to Othram, a lab that specializes in forensic genetic genealogy. Othram genealogists and the Spokane County Medical Examiner’s Office found a potential relative to a DNA reference test. The remains were officially identified as Priborsky’s by the Pend Oreille County Coroner.

9 August, 2023

The collaboration leverages state-of-the-art DNA testing and forensic genetic genealogy to resolve unsolved human remains cases.

4 August, 2023

A skull that was found in 2011 near Gilgo Beach on Long Island has been identified as that of a troubled 34-year-old woman. The skull of Ms. Vergata, who investigators said had worked as an escort, was discovered on Tobay Beach around the same time that investigators discovered the remains of 10 other people along the stretch of the South Shore. In August 2022, officials developed a DNA profile from the remains. In October, the F.B.I. confirmed they were hers, thanks to genetic material from a relative who provided a sample.

4 August, 2023

Suffolk County police and the FBI turned to a company specializing in cold case victim identification to figure out who Jane Doe No. 7 is. Suffolk County District Attorney announced Friday that the "Fire Island Jane Doe" who went missing in 1996 was Karen Virgata. Othram tells News 12 that normal DNA profiling uses 20 markers to identify a person. They say their technology used hundreds of thousands of markers.

28 July, 2023

On Thursday, the Bastrop County Sheriff’s Office (BCSO) held a press conference announcing they had identified the body of a 1979 Jane Doe, the victim in a 44-year-old cold homicide case. It was Othram, a DNA testing lab in The Woodlands, Texas, that linked the exhumed remains to missing person Kathy Ann Smith. BCSO connected Smith’s death to deceased serial killer Henry Lee Lucas, who they said had confessed to her murder in 1984.

27 July, 2023

A family now has closure after their loved one who was killed over 40 years ago was finally identified. In a press conference on Thursday, the Bastrop County Sheriff's Office gave an update on Kathy Ann Smith who was found dead in Elgin back in 1979. The Sheriff's Office worked with Texas-based company Othram to process the DNA pulled from Smith’s body. Othram has helped law enforcement on thousands of cases and their work has led to 200 being solved since 2018.

20 July, 2023

Four decades ago, a part of a human skull was discovered on a California beach. In 2022, the Benicia Police Department partnered with Othram to identify the skull, according to Othram. Othram said it created a “comprehensive DNA profile” for the unknown woman and worked with police and the FBI to generate new leads using forensic genetic genealogy. Benicia police contacted a potential family member who helped confirm the woman’s identity as Tomye Ross Smith, Othram said.

17 July, 2023

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) has identified human remains found in a Cook County pond in March 2019. The body found was Jeremiah Garretson, 36, of Nashville. In late 2022, the GBI began working with Othram, a company that uses DNA testing to help solve cases. In 2023, the GBI sent forensic evidence to Othram. Based on DNA, a genealogical search produced investigative leads that led to Garretson being identified.

12 July, 2023

Remains found in Golden Valley 10 months ago have been identified as belonging to a man reported missing in 2019. The Mohave County Sheriff's Office on Tuesday said that the remains were those of Jordan Victor Carvalho, a Golden Valley man reported missing by a family member on Sept. 30, 2019. Mohave County Sheriff's Office detectives enlisted the assistance of Othram Inc., a genetic forensic company, to perform advanced DNA testing and genome sequencing.

12 July, 2023

Investigators have learned the identity of a man who was found dead late last year in Mohave County. He’s been identified as 50-year-old Brandon Ray Parlanti of Kingman. The sheriff’s office sent a sample of the remains to Othram Inc., a company that specializes in forensic genealogy. Parlanti was positively identified this week.

11 July, 2023

Skeletal remains found by hunters in a remote area of a Montana national forest have been identified as an Army veteran, reports say. Using DNA technology, the remains were identified as Michael Moler, 63 of Midland, Texas, the Stillwater County Sheriff’s Office said in a July 10 news release. The man was between 50 to 70 years old when he died, according to Othram Inc., the forensic genealogy company that helped identify the remains.

5 July, 2023

Her disappearance was a mystery for 53 years, until last month when investigators used DNA technology to positively identify remains found in 1979 in West Haven as those of Sarah Tatham Abbott. In the West Haven case, police obtained a DNA sample from Abbott’s sister, which Othram then used to confirm Abbott’s identity, according to West Haven police Detective Tammy Murray.

3 July, 2023

Marcus Wright was 24 years old when he vanished from Joliet in 2013. On Monday, Will County Coroner Laurie Summers announced that two bones found in late March in the Will County Forest Preserve are those of the missing Joliet resident. One bone was sent to Othram Inc. in Texas, along with a DNA swab from Wright's mom. Othram Inc. has partnered with the Will County Coroner Office on several occasions these last two years, resulting in the resolution of four other cold cases.

30 June, 2023

On May 2, 2022, a young girl’s body is found in a Rosedale dumpster. Police have no idea who she is or where she’s from. On June 29, 2023, she’s identified as Neveah Tucker, aged four, of Toronto. The advanced genetic testing company, Othram Inc., explained how it constructed a detailed genetic profile that aided investigators and ultimately led them to a positive identification.

28 June, 2023

An advanced DNA test was recently used by Texas Rangers to help solve the mystery of a Jane Doe found near Amarillo, 24 years ago. Othram created a genetic profile to generate investigative leads for the case that was returned to investigators. The Texas Ranger's Unsolved Crimes Investigation Program submitted DNA collected from the body for a test that confirmed she was Brenda Sue Guessler.

28 June, 2023

Using DNA technology, the St. Tammany Parish Coroner's Office identified a body found in 1993 as Joseph Lee Muniz of Burnsville, Minnesota. The Coroner's Office worked with a private DNA lab company called Othram Inc., with funding from Season of Justice, a nonprofit organization that funds investigating agencies to help solve cold cases.

27 June, 2023

A child's skull found in 1991 in the California wilderness has been identified as belonging to a 4-year-old boy who went missing that same year. Little Derrick Burton was 4 when he vanished in San Bernardino County and his mother reported him missing, according to the local sheriff's department. Late last year, investigators sent the skull to Othram Inc., a forensic genealogy company, for DNA testing.

26 June, 2023

The body of a woman, who was found with significant trauma along Highway 60 in 1996, has been identified through genetic genealogy. Juana Rosas-Zagal, 41, of the Los Angeles area was identified as the victim 27 years after her body was found. Authorities were able to identify Zagal through the state's Missing and Unidentified Persons System. The county uses the company, Othram, in Texas to analyze the DNA.

23 June, 2023

A woman's body found near train tracks in Elizabeth in 2020 has been identified, Union County Prosecutor William A. Daniel announced Friday. Through both detectives’ investigative efforts and DNA testing through Othram Labs, the victim was recently identified as 23-year-old Jasmine Featherstone, of Elizabeth, previously from Middletown, Connecticut, said Daniel.

14 June, 2023

Police have announced that the remains of a woman found 45 years ago in a garment bag in Nevada have been identified as those of a Cleveland woman. The Nevada State Police - Investigation Division and NamUs reached out to Othram, a company specializing in forensic genealogy, to perform advanced DNA testing on the female remains and do a genealogy search.

13 June, 2023

Several people have been positively identified in three separate Charlotte cold cases using forensic genetic genealogy, CMPD announced. A bone sample was sent to Othram Labs in Texas where advanced DNA testing was performed.

8 June, 2023

A confessed serial killer told investigators he had murdered four women, including one whose torso had been found in a stream known as Ryan Slough in 1997. Across those years, one mystery has endured: Who was this woman? Although police had her DNA and ran it through databases periodically, they never got an identity match. That changed when California justice officials teamed up with the private lab Othram, who led them to a potential close relative of the victim, confirming the victim was Kerry Ann Cummings

7 June, 2023

A Claiborne County homicide victim classified as a 'John Doe' for over 30 years has now been identified. The skeletal remains of a man found in the Caney Valley area of Claiborne County on August 24, 1986, have now been identified as Jerry Harrison of Little Rock, Arkansas. TBI agents submitted a sample of his remains to Othram Inc., a private lab based in Texas, in December 2022 as part of the Unidentified Human Remains DNA Initiative.

5 June, 2023

Skull fragments found in the Spokane River have been identified as belonging to Bret Robert Snow, a 32-year-old Spokane Valley man who was murdered in 2015, the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office confirmed Monday. Spokane County Medical Examiner’s Office sent both fragments to Texas-based Othram Inc., a company that specializes in extracting DNA from small or degraded samples.

2 June, 2023

Spokane police and investigators with the Spokane County Medical Examiner’s Office have identified a body found more than 40 years ago. A body found in a railroad tunnel under East Trent Avenue in Spokane in January of 1980 was identified as Donald Leroy Pearson, born in 1924. DNA was sent to Othram, who provided viable leads of potential relatives of the victim.

1 June, 2023

New evidence has helped law enforcement identify the remains of a man from a 1970 cold case death investigation in San Bernardino, officials announced on Thursday. The charred remains, burned during a brushfire, were found by a hiker near Little Sandy Creek. Authorities sent remains to Othram, a forensics laboratory in Texas that specializes in genome sequencing and human identification. Othram reported a possible DNA match to two relatives of the deceased man, who was identified as James Hollowell Harvey.

31 May, 2023

A woman who was dubbed “Trunk Lady” after being found dead in the Florida woods on Halloween night more than 50 years ago was finally identified this week. Sylvia June Atherton was confirmed to be the woman whose strangled corpse was discovered in the woods 53 years ago, according to the St. Petersburg Police. Police sent the victim’s hair and skin taken during the original autopsy to Othram Labs in Texas for advanced DNA testing that helped determine Atherton was the slain woman.

29 May, 2023

Genetic testing has allowed the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office to identify two people whose skeletal remains were discovered separately more than 30 years ago. The remains were sent to several laboratories in an effort to obtain a DNA profile necessary for identification. In one case, representatives of Othram, a forensic genealogy company in Texas identified the body as that of Richard Paul Sargent.

25 May, 2023

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has submitted samples from 10 unidentified skeletal remains to an organization to assist in finding out who they are. The TBI published the information on their website, sharing that the remains were submitted to Othram, a private lab based in Woodlands, Texas, to conduct DNA extraction and sequencing processes in December as a part of the Unidentified Human Remains Initiative.

24 May, 2023

A private lab in Texas helped to identify Macon's Jane Doe nearly 50 years after she was killed. The Bibb County Sheriff's Office and Georgia's Criminal Justice Coordinating Council announced the victim's name is Yvonne Pless. Othram, based in Woodlands, Texas, uses forensic genetic genealogy - a combination of DNA sequencing and genealogy.

21 May, 2023

The woman who tied up her newborn infant in a plastic bag and threw her into the woods to die back 2019 in Forsyth County, Georgia, has been identified and arrested, the sheriff’s office said in a press conference Friday. The sheriff’s office worked with Othram Labs to identify the baby's birth parents so detectives could ultimately investigate the case and make an arrest. Othram Labs “uniquely offers in-house processing of evidence, from DNA extraction, enrichment, and repair, to sequencing and genealogy.”

18 May, 2023

RCMP have identified human remains found in 2021 with help from Othram, a forensic genealogy firm. Sask. RCMP Major Crimes determined the remains were that of Kassandra Jorquera. In 2022, investigators had enlisted help from the forensic genealogy firm from Texas. Othram scientists used Forensic-Grade Genome Sequencing to develop a comprehensive DNA profile for the woman. Othram's in-house genealogy team used the profile to develop investigative leads that were returned to the law enforcement investigators.

18 May, 2023

Othram is one of several labs using forensic genetic genealogy to try and solve cold cases – murders, rapes and other violent crimes, or even just identifying human remains. More traditional DNA testing hit a limit if there was not a known person in a DNA database against which to compare the sample, but forensic genetic genealogy can match a DNA sample to people in the suspect's family tree, so long as a relative is in one of the DNA databases being checked. It can even be a distant relative.

17 May, 2023

Jennifer Kashuba was indicted Wednesday on charges relating to a man's death in 2022 in Lexington. Advanced decomposition made identifying the man difficult. The coroner's office collaborated with Othram to use advanced forensic DNA testing to identify him as Jimmy Medlock. After Medlock was identified as the victim, he was linked to Kashuba through public assistance housing records.

16 May, 2023

More than 30 years after her body was discovered in the bushes at a rest stop in Lincoln County, officials say they have identified the female homicide victim as Melinda Lou Barnhouse of Maryland. Othram’s in-house genealogy team then leveraged a profile they built to conduct extensive genetic genealogy research, ultimately providing investigative leads to law enforcement.

16 May, 2023

Forty-one years ago, a young woman’s body was pulled from the Milwaukee River in Wisconsin. There was no evidence of foul play, and her death was ruled an accidental drowning. But her identity has remained a mystery. With all leads exhausted, the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office reached out to Othram in 2022 with the hope of identifying the woman or a relative who could identify her.

11 May, 2023

Martin Motta was arrested for the 1976 murder of an 81-year-old World War I veteran, George Clarence Seitz. My office sought the assistance of the FBI and Othram, a private forensic laboratory in Texas, to generate leads as to the unknown victim's identity. This was the first successful prosecution of a case using forensic genetic genealogy in New York City.

9 May, 2023

Cold cases, some decades old are being cracked in Houston because of technology at Othram, a first-of-its-kind lab in the world that was purposefully built to identify perpetrators or victims from crime scenes. The technology is capable of testing evidence with degraded or trace amounts of DNA. To date, Othram has returned investigative leads in more than 1000 cases.

1 May, 2023

A suspect now faces charges for the killing of a young mother in her Three Rivers apartment more than three decades ago. For nearly 35 years, who killed 19-year-old Cathy Swartz has been a mystery. But now investigators say they have an answer: Robert Waters. Forensic genetic genealogy, which pairs DNA analysis and genealogy research, brought the list of suspects down to a single family and then, finally, Waters.

17 April, 2023

Detectives say human remains found near Kingman over two years ago have now been identified as a missing man. The Mohave County Sheriff’s Office said the remains found were 56-year-old Brian Crain, who lived in Golden Valley. Detectives then contacted Othram, a corporation specializing in forensic genealogy, which was able to identify Crain using advanced DNA testing and genetic genealogy.

17 April, 2023

Investigators have finally identified the body of a man found washed ashore on Galveston Island nearly three years later. Galveston police identified the body as 26-year-old Calvin Mbwambo, an exchange student from Tanzania. Galveston Police Department partnered with Othram to see whether DNA testing and forensic genetic genealogy would lead to the identity of the young man.

