genetic genealogy

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Amid 'Substantial Doubt,' 23andMe Cuts 40% of Workers

Genetic testing company to slash 200 jobs in restructuring effort after a painful year

(Newser) - The genetic testing company 23andMe hasn't been doing so hot lately, watching its share price plummet more than 70% this year, and CEO Anne Wojcicki has desperately been trying to right the ship. Now, a streamlining: The BBC reports the firm has slashed 200 jobs, or about 40% of...

Mom Charged in Newborn's Murder, 30 Years Later

Pamela Ferreyra identified as the mother of Baby Garin, found dead in California in 1994

(Newser) - Thirty years after the discovery of a newborn baby's body at a dumpsite in California, the mother has been found and charged, police say. Pamela Ferreyra, 60, arrested Thursday at her home in Watsonville, just six miles from where the body was discovered, faces one count of murder in...

Nearly 50 Years Later, Man Charged in Deaths of 3 Women

Authorities say Mississippi's Warren Alexander strangled victims in 1977 in Southern California

(Newser) - A 73-year-old man has been charged in the strangulation deaths of three Southern California women in 1977 after cold case detectives obtained a DNA match, authorities said Thursday, adding they believe there could be more victims. Warren Luther Alexander of Diamondhead, Mississippi, made his first court appearance Thursday, but arraignment...

20 Years After Missed Court Date, His Skeleton Was Found

Police seek info on Ronnie Joe Kirk, whose remains turned up in Wisconsin store chimney

(Newser) - His name was Ronnie Joe Kirk. How he got to be in the chimney of the Good 'n Loud Music store in Madison, Wisconsin, is anyone's guess. The body of the 5'7" man was discovered at the base of the chimney on Sept. 3, 1989, during the...

Niagara Falls Victim's Body Was Found 140 Miles Away

Vincent Stack's remains likely drifted for 16 months

(Newser) - Remains found on the shores of Lake Ontario 32 years ago have now been identified as those of a New York man who's believed to have gone over Niagara Falls. CBS News reports the "badly decomposed and mostly skeletal" remains were found some 140 miles from the falls...

He Spit Out His Gum and Was Found Guilty of Murder

Robert Plympton convicted in 1980 killing of Barbara Mae Tucker in Oregon

(Newser) - Barbara Mae Tucker was a 19-year-old student at Oregon's Mt. Hood Community College when she was kidnapped, sexually assaulted, and beaten to death a stone's throw from campus, just beyond a school parking lot. It was the evening of Jan. 15, 1980. As it turns out, her killer...

Taylor Swift Is Related to an Actual Tortured Poet

Guess who's related to Emily Dickinson?

(Newser) - Taylor Swift has a rather interesting sixth cousin, three times removed. Ancestry.com gives Today the scoop that dangling out on the songstress's family tree is another bit of American royalty: Emily Dickinson. "Swift and Dickinson both descend from a 17th-century English immigrant (Swift's ninth great-grandfather and...

Man Who Blamed Identical Twin for Rapes Gets 140 Years

California's Kevin Konther ultimately didn't get away with attacks that happened more than 25 years ago

(Newser) - In 2019, DNA testing led investigators with the Orange County Sheriff's Department to haul in two suspects for a set of cold-case rapes in California—identical twins, each insisting they were innocent. In fact, Kevin Konther blamed his brother for the crimes, which included the rape of a 9-year-old...

23andMe Has Gone From Hot to Not. Can Its CEO Save It?

Stocks are trading below $1, but Anne Wojcicki sees promise in drug development

(Newser) - Genetic testing company 23andMe's stock is trading at around 75 cents as of this writing, a precipitous fall for a company that the Wall Street Journal dubs "one of the hottest startups in the world ... five years ago." Its valuation has fallen 98% from its former $6...

Court Filing Reveals DNA Evidence Against Kohberger

DNA on knife sheath a 'statistical match' to suspect

(Newser) - DNA on a knife sheath found at the home where four University of Idaho students were stabbed to death last fall is a "statistical match" to that collected from suspect Bryan Kohberger, prosecutors disclosed in a court filing. In the June 16 filing, prosecutors said the STR profile, a...

'Lady in the Fridge' Identified 28 Years Later

$10K reward offered in California for information leading to arrest of her killer

(Newser) - For the 30 years she was alive, she was known as Amanda Deza. For almost as long since her death, she's been dubbed California's "lady in the fridge"—but no longer. The San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office has announced that it's finally identified Deza,...

Cops Say Renowned Music Teacher Was a Serial Rapist

Elliott Higgins, late founder of New Mexico music camp, called 'master manipulator and liar'

(Newser) - Elliott Higgins was 73 when he died in 2014. At the time he was a respected French horn teacher who had run a music camp in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and even conducted the Albuquerque Philharmonic. But in October 2022, DNA and genetic genealogy linked Higgins—who had never been a...

A 52-Year-Old Piece of Evidence Leads to Killer

Vermont police say Rita Curran was killed by her upstairs neighbor

(Newser) - A cigarette butt was found next to 24-year-old Rita Curran's body in 1971. Some 52 years later, it would unmask her killer. The Washington Post reports that officials in Burlington, Vermont, on Tuesday said genetic genealogy has identified the late William DeRoos as the killer. He and his then-wife...

Body Stuffed in Sack Left in Desert ID'd 52 Years Later

Colleen Audrey Rice, found dead in Arizona in 1971, hailed from Ohio

(Newser) - An unidentified woman whose body was found stuffed in a sack in the Arizona desert in 1971 is nameless no more. Fifty-two years to the day after her body was found, Mohave County's oldest unidentified murder victim was identified Tuesday as Colleen Audrey Rice, a native of Portsmouth, Ohio,...

Man Gets 72 Years for 1984 Crimes He Says He Can't Recall

Michael Sharpe, who claims memory issues, sexually assaulted 4 women, prosecutors said

(Newser) - A 71-year-old Connecticut man who received the maximum sentence of 40 to 72 years in prison for kidnapping four women in 1984 apologized in court Monday, despite saying he had no recollection of his crimes. "I don’t know what happened," said Michael Sharpe, whom police identified as...

In a Decades-Old Case, a Genetic Genealogy First
In a Decades-Old Case,
a Genetic Genealogy First
in case you missed it
Sep 10, 2022 4:10 PM CDT

In a Decades-Old Case, a Genetic Genealogy First

Technology identifies victim Stacey Lyn Chahorski and her killer

(Newser) - In March, authorities in Georgia announced they'd used genetic genealogy to identify a murder victim whose name had been unknown for 33 years. Just over five months later, they say they've identified the woman's killer using the same technology. Stacey Lyn Chahorski—whose body was found along...

Has an Enduring Australian Mystery Finally Been Solved?

University of Adelaide professor thinks he has identified the Somerton man

(Newser) - It's one of Australia's most persistent mysteries, and Derek Abbott says he has solved it. As CNN reports, the University of Adelaide professor had long advocated for the exhumation of the long unidentified Somerton Man. The suit-clad, 40-something man was found dead on a beach near Adelaide—possibly...

30 Years Later, Female Found in Ditch Has a Name

Margaret Ann Sniegowski Jr., 17, IDed thanks to DNA evidence; now it's a homicide investigation

(Newser) - For three decades, the identity of a body found along an Indiana highway remained unknown, a cold case that stumped Boone County officials. Now, a name to that body, thanks to a curious sister and advances in genetic genealogy. FOX59 details the case of 17-year-old Ohioan Margaret Ann Sniegowski Jr....

Mom Who Left Baby in Woods in 1993 Convicted of Murder

Ohio's Gail Eastwood-Ritchey now faces life in prison in 'Geauga's Child' case

(Newser) - An Ohio woman who abandoned her newborn in the woods nearly 30 years ago was convicted of murder Monday and now faces up to life in prison. Gail Eastwood-Ritchey was "stoic" as the verdict was read in court, though one of her lawyers "widened his eyes, seeming stunned,...

34 Years After Murder, Killer Identified From a Single Hair

'Closure is everything,' says son who was 2 when Diane Dahn was killed

(Newser) - On May 2, 1988, 2-year-old Mark Beyer was found wandering on his own in a San Diego-area apartment complex. His mother had been stabbed to death in their apartment. After 34 years, police have identified the killer, and Beyer, now 36, says he finally has closure—"and closure is...

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