13 April, 2023

Known merely as “John Doe” and “Huck” for the past 24 years, a man found dead in the Santa Cruz Mountains more than 24 years ago has been identified. The Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office’s forensics services team, utilizing forensic genetic genealogy techniques, paired with Othram to reveal the man’s identity as Eric P. Cupo, authorities announced in a social media post this week.

13 April, 2023

Skeletal remains found 42 years ago near the town of Sandy, Oregon, have been identified, Oregon State Police announced Thursday. They are identified as belonging to Illya “Ella” Wilkins. In July 2022, a bone sample was submitted to Othram, a private DNA lab that specializes in advanced forensic DNA testing.

11 April, 2023

The Carlsbad Police Department said new evidence, mainly DNA analysis, helped solve a 36-year-old cold case. In July 1987, the body of Donna Sue Hyatt was found at her home. On April 11, 2023, investigators with Carlsbad Police announced that they suspect Michael Ruff Wigley had committed the murder. Detectives worked with Othram to test DNA collected from the crime scene against DNA collected from the exhumed remains of Wigley.

10 April, 2023

Human remains found in rural Northern Nevada have been identified as those of a slain 19-year-old woman who went missing more than 30 years ago, authorities said Monday. Othram, a Texas lab that partners with law enforcement to solve cases, extracted DNA from the remains and used genetic genealogy to identify the woman.

31 March, 2023

The Pend Oreille County Coroner's Office has identified the remains of a person found in 1982 in Washington. According to the Coroner's Office, the woman is Mildred Christine (Allison) Hubertz. Hubertz was reported missing in 1968 from St. Ignatius, Montana. In 2022, the Spokane County Medical Examiner's Office invited the Pend Oreille Coroner's Office to collaborate with Othram, a company specializing in degraded DNA.

29 March, 2023

The remains of a person found in Troy, Missouri, in 1984 were linked to a man that disappeared in 1982, detectives announced Wednesday. Jack Langeneckert of Florissant was the victim of a homicide, forensic scientists determined. Detectives teamed up with Southeast Missouri State University to solve the case. A group of anthropology students sent data to Othram labs and found a match.

29 March, 2023

With the help of DNA and genetic genealogy, Spokane police last month identified a woman found dead along the Spokane River nearly 40 years ago. But while investigators now know her name was Ruth Belle Waymire, another mystery remains: Who killed her? Last fall, not long after genetic genealogy helped solve the cold case killing of Candy Rogers in Spokane, Spokane police Sgt. Zac Storment sent DNA to Othram Inc. for analysis.

27 March, 2023

The body of a woman found in 1978 that was dumped at an illegal landfill in Mississippi's Rankin County has been identified, investigators said. Using DNA testing on the remains of the body, the Rankin County Coroner's Office positively identified the victim as Tonya Lea Wills Mullins, who was 22 years old when she disappeared, according to a Thursday news release from DNASolves, a database that helps law enforcement solve cold cases.

24 March, 2023

One of East Tennessee's oldest cold cases has now been solved after remains nearly 50 years old have been positively identified thanks to the help of Othram Labs in Texas. According to the Gatlinburg Police Department, Charlotte Roberta Henry was missing since August of 1974 after Henry’s sister told investigators she was last seen at their father’s funeral. After getting the case in 2021, Dr. Kristen Mittelman with Othram Labs said they were able to positively identify the remains as Henry using an extensive process.

23 March, 2023

The mother of a newborn baby boy found fatally stabbed at a University of Georgia dormitory building decades ago has been identified as the killer, authorities said. The case languished for years until 2021, when DNA testing led investigators to the baby's parents. "I am appreciative of the dedication of all of the personnel involved in this effort – both those who work at the UGA Police Department and our partners, such as the scientists at Othram," University of Georgia Chief of Police P. Daniel Silk said in a statement.

23 March, 2023

Almost three decades after her remains were found in the woods behind a hotel outside Atlanta, a woman who police suspect was the victim of a violent killing in 1993 has now been identified. Her name was Rebecca "Becky" Burke. Burke was eventually identified through forensic genetic genealogy, an advanced form of DNA testing that involved the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System and Othram, a company that specializes in forensic genealogy to help solve cold cases.

22 March, 2023

For almost 30 years, detectives knew her only as the Scorpion Girl. But a vial of her blood and her tissue that was kept by the medical examiner’s office helped police in New York and investigators in the F.B.I. and Richmond County district attorney’s office finally figure out who she was: Christine Belusko. Her blood and tissue were sent to a laboratory in the Woodlands, a suburb of Houston, around 2019, and the results were run through DNA databases.

21 March, 2023

It took years and thousands of dollars for Maury County detectives to identify a woman they found in the woods. Detectives with the Maury County Sheriff’s Department say a big family tree made it difficult to figure out the remains belonged to Amanda Newcomb. They found her skeleton in a remote area of Maury County off Hood Road. Lt. Sam Voss says they didn’t have a clue who it was when they found the body in 2020, so they sent the remains to a private lab in Texas.

21 March, 2023

Investigators in Will County say DNA findings have helped identify a man found dead nearly 43 years ago. In 2021, the coroner's office – under new Coroner Laurie Summers – partnered with Othram, a private lab for advanced DNA testing. On Feb. 16, 2023, Othram found possible relatives of the victim – whom they believed to be a man named Webster Fisher.

10 March, 2023

Detective Rhonda Johnson reopened the investigation of a newborn girl whose body had been found in a garbage bag that was tossed into a dumpster in 1992. With the help of the Mississippi Bureau of Investigations, the Louisiana State Police and genetic genealogy work by the Othram Labs in Texas, authorities say they've identified the people who killed the infant just minutes after she was born — her parents. Othram analysts created a DNA profile for the baby that genetic genealogists used to place the baby in a family tree and identify possible relatives. They found Baby Doe's grandparents.

9 March, 2023

A cold case over 30 years old was solved with the help of advanced forensic DNA testing company Othram in Texas. The victim’s name was Etus Thomas “ET” Romero. In 2022, the Mesa County Sheriff’s office sent Romero’s DNA to Othram’s lab to create a DNA profile. The profile was used by the sheriff’s office to then match the DNA with a surviving family member. It confirmed a sibling relationship. Romero was a veteran, just 26 when he was stabbed to death.

8 March, 2023

Detectives in northern Kentucky say they’ve solved the 1976 rape and murder of a teenage girl using DNA technology. Carol Sue Klaber was last seen leaving her parents’ home on June 4, 1976, after dropping off her bike and getting into a car driven by a man with sandy blonde hair. For years, Carol Sue’s murder went unsolved. In 2017, the Boone County Sheriff’s Office cold-case detectives, Coy Cox and Tim Adams gave the case a second look. Last fall, Cox and Adams contacted Othram Labs, a genetic genealogy company that assists law enforcement with investigations. They sent the evidence to the lab and obtained funding for the testing from Season of Justice.

8 March, 2023

In 2021, a skull from an unknown female was discovered in the Gulf of Mexico in Biloxi, Harrison County, Mississippi. In November 2021, the Mississippi State Medical Examiner’s Office teamed with Othram to use Forensic-Grade Genome Sequencing to help generate leads that might identify the unknown female or a family member. The skull was sent to Othram’s laboratory, and Othram scientists developed a suitable DNA extract and built a comprehensive DNA profile to enable genealogical research. Mississippi native and philanthropist Carla Davis executed the genealogical research necessary to generate investigative leads for the agency. Investigators used the leads to complete their investigation and confirm that the unknown female was a teenager from Clinton, Mississippi.

8 March, 2023

The Racine Police Department has announced an arrest and charges in the 23-year-old cold case homicide of Linda Fields. DNA evidence allowed them to arrest Lucas Alonso, 66, of Zion, Illinois. The medical examiner at the time of her death concluded she had been strangled. But the DNA from a sole male, according to police, did not trigger any matches in state and national DNA databases at the time. About 20 years later, with the help of Othram, investigators found a DNA match after expanding their search to include family members of the DNA profile.

7 March, 2023

Authorities in Massachusetts have identified the tragic victim of an unsolved 1978 homicide case. Patricia Ann Tucker was 28 when she was shot in the head and died in the woods outside Granby, Mass., a press release from the Northwestern District Attorney obtained by PEOPLE revealed Monday. It wasn't until about two years ago, the press release said, that authorities in Mass. began working with a Texas-based private forensic laboratory called Othram, which was able to analyze Tucker's DNA profile. Using forensic genetic genealogy, a female relative living in Maryland was identified.

5 March, 2023

After more than a quarter of a century, skeletal remains found in a Will County landfill have been identified as those of a missing Aurora woman. Marie R. O'Brien, who had not been seen or heard from by family since 1984, was identified through DNA testing following an investigation by the Will County Coroner's Cold Case Division, the county sheriff's office and a private laboratory, officials said. In 2021, Coroner Laurie Summers partnered with Texas-based Othram Inc., which developed a DNA profile of the remains and submitted it to a family tree database, which narrowed down leads, authorities said.

3 March, 2023

As a father and son were boating on a California river in search of driftwood 25 years ago, they spotted [human remains] in the water. The sheriff’s office said it recovered the body, but despite decades of investigation, the man’s identity would remain a mystery. Twenty-five years after he was found, the man has regained his name — Jeffery Todd Sydow. In December, the sheriff’s office said it partnered with Othram, a forensic genealogy company, to see if “advanced forensic DNA testing” could be used to identify the man. A DNA sample from the remains was sent to Othram, which “used forensic genome sequencing to build a comprehensive DNA profile for the man,” the sheriff’s office said. From there, the company turned to forensic genetic genealogy for leads.

3 March, 2023

Even his family still has many questions about the man in the red checkered shirt, who was nameless for 44 years. After years of genealogical research and four decades of advances in DNA technology, investigators have finally answered an important question that could lead to more: his identity. He was Gary Lee Haynie, born under another name in Topeka, Kansas. Snohomish County investigators now have only three such cases left to solve in the county. Othram has helped Snohomish County investigators with several other remains cases in the past, extracting genetic profiles to upload to ancestry databases. That way, a genealogist can build the unnamed person’s genetic family tree, find his family and ultimately figure out his name.

28 February, 2023

The body of a man found dead in rural Ward County in October has been identified. According to the Ward County Sheriff’s Department, 63-year-old Manly Bacon’s body was found along Highway 83 south of Minot on Oct. 1. The department said he was likely dead for six weeks at the time. The Sheriff’s Department hired Othram, a private forensic lab located in The Woodlands, Texas, to develop a DNA profile from the remains, which was then matched to a sibling of Manly Bacon.

28 February, 2023

“It was 17,000 days ago to this day exactly — 46 years, six months and 15 days, Aug. 13, 1976 — that a missing report was filed on Youngstown John Doe,” Capt. Jason Simon of the Youngstown Police Department said Monday of when Robert “Earl” Sanders, 23, was reported missing. Simon said Monday advanced DNA testing from Othram Labs of Texas and genetic geology from the Ohio organization Porch Light Project was used to identify Sanders. According to Simon, the investigation into the cause and manner of Sanders’ death is just beginning.

27 February, 2023

Lexington Police say a woman was arrested and charged Monday for a 2022 homicide. 35-year-old Jennifer Kashuba was arrested and charged with murder, abuse of a corpse, and tampering with physical evidence. On February 17, 2022, at around 9:30 p.m., police and LFD responded to the 2000 block of Cambridge Drive for reports of a dead body. They located the body near a dumpster. The Fayette County Coroner's Office identified the victim as 40-year-old Jimmy Lawrence Medlock. His cause of death was a laceration/stab wound to the chest. Advanced decomposition made identification difficult. The coroner's office collaborated with Othram DNA Laboratory to use advanced forensic DNA testing to identify Medlock.

23 February, 2023

For almost three decades, she was known only as "the lady in the fridge." Now, she finally has a name. The San Joaquin County Sheriff's Cold Case Unit investigators on Thursday identified the mysterious homicide victim, found stuffed lifeless into a refrigerator, as Amanda Lynn Schumann Deza. According to DNA laboratory Othram, who partnered with the department to solve the puzzle, forensic genetic genealogy was used to produce investigative leads, which eventually led to contact with what was thought to possibly be Deza's mother and daughter. When they provided their DNA sample to compare, the match led to a confirmation of Deza's identification.

22 February, 2023

Christina Castiglione, 19, of Redford Township was reported missing by her mother on March 21, 1983, and her body was found eight days later in Deerfield Township in Livingston County. Forty years later, police believe that Charles Shaw was responsible for Castiglione's death, officials said during a news conference Wednesday. The Livingston County Sheriff Office's Cold Case team had been working on Castiglione's case for several years, but advanced genetic testing helped them pinpoint Shaw. The Sheriff's Office sent the DNA evidence to Othram in May. Othram scientists were able to build a family tree using Shaw's uncle, and the Sheriff's Office obtained DNA samples from his son and brother. Analysis by Othram confirmed that the suspect from 1983 was the father and brother of those samples, leading them to Shaw.

22 February, 2023

A foot that was discovered near a river in northwest Washington in 2021 has finally been identified as a woman who went missing more than five years ago, authorities said. With the help of DNA testing, authorities were finally able to confirm the foot belonged to 68-year-old Jerilyn L. Smith. In 2022, authorities worked with Othram, a private lab in Texas, to see if forensic DNA testing could help identify the woman or a close relative, with crowdfunding used through DNASolves to cover the cost. The lab eventually found a possible ID, with a list of surviving family members linked to the possible identity. Authorities contacted one of the possible family members, who provided a voluntarily DNA sample to the Othram Labs. The lab confirmed a match, identifying the foot belonging to Smith.

8 February, 2023

The new partnership will enable cutting-edge FGG tools for previously tested casework and will also establish a combined workflow for current cases or cases that have not been entered into CODIS yet.

8 February, 2023

A private lab played a significant role in helping identify the suspect in the murder of Mary Davis. The Lexington Police Chief says Othram labs incorporated and used advanced technology to solve the case. A partnership between the Lexington Police Department, the NC State crime lab, the SBI, and key partner Othram, helped put the missing pieces together. "It was the magic piece that needed to seal the deal," Robby Rummage with Lexington Police Chief said on Othram.

6 February, 2023

Monday was a day of closure for the loved ones of two women who were murdered in the 1990s, a pair of cold cases that had remained unsolved until now. At an afternoon news conference, the Metropolitan Police Department announced DNA testing had confirmed the identity of the man who sexually assaulted and killed both women. Police say Eddie George Snowden Jr. killed 31-year-old Lori Ann Perera and 35-year-old Pearl Wilson Ingram in separate instances. “DNA collected during the initial investigation, and DNA collected from the family member of the suspect ultimately identified who he was,” Metro Police Lt. Jason Johansson said. Last year, Metro cold case investigators requested a genealogical investigation from forensics company Othram. Snowden was then identified as the perpetrator.

6 February, 2023

DNA testing recently identified skeletal remains found by a group of rafters in 1989, authorities in Oregon said. The remains were identified as David West Jr., who disappeared during a flood in 1964, the Sherman County Sheriff’s Office said in a Monday, Feb. 6, news release. A DNA sample was created and a profile was added to the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), a DNA database run by the FBI. But a genetic association wasn’t made, deputies said. The medical examiner’s office then sent another sample to Othram, a private DNA lab. The lab used a genome sequencing technique and named two of West’s relatives.

6 February, 2023

Two women were raped and murdered within two years of each other in Las Vegas in the early 1990s. Their killer went undetected for decades — until Monday. In a news conference, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Lieutenant Jason Johansson announced that the department had identified who attacked and killed them. The suspect was identified as Eddie George Snowden Jr. thanks to DNA from a relative. In 2022, a DNA profile was sent to Othram, Inc. a company that has used DNA to solve numerous other missing identity and cold cases.

1 February, 2023

A Florida mom was missing for decades before she was identified as a woman found dying along a Georgia road. On May 14, 1985, an “injured and unconscious” woman was spotted along state Highway 91 in Baker County, north of Newton, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. “The woman was taken to the hospital in Albany, GA, where she died from her injuries on Saturday, June 1, 1985,” officials wrote in a news release. For decades, the woman’s identity remained a mystery. But after DNA helped to provide clues, she was identified as Mary Anga Cowan. Officials said they partnered with the DNA company Othram to look into the woman’s family history and shared their findings with the FBI for “genealogical research.”

31 January, 2023

Officials have positively identified a man whose skull was found on a riverbank in 1986, giving answers to a family who hasn’t seen the victim since 1984. In September 2022, detectives sent the skull to Othram Inc., a forensic DNA lab in Texas, for help in identifying the person. Othram said in a statement that scientists "developed a viable DNA extract from the skeletal remains" and created a "comprehensive DNA profile" using genome sequencing. Then, they reportedly found a "possible match" to someone who used a public genealogy database and identified the remains as belonging to Thomas Richard Alt.

28 January, 2023

A community-funded DNA project has helped detectives identify a murdered woman whose remains were stuffed in a canvas sack and dumped in the Arizona desert more than half a century ago. Authorities named the victim as Colleen Audrey Rice. The identification was made in partnership with a forensic genealogy company, Othram Inc. The Mohave county sheriff’s office put up an initial $1,000 and posted the case to the dnasolves.com website last year, which helped raise the money in only five days. A sheriff’s office Facebook post dated 24 January said its cold case investigators worked with Othram “to determine if advanced DNA testing and forensic-grade genome sequencing could help give insight into the identity of this woman and the circumstances surrounding her untimely death”.

26 January, 2023

In 1971, hunters discovered a woman dead in the Arizona desert. She lacked identification. Her file sat in the Mohave County Sheriff's Office for decades until investigator Lori Miller pulled it out in the summer of 2020, determined to finally solve the mystery. She quickly exhausted all of her options, and decided a genealogical test was her final option in May and contacted Othram. Othram's tests work by building a “comprehensive” genetic profile using DNA extracted from remains, founder David Mittelman said. Miller and an Othram genealogist searched through family trees, eventually finding a strong match in Ohio. Colleen Rice now has a name.

25 January, 2023

Advances in DNA testing allowed state troopers to solve a 35-year-old cold case — identifying a woman who died in a crash in 1987 on the Pennsylvania Turnpike in Somerset County. Investigators said the woman, Linda Jean McClure, 26, of Indiana, Pa., was a passenger in a tractor-trailer that crashed in 1987. Over the years, multiple attempts were made to identify her — including a DNA laboratory test in 2019 — "but it didn't provide good enough results" to help investigators close the case. An evidence sample was tested by Othram Inc., a private forensics-focused lab that helps law enforcement officials across the U.S. solve cases. The results provided enough details to link the woman to western Pennsylvania. McClure's brother submitted a DNA sample for comparison that confirmed the match.

20 January, 2023

The Clallam County Sheriff's Office is asking the public for donations to pay for a DNA analysis of a foot still in a shoe that washed ashore near the mouth of the Elwha River in Port Angeles in 2021. In 2022, the Clallam County Sheriff's Office partnered with Othram to determine if advanced forensic DNA testing could help establish an identity for the woman or possibly a close relative. A DNASolves crowdfund has been created to cover the cost of the testing and casework. DNASolves works exclusively with law enforcement to facilitate fundraising for Othram's services.

19 January, 2023

After more than a decade of searching for the identity of a young girl whose skeletal remains were found in an Opelika trailer park, authorities now know who she is and have arrested her father and his wife. Opelika Jane Doe, also known as Baby Jane, who investigators long suspected was abused, neglected and likely the victim of homicide, has been identified as Amore Joveh Wiggins. Investigators were able to put the pieces together with the help of Othram Inc., a Texas-based company that uses highly-specialized DNA sequencing and genomics to advance biometrics and human identification.

15 January, 2023

The Bastrop County Sheriff's Office is trying to solve a decades-old cold case with the help of advanced DNA testing technology. They're trying to identify the body of a "Jane Doe" discovered in 1979. The Sheriff's Office is partnering with the company Othram to see if advanced DNA testing can help identify the woman. Othram founder and CEO David Mittelman says their lab is the only one of its kind in North America. "We can access information from evidence that's been previously considered unusable or unworkable," he said. The lab does forensic-grade genome sequencing to make a digital profile. “We're in a constant state of iteration, and I think that'll continue as this technology becomes more robust," Mittelman said. As for Jane Doe, the hope is there will be answers soon.

12 January, 2023

“The State of Biotech” was a celebration of innovation, emerging technologies, and clinical successes, as well as an appraisal of the headwinds and challenges facing the industry. “There are so many ways to do good in the world,” David Mittelman, PhD, founder and CEO of Othram said. “Othram uses DNA testing and advanced genomics not in biomedicine—but in this really interesting field of forensics.” Othram’s crime-solving technology—based on advances in next-generation sequencing, informatics, and genealogy—has been critical in helping police departments solve a string of high-profile cold cases, some dating back decades.

4 January, 2023

Human remains found in November 2008 in a remote area of the Yakama Reservation have been identified as those of a Yakama woman missing since late summer 1987. Yakima County coroner Jim Curtice said Wednesday the remains found on Nov. 26, 2008, west of White Swan have been confirmed by DNA analysis as Daisy Mae Heath, 29, who grew up in White Swan as Daisy Tallman and was living there when she disappeared. She was reported missing on Oct. 29, 1987. Testing was completed by Othram Laboratories, a private DNA laboratory in Texas known for identifying people whose remains have been unidentified for decades.

20 December, 2022

The Kentucky State Police (KSP) Forensic Lab partnered with Othram Inc. using advanced DNA testing to establish an identity for a victim in an unsolved case. Recently, KSP positively identified a “Jane Doe” recovered along a roadside in rural Owen County from 1988 as Linda Bennett. In May 1988, a couple from Owenton spotted an unresponsive woman while on a walk, which resulted in KSP opening an investigation. Detectives determined that her death was a homicide; however, they were unable to identify the victim. The case has remained open throughout the years, in hope that someday the victim may be identified as technology progressed. KSP detectives partnered with multiple groups to solve the case. Othram provided recovery, enrichment, and analysis of human DNA that was able to match Bennett.

16 December, 2022

A boy who was found dead on a Los Angeles street more than 40 years ago has finally been identified as a runaway teen who was never reported missing. For 44 years the unidentified body of Williams was only known as 'John Doe' despite several generations of Long Beach homicide detectives making attempts to identify the 15-year-old. It wasn't until the boy's skeletal remains were used for Forensic-Grade Genome Sequencing that the identification process led to a close relative match, narrowing the search to a family member. Badly degraded and chemically damaged skeletal evidence was sent to Othram's lab in The Woodlands, Texas. This skeletal evidence failed prior attempts to make a match, but Othram was able to develop a suitable DNA extract for testing.

15 December, 2022

More than four decades after police found the body of a teen boy on a Long Beach street, investigators have now learned his identity, all with the help of advanced DNA technology. The boy, who was found dead on June 3, 1978 along Division Street near Corona Avenue, was identified as Kenneth Nevada Williams, a 15-year-old who had run away from his home in La Puente. To help in its investigation, the FBI reached out to Othram, a lab in Texas that specializes in forensic genealogy to solve unsolved murders. "We sequenced that DNA and we were able to get a profile uploaded to the genealogical databases that led to a close family match that led to the identity of Kenneth," said Dr. Kristen Mittelman, a chief development officer at Othram.

13 December, 2022

A new collaboration between Humber College and Othram will measure social and criminal justice impact and develop tools to support law enforcement and the development of programs to educate future forensic professionals.

2 December, 2022

In December 1993, a land surveyor found a woman’s skeletal remains among the trees. The Fairfax homicide unit worked the case for years, just trying to figure out who the woman was. The rapidly evolving science of genetic genealogy has provided an answer: Sharon Kay Abbott Lane, a mother of two who was raised in northwest Indiana, and lived for a time in Big Stone Gap, Virginia, was the homicide victim. The Fairfax police again turned to Othram, a forensic lab based out of The Woodlands, Texas, to identify a woman who had been nameless for nearly three decades.

29 November, 2022

Montana authorities said Tuesday that human remains found in Carbon County about 18 years ago have been identified as those of a Wisconsin hitchhiker who left his home state to flee legal trouble. The Carbon County Sheriff's Office said the remains of Rogers Lee Ellis were identified after state and federal agencies launched an extensive genealogy investigation this year. The investigation included sending skeletal remains to Othram, a private DNA lab in Texas, which used its technology to build a DNA profile that ultimately helped identify the remains.

28 November, 2022

A violent, homicidal maniac who viciously sexually assaulted and stabbed 22-year-old career girl Erin Gilmour and 42-year-old single mom of four Susan Tice during a four-month period in 1983. And then, as quickly as he emerged, he faded into the shadows. On Monday, Toronto Police cold case detectives announced that they finally had a suspect. Joseph George Sutherland, 61, was arrested. Toronto investigators used the genetic testing company Othram, which built a family tree of the suspect’s nearest relatives, which led them to Sutherland.

12 November, 2022

For nearly 50 years, the Lady of the Dunes case was shrouded in mystery and legend. In 1974, the body of an unidentified woman was found near Provincetown’s Race Point. Without a name, she became the Lady of the Dunes. In 2022, everything changed when Special Agent in Charge Joseph Bonavolonta made an announcement: “We have identified the oldest unidentified homicide victim in Massachusetts, known as the Lady of the Dunes. She is Ruth Marie Terry.” All of it made possible by the work from a private DNA lab called Othram. “We work with evidence that most people would say DNA can’t be read from,” said Kristen Mittelman, Othram’s Chief Development Officer. Mittelman explains that Othram has developed a technique that can develop a DNA sequence from even the most difficult and degraded samples.

10 November, 2022

Spencer Fuentes, a farmer in Silvana, had found a body in the Stillaguamish River in July 1980. The man had likely been dead for months. Forty-two years later, he was finally identified. It was a case cracked by advances in DNA technology, paired with forensic genealogy research. In 2021, the medical examiner’s office began working with Othram, Inc. to obtain a DNA profile that could be used for genetic genealogy. Authorities confirmed the man’s name was Othaniel Philip Ames.

9 November, 2022

The Maine State Police arrested 56-year-old Jason Follette on Wednesday in connection with the sexual assault of a now 47-year-old woman in Hancock that has gone unsolved for more than 25 years ago. The arrest was made possible by genetic testing equipment that was not available to law enforcement in 1996 at the time of the assault. The DNA sample was tested by Othram Inc. The results of that DNA test, along with further investigative work by MSP, identified Follette as the woman’s attacker.

2 November, 2022

Earlier this year, skeletal evidence was sent to Othram's lab in Texas, which specializes in conducting forensic genealogy for unsolved murders and missing persons. Various chemical treatments from past attempts to extract forensic evidence of the remains had thwarted earlier efforts to build a DNA profile of the victim. Othram eventually derived a usable sample, despite the chemical damage and some microbial contamination. The FBI used the resulting DNA profile to search genealogical databases and eventually located a close relative.

1 November, 2022

After nearly 50 years, investigators have finally confirmed the identity of the “Lady of the Dunes.” Othram, a forensic genealogy company based in Texas, received the remains earlier this year. Now the FBI will continue its search for Terry’s killer.

28 October, 2022

More than 40 years after a murder victim’s remains are found in Cape Girardeau County, a family in Texas can finally grieve and say goodbye. The man convicted of killing Travis died in prison years ago, but they never knew what really happened to him - until now. It took skill, luck and a southeast Missouri college professor working alongside her students to find the answers, piece by piece.

26 October, 2022

The AFP will have access to specialised forensic DNA testing, not currently available in Australia, to identify human remains and develop new leads for unsolved crimes, by partnering with a world-leading forensic genomics laboratory.

25 October, 2022

Benton County Sheriff Shawn Holloway, prosecuting attorney Nathan Smith, and Benton County Lt. Hunter Petray held a press conference Tuesday, Oct. 25, to give an update on three cold cases. Sheriff Holloway said genetic genealogy and the county's partnership with Othram, Inc. helped identify the victims in cold case murders from 1981, 1990 and 1996. Investigators say these are the only unidentified bodies that the sheriff's office had in Benton County. What made the identification of two victims particularly difficult, Lt. Petray said, was that only one of the victims was reported missing. The other two were not reported missing, and none were in any national missing person's database.

25 October, 2022

In October 1986, a hunter in Oneida County found the skull of an unknown victim 400-500 yards away from where partial remains of two teenage girls from Pocatello were found in 1981. This unknown skull was initially identified as a third victim, possibly of mixed-race descent according to experts in the 1980s. For years, the public wondered and speculated as to her identity. Last year, members of the Idaho Cold Cases Facebook page donated $5,000 towards the forensic identification of this skull by Othram Labs in Texas. The skull has been 100% positively identified as that of Patricia Campbell.

21 October, 2022

In July 1980, Will County investigators found a man's body in a wooden crate in the Sanitary and Shipping Canal near Lockport. Decades have passed with no leads, but a DNA extraction and research company is giving investigators new hope. "They don't know who he is. All they have is skeletal remains," said David Mittelman, CEO of Othram, a forensic DNA testing company based in Texas. Various leads over the years have led nowhere. So why is this team from Will County — 42 years later — suddenly optimistic they'll solve the case? The short answer is: they're two-for-two working with Othram, which extracts DNA from skeletal remains, then creates a DNA profile by doing a genealogical search of public databases.

19 October, 2022

DNA has been used to identify homicide 38-year-old victim Steven Gabbard of Louisville, Kentucky, according to the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office. The MCSO released the following Monday: “The [MCSO] has made positive identification of skeletal remains found in 2004. [MCSO] investigators recently obtained funding for a forensic genealogy DNA examination through Othram. [...] Through the years, attempts to identify these remains was made by entry of DNA into a federal database; facial reconstruction through forensic computer programs and modeling clay methods; and numerous press releases requesting assistance had been conducted. In 2022, [...], Othram requested a DNA comparison with Steven Gabbard’s nephew with the remains from 2004.

18 October, 2022

A Queens man pleaded guilty Tuesday to killing an 81-year-old World War I veteran in a stunning cold case that spanned 45 years and five U.S. states before it was smashed open by DNA evidence. Investigators first compared the DNA profile to local, state and national databases, but that was a dead end. In 2020, the Queens District Attorney’s Office and NYPD began working with the FBI and Othram Laboratories, to generate new leads. In 2021, Othram used advanced DNA testing to produce “a comprehensive genealogical profile from the skeletal remains,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said. The profile was sent to the FBI, which generated new leads that were turned over to the DA’s office and the NYPD. Investigators were able to confirm the remains were those of George Clarence Seitz.

16 October, 2022

In a case that made headlines more than eight years ago, DNA evidence has revealed the body of a woman found in the Snake River below the Perrine Bridge to be that of a San Diego resident, police say. "Jane Doe" was identified last month as Cynthia Gunnerson (aka Sash Ergateage). In December 2021, the Idaho Cold Case Advanced DNA Methods Working Group (ICCADM) contacted the sheriff 's office to offer assistance. In April, the group submitted a DNA sample from the unidentified female to labs at Othram Inc. of Woodland Texas, which generated a lead through forensic genetic genealogy testing. Results of tests gave deputies the information they needed, and they contacted the identified parents who submitted their DNA for further testing.

14 October, 2022

Human remains found in 1994 beneath a central Indiana bridge have been identified through DNA testing as those of an Ohio woman last seen by relatives earlier that year, officials said. The long-unidentified remains are those of Doreen M. Tiedman of Cleveland, Ohio, the Hancock County Sheriff's Department announced Wednesday. Detective Ted Munden with the sheriff's department worked with the Indiana State Police Laboratory, which used genetic genealogy to develop investigative leads. As part of the forensic detective work that led to the remains' identification, scientists at Othram Inc., a private forensic laboratory, built a comprehensive DNA profile for the woman.

13 October, 2022

Human remains discovered in 1974 near a northeastern Illinois creek have been identified through forensic DNA testing as a suburban Chicago man who vanished in the early 1970s, officials said. The remains are those of Donald M. Rozek of Harvey, Illinois, and Rozek's cause of death remains undetermined. The coroner’s office and the Will County Sheriff’s Office worked with Othram Inc. — a private laboratory that conducts advanced forensic DNA testing — to identify Rozek’s remains. After additional DNA profiling and genealogy work, Othram narrowed the search to an Illinois resident who was a possible nephew of the unidentified man.

5 October, 2022

Remains found a decade ago have been identified as 14-year-old Joan Marie Dymond of Wilkes-Barre, who vanished in June 1969. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children released a likeness of the girl based on facial reconstruction images. Investigators sent the victim's DNA profile to national databases but got no matches. Othram, Inc. provided troopers with possible family members, including the family of Dymond, who provided DNA samples.

27 September, 2022

Othram, the leading forensic sequencing laboratory for law enforcement, and the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs), a national information clearinghouse and resource center for missing, unidentified, and unclaimed person cases, today announced their partnership to develop and deploy forensic DNA testing tools to help reconnect missing and unidentified persons with their families.

26 September, 2022

Veronique Duperly spent most of 1975 plastering posters of her younger sister’s high school yearbook picture onto street corners all around Fairfax County. Next to the photo, she typed: “Missing 17-year-old Choubi Gildawie.” Using forensic genealogy testing, detectives with the Fairfax County Police Department linked remains found 21 years ago to Gildawie. Police said potential leads about the female victim’s identity fell through for decades until they teamed up with forensic laboratory Othram Inc. — a company which they have used in the past. Othram scientists created a DNA profile for the victim that matched Duperly’s family tree.

26 September, 2022

In 1979, the Alachua County Sheriff's Office (ACSO) says a state employee found a skeleton and a noose in the woods. Deputies say there was no way to identify the remains except through DNA. Several labs were unable to identify Doe through DNA testing. The victim remain unidentified until August of 2022. “My hope is to live in a world where the evidence is preserved until science can solve all of these cases, and give everyone answers,” Chief Development Officer for Othram Inc. Kristen Mittleman said. ACSO recruited the Texas based lab in 2021. “DNA testing is destructive and every single time you test evidence, you actually destroy the DNA and that evidence. People are still consuming evidence with techniques that don't work most of the time, and that's unacceptable,” Dr. Mittelman said.

26 September, 2022

A headless and handless body found in Fishkill 42 years ago was identified several months ago as a missing New York City woman. New York State Police say investigators had been working for the last 42 years to identify the body but were unable to do so due to technological and forensic limitations. However, an identifiable DNA sample was obtained by the FBI’s Investigative Genealogy Team, “in partnership with Othram, a private lab that specializes in cutting edge forensic DNA analysis.” On May 26, the victim was identified as Anna L. Papalardo-Blake. She was 44 at the time of her death.

8 September, 2022

In 1988, a young woman's body was found about five miles from the Alabama state line. Her identity and that of her killer would remain unknown for nearly 34 years. Now, with information from forensic genealogy testing, the authorities believe the victim to be Stacey Lyn Chahorski. They have also identified the killer, in a rare instance in which investigative genetic genealogy was used to identify both the victim and the killer in the same case. The use of genetic or forensic genealogy has grown in recent years. "The method has increasingly been used to solve violent crimes as the technology has been fine-tuned", said David Mittelman, the founder and CEO of Othram, the lab that built the profiles used to solve Ms. Chahorski's case.

8 September, 2022

Kristen Mittelman with Othram said the company uses DNA sequencing and genomic technology to help identify victims and perpetrators for law enforcement. "You need a very small percentage of the population in order to be able to identify everyone. That small percentage of the population is already in these databases. If you left DNA at a crime scene, [...] you'll probably get caught." Othram's CEO, David Mittelman, welcomed ABC13 onto their campus earlier in April. There, he the cartridges used in their sequencer to build a DNA profile, which is taken from evidence often worn down with time or too tiny to extract with traditional methods.

1 September, 2022

A mystery is slowly being solved, and it's taking a multi-team effort. “The fact that no missing persons that matched the description were reported in the area, that also makes it difficult,” TBI Special Agent Brandon Elkins said in 2020. But after nearly four decades, remains were found of the missing teen, Tracy Sue Walker. “The difference between Tracy being unidentified versus identified was that we were able to combine the generosity of a philanthropist and cutting-edge genomic science,” Dr. David Mittelman, founder and CEO of Othram said.

30 August, 2022

It's been over 37 years since the remains of an unidentified young female were found in Tennessee. Thanks to genetic genealogy performed by Othram, the child has now been identified as 15-year-old Tracy Sue Walker. Investigators say the teen was reported missing from Indiana in 1978 — nearly 400 miles from where her body was found. “The case faced technical challenges and failed testing before it came to Othram, consuming evidence and funding,” said Kristen Mittelman, Chief Development Officer for Othram. “Fortunately, we have the [...] best-in-class testing at Othram to build a profile that helped investigators solve the case.”

22 August, 2022

Othram is pleased to announce the appointment of Carla Davis as Chief Genetic Genealogist. Mrs. Davis will lead efforts to scale Othram's domestic and international genealogical research operations. Mrs. Davis joins Othram after a year-long collaboration in which she led genealogical efforts to restore names to unidentified persons in Virginia, Alabama, and her home state of Mississippi.

11 August, 2022

When Leslie Kaufman walks through the forensics lab at N.C. State University, she sees a space that is sterile and clean — and filled with human remains. The room is filled with boxes of bones, each tagged with numbers — not names — of people who were discovered dead but unidentified. Kaufman is a co-founder of the North Carolina Unidentified Project. The project works to give names and identities back to the state's 130 unidentified bodies. To analyze the person's DNA and match them with a family tree, they work with Othram Labs to extract the DNA sample which is then given to Kaufman to match through DNA databases.

8 August, 2022

Fairfax County Police in Virginia have been working with Texas-based Othram, which is now crowdfunding help to identify a woman who was found dead in Fairfax County nearly 30 years ago. Even today, there isn’t a lot that police know about the woman, whose remains were found in 1993. “What has us stumped is who she is,” said Major Ed O’Carroll with Fairfax County police. While her remains were discovered in 1993, “we do think that they were there for maybe one to as many as six years,” he said. Othram is crowdfunding for this case and others around the country, trying to help police departments cover some of the cost and still get the answers they’re looking for.

1 August, 2022

Mary Hague Kelly was found strangled to death at her home in 1989. In 2004, DNA testing yielded no results. The Dallas County DA's Office enlisted the help of Othram in 2021. Othram used forensic-grade genome sequencing to develop a profile of the suspect, which led to an arrest - more than three decades after Kelly's murder. The work of Othram was praised in a statement. "In the last 33 years, countless people have put in hundreds of hours of investigative work on the Mary Kelly cold case murder, but at the end of the day, it was Othram that solved this difficult case. [...] The case does not get solved without them."

7 July, 2022

Many mysteries remain about the woman found dead in a Fairfax County cemetery in 1996, but one has just been solved: her identity. For a quarter-century, the unidentified woman in Pleasant Valley Memorial Park was known as 'the Christmas Tree Lady,' because she had placed a small Christmas tree on a blanket next to her. Fairfax police tried for years to identify the woman. In recent years genetic genealogy has blossomed as a law enforcement tool, in which forensic analysts try to match one person’s DNA profile with another, and comb through the family tree for connections. So in January, Othram Inc. took on the 'Christmas Tree Lady.'

28 June, 2022

Columbia Police announced arrests have been made in connection to an infant, Samone J. Daniels, found dead in 2019. The preliminary autopsy could not determine any identifying information about Samone, but CPD says Samone's parents have been arrested. "We are indebted to the community," said Police Chief Geoff Jones. "Samone had a lot of people pulling for her." Jones also said he was thankful for all the other agencies that supported the investigation, including the forensic genealogists at Othram labs.

6 June, 2022

With the rise of genealogical databases and family trees linking suspects to past crime scenes, one company is taking DNA technology a step further and aiming to end cold cases for good. Over the last few years, Othram has also developed a solid reputation for working with skeletal remains — even identifying a victim from 1888. In another case, the company worked with the equivalent of 15 human cells from a sexual assault that occurred 32 years ago.

3 June, 2022

The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office has identified human remains that were found nearly 50 years ago with the help of genealogy testing. Poole's remains were identified following genealogy testing by Othram, a private forensic laboratory that utilizes genome sequencing to build DNA profiles.

2 June, 2022

After nearly five decades, Palm Beach County detectives announced Thursday they've identified a teen girl whose skeletal remains were discovered tied to a tree in 1974. Late last year, the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office sent the unidentified remains to Othram, a Texas-based forensics DNA lab that builds DNA profiles using genealogy. The lab identified the deceased as Poole and helped investigators locate her parents and siblings.

29 May, 2022

An ongoing partnership between the Chatham County Sheriff’s Office, North Carolina Unidentified Project, and Othram Inc., has led to the successful identification of a victim from a 46-year-old murder case. The NC Unidentified Project worked with Othram Inc. to employ Forensic-Grade Genome Sequencing to build a genealogical profile from skeletal remains. Ultimately, a DNA link to the 1976 case led investigators to a family member of the victim who identified the deceased subject as Jimmy Mack Brooks.

27 May, 2022

The fire along Oak Drive in south Atlanta in January of this year left the man found inside unrecognizable. A new technique called forensic genome sequencing gave the family some closure. It all started with a cotton swab after DNA testing of a family member showed a close relationship to the victim.

20 May, 2022

It was a Sunday afternoon not far from the launch ramp at Hemenway Harbor. As the lake levels dropped, a decaying barrel emerged onto the shore. Inside were human remains. "When you have remains that have been exposed to the elements, it makes it incredibly challenging to get an ID," Clark County Coroner Melanie Rouse said. However, a lab in Texas that specializes in advanced DNA testing using genealogical data believes they have the resources to help.

17 May, 2022

Jean Ponders vanished from Roswell in 2012 — the same year a decomposed body was found near the Talladega Speedway in Lincoln, Alabama. Detectives called her Grandma Doe. Even though her death was officially ruled as natural from lung cancer, Lincoln knew it was still a crime. Ultimately, Lincoln City Council and private donors paid for new DNA techniques through a Texas company called Othram.

12 May, 2022

On Sept. 27, 2001, a woman was found dead near a drainage ditch on the 1500 block of Lincoln Circle. Police had ruled it a homicide, and then, the case went cold for 20 years. Othram is working on the Jane Doe case. Mittelman says they were able to fully crowdfund the case within two days. This will allow the lab to start testing, with the hope of bringing detectives one step closer to closing her case — and finally, bring this long chapter to a close for her family.

11 May, 2022

Margaret Ann Sniegowski Jr. was 17 when she went missing. Known as Maggie, she was the youngest of eight siblings, enjoyed dancing and played trombone in her high school marching band. Her family might have never known what happened to her if it weren't for investigators from the Boone County Sheriff's Office, a Lebanon criminology hobbyist and a DNA-testing company in Texas.

29 April, 2022

Founded by entrepreneur and philanthropist Justin Woo, the Vegas Justice League (VJL) utilizes a fast-growing approach to reopening unsolved cases by donating funds to help local law enforcement. Donations raised by the VJL are put toward advanced investigation techniques, including the use of genealogical research and other DNA testing performed by leading genetic experts like Othram.

27 April, 2022

A new partnership has helped the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office identify human remains found in 2006 and led them to reopen an investigation of an unrelated 1984 murder. The sheriff's office said they worked with Jennifer Bengtson of the anthropology program of Southeast Missouri State University to identify the remains through DNA analysis. With the help of her students and genome sequencing company Othram, Bengtson was able to "provide investigators with information pointing them to the path leading to an accurate identification."

25 April, 2022

The young woman’s skeletal remains were discovered in 2001, near a drainage ditch behind an apartment complex in what’s now known as Tysons, Virginia — and Fairfax County police still have far more questions than answers.“We’re baffled by this case, so we’re anxious to get this case moving forward toward finding out who she was, and ultimately, who’s responsible for her murder,” O’Carroll told WTOP in announcing a partnership with Othram Inc, and DNASolves.

15 April, 2022

One Texas-based genomics lab, Othram Inc., was used by the Toronto Police Service in 2020 to accuse Calvin Hoover in the 1984 murder of nine-year-old Christine Jessop in what was arguably Canada’s best-known cold case. As recently as last month, Othram used such familial DNA technology to identify three Jane and John Doe remains in a single week. But these tools are being used very sparingly by police in Canada to identify offenders in cold cases where conventional or “legacy” DNA technologies have failed.

14 April, 2022

For three decades, she was known only as Jane Doe, ever since her body was found dumped on the embankment of an interstate highway in Indiana in May 1992. Investigators said that they had tried several times to identify Ms. Sniegowski’s body without success. In February 2021 they sent the remains to Othram, a forensic laboratory that specializes in using forensic genetic genealogy to help solve older crimes. By September, they had successfully obtained enough DNA to begin building a profile and search for her living relatives.

13 April, 2022

It's been over four decades since a woman's decomposing remains were found in New Lenox. Thanks to modern DNA technology, she's been identified as Brenda Sue Black — a missing woman from Ohio. The Will County Coroner's Office hired Othram Incorporated to analyze the DNA evidence last year.

11 April, 2022

The Idaho County Sheriff's Office (ICSO) confirmed the identity of the remains found near an abandoned camp in Colt Killed Creek in 1984. The remains, found 37 years ago, were those of Brian Bennett, 26, "Mr. Bones," from Oklahoma. ICSO personnel started calling Bennett "Mr. Bones" after they felt he deserved some unique personalization. ICSO investigators continued researching and working to find the identity of "Mr. Bones" over the years. In 2022, NamUs decided to fund genetic genealogy testing and samples of Mr. Bones that were sent to a private laboratory in Othram, and they found a potential family match.

1 April, 2022

For 25 years, the Fairfax County police have tried and failed to identify “the Christmas Tree Lady,” so named because she placed an 8-inch Christmas tree with gold balls and red ribbons on the clear plastic sheet she put on the ground. Her case has become an enduring mystery on the Internet, and she is the only person to die by suicide in Fairfax whom authorities have been unable to identify, before or since. Enter Othram Inc., a forensic laboratory outside Houston.

31 March, 2022

A private laboratory in The Woodlands is becoming known nationwide for identifying victims and possible suspects in cold cases. The company, Othram, uses new DNA technology to identify victims, find missing persons, and reveal possible perpetrators of crimes. Over the last several weeks, they’ve helped solve numerous cold cases across the United States. "The work that Othram lab is doing [gives] hope to law enforcement [and] families," said Jim Walker. "It should make a bad guy shutter in his shoes."

26 March, 2022

Members of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation contacted the FBI again several years later about using investigative genealogy methods to help solve the case. For this effort, they enlisted Othram, a Texas-based laboratory that works with law enforcement and has been credited with helping solve a lengthy list of other cold cases. "Without the advancements in DNA technology, we wouldn't have been able to be of assistance and have this success so we're grateful for that and for the work Othram did," FBI Special Agent Tim Burke said in Thursday's news conference.

25 March, 2022

The remains of a Michigan mother who vanished more than three decades ago were found in Georgia at the time and finally identified using DNA technology this month. Othram Inc., a Texas-based DNA lab, was brought in by investigators to assist on the cold case. Using Forensic-Grade Genome Sequencing, a DNA extraction was performed on Chahorski’s skeletal remains, resulting in an “comprehensive genealogical profile.” FBI agents in Atlanta and Baltimore subsequently constructed a family tree and traced Chahroski’s distant relatives through extensive genealogical research using the new forensic profile, which ultimately identified her.

22 March, 2022

A man found dead in Jackson County nearly 40 years ago has finally been identified. His remains were located by divers, who were searching the river after a female toddler was found deceased in the area days earlier. His identity remained a mystery for 40 years, until Jackson County investigators, with assistance from Othram, were able to identify a close relative of the young man.

18 March, 2022

Vermont State Police investigators used advanced DNA sequencing techniques to identify a sample found as part of their investigation into the 2004 disappearance of a 17-year-old girl in the town of Montgomery, police said Friday. The state police sent samples to Othram, a Texas-based forensic sequencing laboratory that has set up a fundraising page for the investigation. But investigators say identifying the source of the DNA found near the abandoned car of Brianna Maitland does not mean they have identified a suspect in her disappearance.

15 March, 2022

n 2021, the Yavapai County Sheriff's Office partnered with Othram, a Texas-based laboratory that works exclusively with law enforcement, to see if advanced DNA testing could help solve the mystery of "Little Miss Nobody." That girl now has a name, thanks to advanced DNA technology. Othram received the case in December 2021 and returned the identity to authorities in February 2022, Dr. Kristen Mittelman, Othram's Chief Business Development Officer, told CNN.

11 March, 2022

The story of Carla Walker, how technology solved her 1974 murder and the conviction of her killer will be featured in an episode of “Forensic Files II” on Sunday. The episode airs March 13 at 9 p.m. and features Assistant Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney Kim D’Avignon, according to the episode description. D’Avignon will explain how a team of detectives, forensic scientists and Tarrant County district attorney officials solved the 46-year-old murder case and convicted McCurley.

10 March, 2022

An old cigarette butt and other DNA evidence led Seattle-area police to a breakthrough in the case of a woman killed 27 years ago. The Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office reopened the investigation in 2018, pursuing leads based on a rough sketch of the killer and DNA evidence. They sent the forensics to a DNA lab in Texas, Othram Labs, which built a suspect profile.

10 March, 2022

Metro Police has identified the remains of a homicide victim who died more than 25 years ago using “forensic-grade” DNA sequencing funded by a private party, officials said today. The remains of Richard Guarro, who was reported missing after he failed to return from a trip to Las Vegas in November 1996, were positively identified by analyzing the DNA of his biological sister. They were sent to Othram Labs in October for “forensic-grade genome sequencing” at the request of cold case detectives, police said in a release.

9 March, 2022

Patricia Lorraine Barnes, 61, was found dead in 1995 when her body was dumped on a rural South Kitsap County road. Deputies at the time documented 130 evidence items but still could not identify a suspect. It was not until April 2018 when deputies reopened the case and four years later, evidence was sent to Othram labs in The Woodlands, Texas. Othram then went forward with genome sequencing and forensic genetic genealogy to make a DNA profile for the suspect.

4 March, 2022

"We should not be putting our hand out to the public to fund what is the core responsibility of government," stated Senator Baker, reacting to recent cold case investigations in which the public can donate funds to help pay for expensive but necessary testing such as DNA testing. Investigators say the effort will speed up the investigation rather than wait for the state’s budget process to move forward the effort raised $5,000 in several days but senator baker insists.

4 March, 2022

A Texas-based private laboratory has helped find a man who has been missing from Everett for more than four decades. The lab, Othram Inc., identified Ronald David Chambers, 28, as the person whose remains were found nearly two years after he went missing. Chambers, from Rome, Georgia, was reported missing in 1979, he had not been seen since he was at a SeaTac motel on Dec. 17, 1978.

22 February, 2022

A year ago, nobody knew whose body was buried under a headstone marked Beth Doe in the Laureytown Cemetery near Weatherly. Now we know it's the grave of 15-year-old Evelyn Colon and her unborn baby girl, who was killed in 1976. Othram, a Texas-based DNA laboratory, helped identify Evelyn and her alleged killer through DNA profiling. Now the lab is looking to help solve a case in Luzerne County–Baby John Doe, an infant found in a Larksville landfill in 1980.

22 February, 2022

After raising an $18 million Series B funding round last year, forensic genetics firm Othram Inc. is expanding in The Woodlands. The company is using proceeds from its $18 million Series B funding round, led by Austin-based venture capital firm Gigafund, to build out a roughly 25,000-square-foot office and lab space about a mile away. Othram aims to move into its new lab in March.

18 February, 2022

More than 30 years after a teenager’s skull was found near a road in Stafford County, Virginia, officials say the late teen has been identified through DNA analysis and genealogical research. Human remains found in 1990 are those of Timothy Alan Mangum, the Stafford County Sheriff’s Office said Friday. A Texas lab called Othram conducted genealogical research and in November 2021 gave the sheriff’s office Mangum’s name and information on his family members.

16 February, 2022

Investigators are taking another step in their efforts to solve a cold case involving the homicide of a baby boy. Baby Boy John Doe was found in a landfill in Larksville in 1980. Because of advances in technology, in 2016, a DNA sample was collected from the remains. While other attempts to determine the baby's DNA have failed, state police believe a company called Othram Inc. from Texas has the technology to identify it.

2 February, 2022

Advancements in DNA testing have helped bring an end to cases that have remained opened for decades. “We’re able to do lots of things — including use genealogy to make long range relationship determinations,” Mittelman said. With that information, detectives are now increasingly able to connect once-useless DNA with relatives of crime victims or perpetrators of violence.

29 January, 2022

Friday night on KPRC 2, an episode of “Dateline NBC” featured a case out of Texas - the murder of Carla Walker. When a Houston company stepped in and helped identify the suspect with its cutting-edge DNA technology, the cold case was cracked. Othram uses a very sophisticated system for testing DNA samples, some that would normally be untestable -- either because they are too small or contaminated.

27 January, 2022

Five months after her killer was sentenced in a Fort Worth courtroom, Carla Walker’s story will be featured on an episode of NBC’s Dateline on Friday night. Her family waited for answers for decades until DNA technology and a dogged police investigation led to the conviction of McCurley. A DNA profile was created and analyzed by Othram, a forensic genealogy lab based in a Houston suburb. The DNA profile was eventually matched to a DNA sample police obtained.

27 January, 2022

Othram, the leading forensic sequencing laboratory for law enforcement, is pleased to announce the appointment of Brendan Belair as Chief Strategy Officer. In addition to serving on the executive team, Mr. Belair will lead Othram’s state and federal government advocacy engagements. Mr. Belair, an attorney and seventeen-year Capitol Hill and political campaign veteran, most recently served as Staff Director and Chief Counsel for the House Judiciary Committee.

27 January, 2022

Since 2004, investigators in Haywood County have tried to identify the body of a man they found dead along a rural road. Othram, a private laboratory based in Texas, uses forensic-grade genome sequencing; the company uses small trace amounts of DNA to create a profile of John or Jane Does. Captain Cope of the Haywood County Sheriff’s Office said he believes the assistance from Othram is a step in the right direction for the case.

25 January, 2022

David Mittelman’s company, Othram, is revolutionizing DNA sequencing and, in the process, greatly reducing the number of “unsolvable” cases. I called David to learn more about how the new technology works, what it means for the future of crime-fighting, and maybe get some fascinating stories out of the bargain too.

24 January, 2022

Othram is pleased to announce the appointment of industry veteran Andrew Singer as Chief Commercial Officer. Mr. Singer will lead efforts to expand Othram’s operations throughout North America, delivering on the company’s mission to enable justice for all victims and their families. Mr. Singer joins Othram after a successful 14-year tenure at Bode Technology, most recently serving as the Vice President of Operations Sales and Global Marketing.

20 January, 2022

Authorities are still looking for help to identify the remains of a young girl found in the desert in 1960. The girl was estimated to be between the ages of 3 and 6 years old. The case remained stagnant until 2018 when her body was exhumed to obtain a DNA sample. A DNASolves® fund has been set up by Othram, Inc to help raise the remaining funds to have the DNA tested.

13 January, 2022

The large brown accordion folder that Commander Adam Hornick has been filling for nearly a decade is labeled “John Doe” in black capital letters. John Doe now has a name: Franklin D. Feldman. Feldman died in Bethlehem in 1981. The body was never identified — until now. Bethlehem Police partnered with the FBI Melville Office Investigative Genetic Genealogy Unit, which in turn partnered with Othram Inc. to develop a genealogical profile, which led to potential family members.

13 January, 2022

After more than nine years after her body was found in Lincoln, a woman’s remains have been identified. The remains, found on May 5, 2012, are those of Jean Turner Ponders of Roswell, Georgia. Lincoln Police said if not for assistance from Othram, Inc., located in Texas, which is a forensic sequencing laboratory for law enforcement and a forensic genetic genealogist named Carla Davis, this would be a cold case.

12 January, 2022

Authorities said Wednesday they have positively identified the remains of a man that were unearthed in 2003, the Isanti County Sheriff's Office announced, thanks to meticulous DNA analysis. Last year, the Sheriff's Office was referred to Othram, a lab in Texas that uses a newer technology to build DNA profiles from skeletal remains. In October, Othram extracted a viable DNA sample and built a comprehensive DNA profile that was sent to Rae-Venter and the Isanti County Sheriff's Office.

3 January, 2022

A Bellflower woman whose remains were unearthed near Thousand Palms almost 30 years ago was positively identified based on a DNA match, authorities said Monday. Investigators were able to track down a potential DNA match to the woman -- Cavallaro's son, whose identity was not disclosed. He provided a DNA sample that was processed by a private laboratory, Woodlands, Texas-based Othram Inc.

16 December, 2021

Human remains found more than three years ago were identified as a missing 27-year-old University of Michigan student, according to the Saginaw County Sheriff’s Office. Detective Sgt. Simmons was told Othram Inc. in The Woodlands, Texas could help with a genealogy study of the remains to help find a possible identity. Othram told Simmons the remains belonged to an Asian man.

10 December, 2021

Human remains that were found in Northampton County nearly three decades ago have been identified as those of a World War II veteran. In September 2019, portions of the skeletal remains were sent to Othram, Inc. in The Woodlands, Texas, for further advanced technological DNA processing, which was funded by the Northampton County Sheriff’s Office. On February 11, 2021, a match was found in a genealogical database: Orlando Harper of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

7 December, 2021

Human remains that were found in the town of Vinland in 2015 have been identified, the Winnebago County Sheriff's Office announced Tuesday night. In 2019, the sheriff's department submitted the evidence to a laboratory in Virginia with the hopes of producing a computer-generated image of what Klug looked like. Klug was ultimately identified with the assistance of Othram Inc., a private DNA laboratory in Texas, the Tuesday news release said.

6 December, 2021

Las Vegas Metro Police have announced solving another cold case murder. The case involves the murder of 22-year-old Diana Hanson in 1983. Police have now identified Johnny Blake Peterson as the person who killed Hanson. Police say the case was solved with the help of Texas-based forensic sequencing laboratory Othram Inc.

6 December, 2021

Community leaders have come together to form the Vegas Justice League, a group that offers support, funding and scientific resources to help the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department solve previously “unsolvable” crimes. The Vegas Justice League partners with Othram Inc, a forensic sequencing laboratory, to offer the latest advancements in DNA testing. The group is involved in several cold cases and helped police solve the 32-year-old murder of Stephanie Isaacson and the 42-year-old murder of Kim Bryant.

1 December, 2021

On July 24th, 1989, human remains were found on the northwest shore of Fire Island, west of Anchorage. All efforts by AST to identify the victim were unsuccessful. In 2021, the Alaska Bureau of Investigation (ABI) Cold Case Investigation Unit reopened the investigation. Bone samples from the victim that had been retained by the State Medical Examiner’s Office were sent to Othram Inc., a private forensic DNA laboratory in Woodlands TX.

30 November, 2021

Advanced DNA testing and genome sequencing helped Las Vegas police crack the case of a 16-year-old girl who was found dead 42 years ago, investigators announced Monday. Police "investigated this case for years without being able to identify a suspect," Spencer said noting multiple LVMPD detectives had worked to gather new leads. "Ten days ago we were notified that the genological profile built by Othram labs, based on sperm recovered from the body of Kim Bryant at autopsy, revealed that Johnny Blake Peterson was the person that kidnapped, sexually assaulted and murdered Kim Bryant," Spencer said at the news conference.

29 November, 2021

The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department announced Monday that a cold case homicide from 1979 has been solved thanks to a donation from a local philanthropist. As recently as 2021, the LVMPD lab ran the limited DNA from the case with no luck. However, things changed when they were given the opportunity to take the DNA to Othram's lab. The evidence linked 19-year-old Johnny Blake Peterson as the suspect in Bryant's death, police said.

29 November, 2021

In May of 2019, [Detective] Smith heard about a two-week seminar at the Ontario Police College featuring a session on forensic genealogy. He knew little about it other than the fact that it had been successfully deployed a year earlier by detectives in the case of the Golden State Killer. This would be the first time the techniques were taught in Canada. A few months later, someone from Othram Inc., a Texas-based genetic testing start-up, got in touch. The company had heard about Smith and knew he was interested in the process.

24 November, 2021

Othram - a Texas-based laboratory that specializes in Forensic-grade Genome Sequencing - played a key role in solving a 62-year-old cold case in Spokane. The case had went gone than six decades without being solved. But then, Othram stepped in and performed DNA testing. The process the lab specializes in allows the to test small - and oftentimes, damaged - DNA samples from crime scenes.

17 November, 2021

Jackson County Investigators have identified the skeletal remains found in a wooded area near East Street in Moss Point close to the Escatawpa River. Once the remains were found, they were collected by the Mississippi State Crime Lab, who sent samples to Othram in The Woodlands, Texas for analysis. Othram then conducted genealogical research and identified a possible relative in Michigan. The remains were confirmed to be 54-year-old Aaron McGraw, a man reported missing in May 2015.

16 November, 2021

Othram, the leading forensic sequencing laboratory for law enforcement, and Discovery Life Sciences™ (Discovery), the biospecimen and biomarker specialists, today announced their partnership to pair Discovery’s innovative forensic genomic research capabilities with Othram’s human identification tools and services for law enforcement.

13 November, 2021

In the summer of 2020, a utility maintenance worker discovered the fully dressed skeletal remains of a man in a wooded area behind Holmes Avenue. Investigators tried conventional approaches to determine the identity of the skeletal remains, but were unsuccessful. Othram used the recovered bones to build a DNA profile to identify the remains and potential family members. Since 2019, Othram has identified four people from remains shared by the Mississippi crime lab.

12 November, 2021

EastPark John Doe was found July 18, 2020, in a shallow grave on a piece of hunting property just off the Industrial Parkway in Boyd County. Since discovering the body, troopers and Boyd County Coroner Mark Hammond have been at a dead end attempting to identify the man; authorities are closer to identifying the EastPark John Doe, after the Medical Examiner’s Office has confirmed samples from the body have been sent to Othram, a Texas-based lab that conducts genetic tests and genealogical research into the deceased.

9 November, 2021

There was little viable evidence for forensic genealogical testing. Much of the victim’s skeletal remains had decayed over the decades and had been repeatedly tested by other labs, which had stripped away almost all usable genetic material. It wasn’t the first time Othram’s scientists had run into such a challenge. They rarely have the luxury of working with high-quality genetic samples. They’re typically left to scrutinize specimens that are far older, far smaller, and far less intact than those yielded by at-home DNA testing kits. But the lab’s proprietary technology was designed to recover and enhance miniscule quantities of degraded forensic evidence.

8 November, 2021

Saliva on his discarded beer cans has led to the arrest of a Florida man accused of stabbing a store clerk more than six dozen times in the winter of 1996. Sheriff’s Office officials said the case is the first for the agency solved using genetic genealogy. Othram Inc., a Texas-based private laboratory that specializes in the method, assisted in the process.

8 November, 2021

A partial human skull found in East Idaho in 1986 that investigators believe belonged to a teenage girl has yet to be identified. Now, more than three decades later, a forensic lab is raising funds to conduct testing that could help identify it. The Oneida County Sheriff’s Office and Samantha Blatt of the Idaho State University Anthropology Department reached out this year to Othram, a private forensic lab, with the hope that the lab might be able to help identify the remains using advanced DNA testing.

3 November, 2021

George Clarence Seitz went missing Dec. 10, 1976, and was last seen leaving his home in Jamaica on his way to get a haircut, prosecutors said. But his whereabouts were a mystery until March 12, 2019, not long after a woman told police she remembered a body buried in plastic bags in the backyard of a home. Police went digging and found remains under concrete — enough for a DNA profile. In February, the DA’s office and the NYPD enlisted a private company, Othram, to produce a comprehensive genealogical profile, which they handed over to the FBI, prosecutors said — and that led to a match.

26 October, 2021

A News 3 investigation is detailing arrests in the death of a baby 30 years in the making. On April 4, 1991, a town sanitation worker found the baby boy's remains in a trash can rack on East Tides Drive. After decades of chasing leads, investigators chose to send a rib bone from the remains to Othram, a private genetic testing lab based in Texas. Othram was able to pull DNA from the rib bone to conduct a genealogical profile leading to a North Carolina family.

24 October, 2021

The CEO of a laboratory in Texas that is performing groundbreaking work in DNA science says that the technology they are using could one day completely wipe out serial crime. With the right funding and a significant upscaling of operations, Othram could make serial killing a thing of the past, as well as helping thousands of families find out what happened to their loved ones and solve decades-old cold cases.

23 October, 2021

A Woodlands forensic lab’s work in helping identify the man responsible for a 1974 cold case murder has inspired a milestone episode of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” as detectives investigate whether the perpetrator is a North Texas serial killer. On social media, the “Law & Order: SVU” showrunner and the series’ main star, Mariska Hargitay, both acknowledged Othram’s work as the NBC series’ 500th episode aired Thursday night.

22 October, 2021

When officers showed up at Edward Fetterolf’s job and said they wanted to talk about a murder investigation, he knew exactly what they were talking about. They showed him a photo. “As soon as I saw it, I immediately knew it was her,” he said. Detectives told Fetterolf that after 45 years they finally figured out who the “Woodlawn Jane Doe” was — his sister.

13 October, 2021

The Ector County Sheriff's Office and the Texas Rangers have identified human remains found in a pasture back in 2019. After working with the Texas Rangers Unsolved Crimes Investigation Program and Othram Inc. to conduct DNA analysis, ECSO finally were able to confirm that the remains were those of Timothy Daniel Gomez.

6 October, 2021

The Charleston County Coroner’s Office has identified a deceased individual almost a year after their foot was discovered in Charleston Harbor. On June 21st, the coroner’s office sent a sample to a Texas-based lab, Othram Inc. where they were able to obtain a genealogical profile and compare it to DNA databases where individuals had uploaded their DNA.

30 September, 2021

In August 2020, a utility maintenance worker found the fully-clothed skeletal remains of an unknown man in an area behind Holmes Avenue in Jackson. Crime lab professionals sent the remains to Othram so they could generate a comprehensive genealogical profile for the unknown man, in hopes that it would help identify him or a close family member.

23 September, 2021

In September of 2002, a local resident found what appeared to be a human skull at the Palisades Reservoir between Big Elk and Blowout Canyon and contacted the Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office. Since 2002, Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office investigators have applied new technology and advances in DNA identification to this case attempting to identify who the bones belonged to. Until recently those efforts did not result in answers as to the identity of this man.

21 September, 2021

After 40 years, skeletal remains known only as "Escatawpa Jane Doe" have been identified through DNA. The woman’s name was Clara Birdlong, and Jackson County Sheriff’s investigators believe she was murdered by serial killer Samuel Little, a news release from the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office says. Little confessed to more than 90 murders throughout the southeast.

21 September, 2021

Clark County honored a local philanthropist who helped solve a cold case from 1989 on Tuesday. The breakthrough was made possible thanks to Justin Woo, the founder of Vegas Helps. He donated $5,000 to help investigators send the evidence to [Othram]. Clark County brought Woo and Othram CEO Dave Mittelman together for the dedication ceremony.

20 September, 2021

When they used forensic genealogy testing to solve Carla [Walker]’s case, Bennett and cold case Detective Leah Wagner knew they needed a way to fund this form of testing in more cases. Not every case is able to draw the kind of attention Carla’s received. And like every department at FWPD, the Fort Worth cold case unit has a budget. Many people have already asked how they can contribute to cold case investigations, Bennett and Walker said. Most of those wishing to donate are not directly connected to an unsolved case — they just understand the impact those cases can have on a community.

17 September, 2021

Unidentified remains found in 1982 in the woods near Stone Mountain have finally been identified, according to Gwinnett Police. In March 2021, Det. Dorminy with Gwinnett Homicide Unit shipped the skull to Othram Labs to have them generate a DNA profile. "It was always a question in the back of my mind," said Adams. "We were always told that our mother left us at Piedmont Park. She just went with some guy. No one knew what happened."

16 September, 2021

For more than four decades investigators tried to identify her remains and find her killer. Sketches of her led to no productive leads. Her case was featured on America's Most Wanted in 2010. Then in 2015, with the assistance of The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, pollen testing led Baltimore County detectives to believe that she may have been from the Boston area. But the big break came with genetic genealogy this year.

16 September, 2021

Othram is pleased to announce that it has raised an $18 million Series B funding round to further develop the breakthrough technology that is helping investigators crack these unsolved cases. The round was led by Gigafund, a venture fund known for its large investments in companies like SpaceX. With the new funding round, Othram will accelerate the development of its genetic testing platform and expand operations throughout North America.

14 September, 2021

The remains of Theodore Frederick Kampf, 46 -- formerly of Camden County -- were found in a wooded area near the North Fork Dam and Dempster Highway in Yukon Territory in 1983, Royal Canadian Mounted Police announced. In the fall of 2020, Texas based Othram Inc. was contracted to conduct advanced forensic analysis. This led Yukon Investigators to begin working with the Oaklyn Police Department and New Jersey State Police on on a missing person case from their jurisdiction.

1 September, 2021

A hiker came across the remains in the summer of 2014 in the Welcome Creek Wilderness. Sheriff Dunkerson says the remains could not be identified despite a thorough investigation. Earlier this year, with the help of Granite County Sheriff’s Office funding as well as DNASolves® Crowdfunding and a contribution from Audiochuck, the Granite County Sheriff’s Office and the Missoula County Sheriff’s Office Cold Case Squad partnered with Othram Inc., a Texas DNA laboratory.

24 August, 2021

McCurley’s guilty plea Tuesday, August 24, to kidnapping and killing Walker is believed to be a groundbreaking outcome, according to detectives, prosecutors and geneticists who worked on the case. They believe it is the first time forensic genealogy has been presented as evidence in a criminal trial, resulting in a conviction. The outcome could encourage the funding and use of the testing in other criminal cases, and possibly close some of the more than 250,000 unsolved murders across the country.

24 August, 2021

A 78-year-old Texas man on trial for the abduction, rape, and murder of a teenage girl in 1974 abruptly changed his plea during court proceedings Tuesday, to confess. ‘I believe this could be the first time the tech was used in court,’ David Mittelman, founder of Othram, a modern parallel sequencing lab that helped lead police to the killer, told DailyMail.com. ‘It’s a huge milestone.’

12 August, 2021

After 26 years, the Saskatchewan Coroners Service announced on Thursday that it had identified Michael Kirov, originally from Winnipeg, as the victim in a John Doe case who had been killed by a train in Regina. ... Kirov's identity was verified in early August this year with assistance from Othram Inc., a Texas company that specializes in the recovery and analysis of human DNA.

12 August, 2021

The quest to find the identity of Michael Kirov, the man previously known only as “John Doe” who died on a Regina railway 26 years ago, relied on advanced DNA technology and painstaking genealogical research. David Mittelman, CEO of the Texas-based Othram Inc., told reporters on Thursday how his lab helped crack the case.

9 August, 2021

The Will County Coroner's Office announced Monday that it is trying to pursue advanced DNA testing in hopes of identifying the body of a man found near Channahon during the 1970s. Coroner Laurie Summers said her staff has partnered with Othram as part of an effort to bring Will County's 1974 mystery to an end. According to the website DNASolves.com, hunters came across the man's skeleton in a creek head for a partially wooded area in November 1974.

7 August, 2021

The body of a man found in the Snohomish River in 1980 was finally identified this month thanks to specialized DNA Laboratory Othram and the Snohomish County Medical Examiner's Office. The man that detectives referred to as "Jetty Doe" for decades has been named and the family finally has some answers.

2 August, 2021

Othram, the leading forensic sequencing laboratory for law enforcement, has announced a joint initiative with the DoeNetwork, a global volunteer organization that advocates for cold cases involving missing and unidentified persons. The collaboration aims to raise awareness, funding, and other resources to help solve cold cases. DNASolves® and DoeNetwork will work together to educate the public on the power of advanced DNA testing and forensic genetic genealogy, and cross-promote cases being solved with this powerful new approach. This will further the common mission at DNASolves® and DoeNetwork of helping reconnect the missing and unidentified to family.

29 July, 2021

Othram, the leading forensic sequencing laboratory for law enforcement, has announced a joint initiative with the DoeNetwork, a global volunteer organization that advocates for cold cases involving missing and unidentified persons. The collaboration aims to raise awareness, funding, and other resources to help solve cold cases.

26 July, 2021

July marks the 90th anniversary of the arrival of the ‘Mad Trapper of Rat River’ to Canada, who's widely known as a mysterious trapper that shot three RCMP officers during the largest manhunt in Canadian history. Despite photos being sent out and thousands of tips from the public, the Mad Trapper’s identity has never been established. To help aid in the investigation, Mittelman is opening it up to the public, asking individuals to submit their DNA to help track down the Mad Trapper’s ancestors.

23 July, 2021

The 1989 murder of a 14-year-old girl in Las Vegas has been solved by using what experts say is the smallest-ever amount of human DNA to crack a case. Stephanie Isaacson's murder case had gone cold until new technology made it possible to test what little remained of the suspect's DNA: the equivalent of just 15 human cells. This year, police were able to pick up the case again after a donation from a local resident. They turned over the DNA samples left to Othram, a Texas-based genome-sequencing lab that specialises in cold cases.

22 July, 2021

At Wednesday's press conference, authorities explained Stephanie's case was chosen specifically because of the minimal amount of DNA available. "The equivalent of 15 cells was submitted for this testing," said Kimberly Murga, director of laboratory services with LVMPD. For reference, Mittelman explained getting a DNA swab for companies like 23andMe gather around 750 to 1,000 nanograms of DNA. This case was 0.12.

21 July, 2021

Using a mere 15 cells of DNA evidence, Las Vegas police have identified a suspect in the 1989 slaying of a 14-year-old girl, officials announced Wednesday. Kim Murga, head of the Metropolitan Police Department’s forensics lab, said the sample used to identify Darren Roy Marchand as the man suspected of sexually assaulting and strangling Las Vegas teen Stephanie Isaacson more than 30 years ago now holds the world record for the smallest amount of DNA ever used to help solve a crime.

16 July, 2021

A brother and sister were looking for their long-lost sibling. A police department was trying to identify a murder victim. It took 30 years - but a revolution in forensics using DNA and ancestry websites finally connected the dots. The police had called her Grace, because it had been said that "only by the grace of God" would anyone find out who she was. But thanks to a revolution in DNA tracing - one that is changing how cold cases are being solved throughout America - a 30-year-old mystery might finally be solved.

30 June, 2021

It’s a case that has haunted Toefield, Alta. for more than 40 years, but now there are finally some answers. As Sarah Komadina reports, a man known as ‘Septic Tank Sam’, has now been identified as Gordon (Gordie) Edwin Sanderson.

30 June, 2021

The 44-year mystery around the identity of a man whose scorched body was found in a septic tank has been solved. The infamous cold case made headlines throughout the decades as investigators tried to gather leads. RCMP sent biological samples last year to Othram Labs in Texas to develop a DNA profile that could be searched against public DNA databanks in Canada and the U.S. that track ancestry. As a result, they were able to develop a family tree with several possible relatives — one of whom turned out to be Sanderson’s sister, Joyce Sanderson, who had lost track of her brother.

29 June, 2021

Forty minutes north of Houston in The Woodlands, Texas, Dr. David Mittelman has built a very special lab. It’s the first and only fully in-house private laboratory in the United States or Canada to use the power of genomic sequencing in a forensic setting. The mission is “Justice Through Genomics,” and the idea is to democratize justice in the same way that genetic health testing has been made accessible over the last several years. “On any street corner you can get your DNA tested and find out if you have a risk for a certain disease,” says Mittelman. “But what street corner can you go to solve a crime?”

25 June, 2021

RCMP and Yukon's coroner have identified the man whose body was found in Lake Laberge, solving a mystery that had stumped them for years. Police said at the time that they had no idea who the deceased man was, where he came from, or how he ended up in the water. Searches of the area, fingerprint analysis and missing person reports offered no clues. DNA samples ultimately helped investigators track down Hines's family. Police say they worked with Othram, Inc., a private, Texas-based lab that specializes in DNA analysis.

14 June, 2021

The young woman who mysteriously drowned in the Ropers Motel pool in 1966 might have remained anonymous forever, if not for cutting-edge genetics, old-fashioned genealogy—and the kindness of a small West Texas town. [..] The investigation appeared to have hit a dead end. Then, out of the blue, Tarango received a call from Othram. Vogen offered the lab’s services, telling her that the case could probably only be solved through forensic genetic genealogy, a relatively new investigative method that combines advanced DNA analysis with traditional genealogical research.

10 June, 2021

A woman whose body was found 30 years ago in Mississippi has finally been identified thanks to DNA and the persistence of cold case investigators. In March, Othram identified a possible brother of the victim. Cold case investigators talked with him and he confirmed that he had a sister named Kimberly, also known as "Star," who went missing in 1990. DNA swabs were collected from him and sent to Othram for comparison. Tests confirmed that the DNA was a match and Kimberly Ann Funk was officially identified as the Jane Doe.

4 June, 2021

David Mittelman, CEO of Othram Inc, spoke on Friday to a crowd at the CrimeCon 21 in Austin about some of the challenges of DNA evidence. "I think it’s helpful to think of forensic casework as an iceberg," he explained, classifying the "tip of the iceberg" as the crimes where there are plenty of available DNA and evidence. He pointed to cases like the Golden State Killer, in which DNA and genetics led to the serial killer’s capture decades later. Mittelman said that cases like that, where there were dozens of crime scenes and chances to collect evidence, are rare.

28 May, 2021

The Office of the Attorney General of Texas is launching a Cold Case Unit. "In Texas [there] are around 19,000 cold cases and you think about the faces behind those cold cases you can’t afford not to do something," said Mindy Montford, who serves as senior counsel. David Mittelman is CEO of Othram Labs, a private laboratory that uses cutting-edge technology to solve cold cases. He told FOX 7 Austin: "What’s missing and what law enforcement needs is technology and centralized resources to bridge the cold case gap. The reason we need a statewide resource is it would allow us to leverage common tools and pool our knowledge on how well things do and don't work for different kinds of cases. And then we can combine efforts to support cases and share information."

13 May, 2021

The authorities in Montana said this week that they had used a DNA sample to identify human remains that were found more than three decades ago as those of a woman from Washington State whose family had last seen her in 1983. From a molar, Othram, a private lab that works with law enforcement, was able to create a genetic profile that was compatible with genealogy databases, said David Mittelman, Othram’s chief executive.

12 May, 2021

For five years, the identity of a woman whose remains were found stuffed in a plastic container inside a storage unit in North Carolina has remained a mystery. "It was being cleaned out after the death of the person who was renting the unit," Sgt. Quincy Tate said. While authorities have not yet identified the cause of Poitra’s death, Tate said it is being treated as a homicide and remains a priority for the department.

10 May, 2021

An arrest that was made in a Texas teacher's murder brought a surprising twist. "We always suspected it was someone who was known to the family, but we would have never thought it’s going to be a person that’s in your wedding," said Brandon Bess, a Texas Ranger with DPS's Unsolved Crimes Investigation Program. Bess said trash collected from Foreman’s home matched DNA from the crime scene. The DNA was discovered through advanced testing by Houston-area lab, Othram.

10 May, 2021

After more than three decades, the remains of a woman found in the Montana Wilderness have been identified. Earlier this year, Missoula County’s cold case unit partnered with private genetic lab Othram Inc, with financial assistance from the Montana Department of Justice’s Sexual Assault Kit Initiative program, to undergo a forensic genetic genealogy investigation. Now investigators want to know if she was murdered by a suspected serial killer.

10 May, 2021

On Jan. 13, 1995, a young Beaumont second-grade teacher arrived home from school after a long week, walked her dog, and then poured a glass of wine and settled in for the evening. She called her boyfriend. The phone call was likely the last one she ever made. [..] At first, investigators thought they might solve the case quickly. But every line of inquiry came up blank. The crime sparked a lengthy investigation by the Beaumont Police Department, the Texas Department of Public Safety and the DA’s Office. They enlisted the help of Othram Inc., a private forensic lab based in The Woodlands that does specialized DNA testing for law enforcement.

7 May, 2021

Five years after a body was found in Yukon's Lake Laberge, police say they still have no idea who the man was, where he came from, or how he ended up in the water. The deceased man was wearing three layers of clothes, a pair of insulated, steel-toed work boots, and had a sheathed knife on his belt. Investigators have found some clues to the man's identity, with help from Othram, Inc., a private, Texas-based lab that specializes in DNA analysis.

6 May, 2021

An Ohio man has been charged with the sexual assault and murder of one of his then-wife's friends 26 years ago. Cold case detectives managed to link Foreman to the case in April last year when they submitted DNA evidence found on Edwards' body to a lab. Texas Rangers worked with the Houston-based DNA lab Othram, which has the ability to extract, digitize and apply their own process known as "Forensic-Grade Genome Sequencing" to identify the source of DNA through distant relatives.

26 April, 2021

Welcome to "Mind Over Murder." In this episode, co-hosts Kristin Dilley and Bill Thomas talk with David Mittelman, CEO of Othram, a Texas-based DNA lab that is solving missing person and murder cases across North America using their unique Forensic-Grade Genomic Sequencing method. This is part 2 of 2 episodes with David Mittelman.

26 April, 2021

In this article, I focus on an important piece of data that you should be getting from DNA evidence – ancestry. Properly inferring the historical origins of unknown persons provides valuable clues to identity. This is true for unidentified remains but also for unknown suspects in crimes. How do you seek justice for unidentified persons without first knowing who they are?

19 April, 2021

Welcome to "Mind Over Murder." In this episode, co-hosts Kristin Dilley and Bill Thomas talk with David Mittelman, CEO of Othram, a Texas-based DNA lab that is solving missing person and murder cases across North America using their unique Forensic-Grade Genomic Sequencing method. This is part 1 of 2 episodes with David Mittelman.

15 April, 2021

On Wednesday, state police revealed new details in a news conference about how this cold case was cracked. [..] "We mostly received tips, followed tips on different missing persons and attempted to identify them as Ms. Colon. All of them were discounted after investigation," said Lt. Devon Brutosky. For decades, investigators tried to find answers, entering her information into numerous missing person databases and even exhuming her body in 2007 to extract DNA. Late last year, those DNA samples were ultimately sent to Othram.

12 April, 2021

The Laramie County Sheriff’s Office said on Monday, April 12 that they are requesting assistance from the community with a cold case investigation to help identify a newborn child found deceased in a culvert in February 1988. Ruling the death a homicide, law enforcement investigators thoroughly pursued all available leads hoping to identify the infant or his family. Detectives canvassed regional hospitals, schools and the Air Force Base, but 30 years later, the case remains unsolved.

1 April, 2021

In September of 2002, a man and his dog walking near Palisades Reservoir came upon what appeared to be part of a human skull. The remains were substantially weathered, suggesting they may have been in the reservoir for 15 to 20 years prior to their discovery. Although this accidental drowning has been a focus of the investigation, Deputies haven’t ruled out the remains belonging to victims of a separate crime or incident.

31 March, 2021

A couple walking on a rural road in Southwest Missouri discovered the decomposed remains of a young woman. Grace Doe was found restrained with six different types of bindings: nylon and lead ropes, coaxial and telephone cables, paracord, and clothesline. The Sheriff’s Office followed up on all leads and used dental records and DNA testing to exclude possible matches from all over the country. In Jan 2021 the Sheriff’s Office received information from Othram Inc. that there were candidate relatives identified for Grace Doe.

31 March, 2021

In 2020, the McDonald County Sheriffs Office partnered with Othram Forensic lab to identify remains found by a couple who discovered a body that had been hogtied and dumped behind a rural farmhouse in December of 1990. The remains were identified as an unknown woman in her mid to late '20s. Even with 220 inquiries, the missing woman's case went cold after several leads did not pan out during the original investigation.

15 March, 2021

The victim was a young, Black man who had been shot nine times. Detectives wondered if his murder was connected to the Black Panther Party. The Porchlight Project, a local nonprofit dedicated to solving Ohio cold cases, has agreed to completely fund the DNA tests and genetic genealogy that could lead to finally identifying this victim. Last week, the Medical Examiner’s office shipped a piece of the victim’s bone to Othram, Inc., a one-stop-shop for DNA testing and genetic genealogy in Texas.

25 February, 2021

In October 1988, Saginaw Police responded to the call of an unidentified body in the northeastern part of the city. When they arrived on scene, they found the body of a young African-American man who had died only hours prior from a gunshot wound. A thorough investigation by the SPD revealed that the young man was likely from the Detroit area. Despite the hard work and efforts, investigators were unable to unearth his identity, and to date, no one has come forward with information.

22 February, 2021

For over four years, the body of a man found in a reservoir in The Woodlands remained unidentified. Forensics services attempted to identify the man using fingerprints, dental records and DNA. The department ran press releases with pictures of his belongings and uploaded the information to a national database, the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, known as NamUs. Nothing generated leads. In late 2020, Montgomery County Forensic Services contacted Othram.

12 February, 2021

A kayaker on the late afternoon of Oct. 7, 2016 found the body of the man now identified as James Edward St. Peters in the Bear Bench Reservoir. Late last year, The Woodlands-based Othram, Inc. partnered up with the Montgomery County Forensic Services to identify St. Peters. Othram’s research team generated a new lead after finding a genetic match to the man reaching beyond second cousin status and scouring Mennonite and French Canadian family records.

3 February, 2021

The legend goes: A beautiful young woman in her early 20s checked into the Graham Springs Hotel, in the 1840s. That night, as music played in the ballroom, she came downstairs and began dancing with various partners. She danced passionately and at the end of the evening, her final partner realized that, to his horror, she had literally died in his arms. [Todd Matthews] is optimistic that through advanced technology this almost 180 year old mystery could be solved.

20 January, 2021

More than 50 years later, a teenager who was mysterious found dead inside a Texas motel pool has been identified, and her family in Kansas will finally be able to lay her to rest alongside her parents’ graves. In 2018, law enforcement officials and DNA experts began working on finding her name — which was revealed at a press conference as Jolaine Hemmy. The Pecos Police Department and DNASolves® raised money for the laboratory work through crowdfunding, at which point the teen’s remains were extracted at Othram and then they built a genealogical profile.

12 January, 2021

The body of a hiker had been found in a tent in Florida in the summer of 2018, but scores of amateur detectives, and a few professional ones too, couldn’t figure out who he was. Everyone knew that he had started walking south on the Appalachian Trail. He met hundreds of people on the trail, and seemed to charm them all. They all knew his trail name, but no one could figure out his real one. The puzzle was formally solved today, when Othram confirmed that the DNA of the hiker matched that of Rodriguez’s mother.

11 January, 2021

Contractors working along a mid-central Mississippi creek in Sharkey County in January 2014 found a skull in a drainage canal. Investigators believe the boy, who was between 5 and 7 years old, may have been dead for several years. The Mississippi state Medical Examiner’s Office teamed with DNA testing company Othram and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children to use advanced DNA testing to reveal more about the boy’s identity.

11 January, 2021

Othram, the leading forensic sequencing laboratory for law enforcement, has announced a new priority service, KinSNP®, which enables rapid confirmation or exclusion of candidate relationships between an unknown subject and potential relatives in support of forensic genetic genealogy applications. The entire process is performed offline and there is no interaction with genealogical databases, maximizing privacy and security.

4 December, 2020

Catherine Serbousek, an audiobook editor and mother of two young children, told Oxygen.com that a particular unsolved crime struck a chord with her while she was growing up in Arkansas. [Serbousek] was experiencing some existential dread around her birthday and didn’t feel like taking the big birthday trip she'd saved for. Instead, she decided to use the money to contribute to assisting unsolved crimes. For her, it was no question: Dawn had to be the first case she wanted to see movement in.

4 December, 2020

Serbousek had been reading how genetic testing, and the growing popularity of genealogy testing databases were helping law enforcement solve cold cases – if someone would pay for it. That’s when it hit her: That’s how she’d use her birthday money. [..] The genetic information led to a woman in Joplin, Missouri, Theresa Spencer. [..] DNA testing by Othram confirmed that they had found Spencer’s niece, Alisha.

2 December, 2020

Less than five miles from Talladega Superspeedway is where this mystery begins. [...] "Pretty much every lead you could think of that we ran down was a no-go, we had nothing at the end of it so it was just sitting here, a cold case." Then, this summer, someone reached out to a lab in Texas after reading about the mysterious case on NamUS. Othram is a private DNA laboratory built specifically to solve cases like this one.

1 December, 2020

For the last 42 years, the [Rutherford County Sheriff Office] has combed through leads and hit dead ends as detectives have worked to uncover the identity of Doe, a man found shot and burned at the Poole Knob Campground near La Vergne. [...] That's why the department is connecting with Othram, a Texas-based private laboratory that will attempt to build a DNA profile for Doe and use genealogy to hopefully find a relative.

2 November, 2020

It’s usually easy to put a name to a corpse. There’s an ID or a credit card. There’s been a missing persons report in the area. There’s a DNA match. But the investigators in Collier County couldn’t find a thing. [...] Othram called up the Collier County Sheriff’s Office and offered to help. [...] Soon a small piece of bone from the hiker was on its way west from Collier County to the Othram labs.

28 October, 2020

What does it take to solve a cold case nearly 50 years old? When key DNA evidence is scare and degraded, typical forensic tests won’t reveal much. That’s where Othram comes in. "Most of the cases that come to us, they’ve been through other processes," David Mittelman explained. "They’ve attempted other methods and nothing has worked." Mittelman is the CEO of Othram, a DNA sequencing laboratory that assists with cold cases all but abandoned.

27 October, 2020

Advances in DNA led to the case’s closure. Othram used DNA extract from the crime scene to produce a genealogical profile which in turn led to Davis’ identification. "It is critical to solve these sexual assault cases to secure justice for the victims, but also to identify other possible victims," David Mittelman, CEO of Othram, told Oxygen.com. "If CODIS does not yield an answer then we have to use other forensic DNA tools to help solve a case."

23 October, 2020

A body that was found in a rural area of Harvard a year and a half ago has been identified through genealogy testing as a 50-year-old Ingleside man. [...] The coroner’s office collaborated with Othram Inc. in late June to conduct genealogy testing and analysis. Additional leads were developed in early October as a result of the genealogy testing and possible relatives of the man were identified.

22 October, 2020

The McDonald County Sheriff’s Office announced Friday it is working with Othram to use advanced DNA testing and forensic genealogy in an attempt to identify the victim or find the closest living relatives to the decedent. The woman was nicknamed “Grace Doe” by Detective Lori Howard in the 2000′s. Around that time, an autopsy revealed that she had been raped and strangled approximately two months prior to her discovery.

16 October, 2020

[...] the investigation into nine-year-old Christine Jessop’s death had become as sprawling as a family tree: hundreds of boxes containing countless names, more than 300 potential suspects examined and ruled out, DNA submissions from dozens of people. The head of Toronto’s Cold Case Squad, Stacy Gallant, realized last year that the only hope of finding a signal in all that noise was the emerging forensic field known as genetic genealogy, a technique that has been used to crack a number of high-profile cold cases in the United States but remains a rarely used investigative tool in Canada – for now.

16 October, 2020

Toronto police investigators submitted the DNA sample to the U.S.-based lab Othram Inc., which is accredited with law enforcement agencies. David Mittelman, CEO of Othram, said in an interview that the lab began working with the Toronto Police Service last year. "There was DNA evidence but the DNA had not been used fruitfully in other approaches," he said. "So we took on the project."

15 October, 2020

Toronto police say a cutting-edge piece of DNA analysis technology not yet used in Canada led them to solve a 36-year-old cold case involving the rape and murder of a 9-year-old girl north of Toronto. [...] Officers from the Toronto police cold case squad asked the Americans to run the DNA through an emerging mode of analysis known as genetic genealogy, which develops a whole family tree of individuals, rather than a single match.

10 October, 2020

After in-house testing during a little more than a month this summer at Othram, researchers at the lab located off New Trails Drive in The Woodlands generated a genetic profile using DNA that another group extracted from the victim’s bra. Othram’s lab team narrowed down their genealogical findings to a couple with three sons. [...] Unknown to Othram during its work, one of those sons was filed as a person of interest early on in the murder investigation.

5 October, 2020

In 2005, the quiet town was shaken, when a human skull was found in one family's basement. A workman made the gruesome discovery while cleaning a basement fire pit in the house. [...] Now with the help of groundbreaking forensic technology, a lab in Texas hopes to help find answers.

30 September, 2020

Vermont State Police are partnering with a Texas company to complete a new analysis of DNA evidence in the 2004 disappearance of 17-year-old Brianna Maitland, the agency announced this week. [...] The agency announced that its Major Crimes Unit would be collaborating with Houston-based business Othram, which specializes in forensic testing and "works on the cutting edge of DNA and scientific techniques to help identify victims, locate missing persons and uncover perpetrators of crime," according to a news release.

24 September, 2020

The Columbia Police Department announced that it is partnering with Othram, a private lab, to solve an investigation into the remains of an infant, known as Baby Doe, found last year. Othram is known for forensic genealogy testing, according to a release from the department. Police said the lab's technology could potentially help identify the infant remains.

23 September, 2020

"We’re the first lab in the U.S. to do the entire process from evidence all the way to genealogy and ID completely in house," said Dr. David Mittelman, CEO of Othram. "We know from genetic analysis that it’s very likely that the young man is not African American, that he is actually African, and we think he might belong to an ethnic group called Bantu."

23 September, 2020

"There just wasn’t enough information at the time," said Fort Worth detective Leah Wagner at press conference Tuesday announcing the arrest. Last year, she reopened the case with detective Jay Bennett of the cold case unit. They ran Walker's clothing through Othram, a private DNA lab, where it was tested with technology not available at the time.

23 September, 2020

DNA evidence recovered on clothing and a bra worn by Walker during the attack was sent to private lab Othram Inc., which was able to create a full DNA profile of a suspect, according to KXAS-TV. That, in turn, led investigators to McCurley, who was already named as a possible suspect in Walker's case file.

22 September, 2020

NBC 5 learned on Tuesday that DNA evidence recovered from clothing and a bra worn by Walker on the night she was killed was sent to Othram, a private lab in the The Woodlands which uncovers genetic identities "through DNA, rootless hair and decades-old bones." Using a new process, detectives said the company was able to develop, for the first time in this case, a full DNA profile of a potential suspect.

17 September, 2020

Forensic Genomics addresses how advances in genetic testing and genomic analysis can enable investigators to break through previously impenetrable forensic DNA barriers. Our goal is to accelerate the validation and adoption of new methods to support investigations that would be otherwise stall with traditional forensic testing methods.

10 September, 2020

David Mittelman, CEO of Houston, Texas-based Othram, which specializes in using next-generation sequencing and genetic genealogy to identify human remains and to solve cold cases, said that the field is certainly trending towards adoption of higher-resolution technologies, which is necessary, as there are specific issues with using STRs that make detecting complex relationships hard.

1 September, 2020

Pecos investigators have partnered with Othram, a forensics lab that specializes in analyzing degraded remains. Pecos PD sent the girl’s remains to the lab where they’ll extract DNA and then genealogists will use that data to connect her to a family tree.

1 September, 2020

Two years after Ben’s body was found, conventional investigative tools—fingerprints, witness statements, and missing persons reports—led nowhere. And Ben’s DNA samples, which prompted searches through the usual databases, failed to yield any hits. At this point, Florida authorities announced that they had partnered with a new company, Othram, a DNA laboratory in Texas that provides forensic genealogy services.

13 August, 2020

At the time the unidentified remains were discovered, it was clear the man had been in the water “for a significant period of time,” according to the Snohomish County Medical Examiner’s Office. [...] The lab was able to obtain one-fifth of a nanogram of DNA — that is, one-fifth of a billionth of a gram. About 98% of the sample was bacteria.

12 August, 2020

Efforts to identify the body, including through sketches made by the medical examiner's office, failed for more than two decades. But investigators this year enlisted a Texas-based DNA sequencing company, Othram Inc., to develop a genealogical profile from a degraded DNA sample extracted from the victim's tooth.

15 July, 2020

Detectives have partnered with [Othram] to identify the man using a new technique in forensic genealogy and handles the process in-house. The partnership comes after detectives determined that they had exhausted DNA searches through national missing person’s databases in March of this year and following national developments in DNA privacy.

13 May, 2020

Forensic Genomics, a dynamic new peer-reviewed journal, will launch its preview issue at the annual International Symposium on Human Identification (ISHI) in September 2020. The Journal will focus on the use of the latest DNA testing technologies, algorithms, artificial intelligence, and genealogical research methods to support human identification using inference tools and inductive reasoning.

1 May, 2020

Advances in DNA testing and genetic genealogy have been steadily helping forensic professionals close a growing number of seemingly “unsolvable” cases.

27 April, 2020

In this episode, hosts Bill Thomas and Kristin Dilley discuss advanced forensic DNA testing with Dr. David Mittelman, founder and CEO of Othram in Houston, Texas.

25 April, 2020

After more than 40 years, an identification has been made in a cold case involving burned, unidentified human remains recovered on a farm near Charleston, Missouri. [...] Through modern DNA testing of the unidentified remains, a full genome sequence was produced by Othram Inc., a private DNA laboratory in Texas specializing in recovery, enrichment and analysis of human DNA from trace amounts of degraded or contaminated materials.

21 April, 2020

Houston-area's first-privately held forensic sequencing laboratory has partnered with The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center to create an academic program that will provide forensic training to genome scientists that will help them crack previously unsolved criminal cases.

20 April, 2020

In this episode, hosts Bill Thomas and Kristin Dilley discuss advanced forensic DNA testing with Dr. David Mittelman, founder and CEO of Othram in Houston, Texas.

16 April, 2020

This is an exciting time in the world of cold case investigations where advances in DNA testing are helping investigators break through previously impenetrable forensic DNA barriers. Investigators now have the chance to take new steps to solve cold cases that they just can’t let go—cases that were deemed unsolvable. The next question becomes, where do I begin?

6 April, 2020

Othram, a forensic DNA sequencing laboratory for law enforcement, has announced a program agreement with The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and its School of Health Professions to provide training for Molecular Genetic Technology (MGT) graduate students in the field of forensic genomics. [...] The MGT program is a three-semester, highly intensive course of study offered by the School of Health Professions. This unique learning experience integrates classroom lectures, laboratory demonstrations and technical experience to prepare each student for national certification as a molecular genetic technologist.

11 March, 2020

DNASolves, a new database launched in November by Houston forensic genomics company Othram, was designed with these people in mind. Unlike GEDmatch and FamilyTreeDNA, the site is specifically meant to aid in criminal investigations. Unlike GEDmatch and FamilyTreeDNA, the site is specifically meant to aid in criminal investigations.

4 March, 2020

Idaho cave first discovered in 1979, but the body remained unidentified for 40 years. We were the lab that basically took the material and produced a genome sequence from it. The twist to the story is that we produced a genome sequence and then these two genealogists discovered that the body belonged to someone who is over 100 years old.

14 February, 2020

Othram uses advanced DNA sequencing and proprietary software to enable human identification applications from degraded and often scare forensic DNA evidence. The company has built the first and only private laboratory to apply the power of modern genome sequencing in a forensic environment.

14 February, 2020

Othram, the leading forensic sequencing laboratory for law enforcement, is working with an anthropologist from Southeast Missouri State University to use forensic genealogy to help identify human remains found on a farm in Charleston, Missouri, in 1979.

8 February, 2020

The City Council this week authorized the expenditure of up to $10,450 from the African Burying Ground Trust to conduct the DNA sequencing project, which is already underway in partnership with Othram, a Texas-based laboratory that applies cutting-edge genomics to forensics to deliver full genome insight from degraded and low-input DNA samples.

23 January, 2020

Project: Cold Case, Forensic Genealogy and Southeastern Homicide Investigators Association (SHIA) are providing free DNA testing kits at its 5th annual Year of Hope fundraiser on Saturday. The group is asking for people to participate in the testing and upload their results to DNASolves® or another public database for agencies to compare to DNA in unsolved cases. Several members of law enforcement are pledging to do the same.

12 January, 2020

My close relatives aren’t criminals, I think, but who knows what my third cousins twice removed might be involved in? I’m happy to upload my DNA to a secure database and opt in for law-enforcement searches. You should be too. Privacy scolds should pipe down. The benefits of a safer society far outweigh the risks. With enough publicity, crimes that leave physical evidence, especially murder and rape, should become a lot less common.

9 January, 2020

Othram, a new forensic genomics laboratory with in-house next-generation sequencing capabilities, introduced DNASolves.com to solicit users of consumer genomics services to upload their data for the expressed desire to help law enforcement solve cold cases. "Family Tree DNA is doing the opt-out model [with regards to law enforcement], GEDmatch is doing opt-in," said Othram CEO David Mittelman. "I thought there should be another model," he said. "Since we do nothing but law enforcement, there is nothing to opt out of."

7 January, 2020

Researchers from the Texas-based Othram Inc. lab managed to extract genetic material from one of the leg bones—so remarkably preserved that an accompanying sock remained intact—and uploaded a DNA profile to several databases to search for a match. Within months, they had their man.

1 January, 2020

As the years went on, improved technology uncovered some details about the body, such as a relative age and height. But without a head, the case went cold — until last year. Authorities in Clark County, Idaho, turned to the DNA Doe Project and experts from Othram, a tech company that sequences DNA. Genealogists then built a “genealogical tree,” which led to a huge breakthrough.