20 Criminal Investigations Solved Through DNA Decades Later

Arthur Leigh Allen remained the primary suspect in the Zodiac killings for over thirty years. In 2002, San Francisco investigators developed a partial DNA profile from saliva on envelopes sent by the killer, which did not match Allen.

In 1989, five teenagers were wrongfully convicted for an assault in Central Park. Thirteen years later, prison inmate Matias Reyes confessed, and forensic DNA testing conclusively proved he was the sole attacker, exonerating all five men.

Lawyers Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld founded the Innocence Project in 1992 to use newly developed DNA testing on cold case evidence. The organization has since exonerated more than 375 wrongfully convicted individuals across America.

Richard Ramirez terrorized California in the mid-1980s before his capture in 1985. In 2009, San Francisco detectives ran preserved cold case evidence through modern DNA databases, linking Ramirez to the 1984 murder of nine-year-old Mei Leung.

Detectives hunted the Green River Killer for nearly two decades as bodies accumulated in Washington state. In 2001, investigators retested saliva samples taken from Gary Ridgway in 1987 using STR DNA technology, securing a conclusive match.

Lonnie David Franklin Jr. evaded police for 25 years during a murder spree in South Los Angeles. Detectives identified him in 2010 through familial DNA searching, matching a crime scene profile to DNA collected from a discarded pizza crust.

Found along an Ohio ditch in 1981, the victim was known only by her buckskin jacket for 37 years. In 2018, the DNA Doe Project used genetic genealogy to identify her as 21-year-old Marcia King, marking one of the initiative's earliest triumphs.

Discovered wrapped in a sheet near Baltimore in 1976, this young woman remained unidentified for four decades. In 2021, investigative genetic genealogy solved her identity as 16-year-old Margaret Fetterolf, giving closure to her surviving family.

In 1974, a woman's body was discovered in the dunes of Provincetown, Massachusetts, sparking a legendary cold case. In 2022, the FBI used investigative genealogy to identify her as Ruth Marie Terry, subsequently naming her husband as the killer.

Albert DeSalvo confessed to being the Boston Strangler but was never convicted of the crimes before his prison death. In 2013, modern forensic testing extracted DNA from the grave of Mary Sullivan, matching DeSalvo's familial DNA at 99.9 percent.

Following the brutal killings of two teenagers in Leicestershire, English police conducted the world's first mass DNA blood screening. Colin Pitchfork attempted to pay a friend to provide a substitute sample, but was caught and convicted in 1988.

In September 1984 at the University of Leicester, Sir Alec Jeffreys discovered that genetic variations produce a unique barcode for every individual. His discovery transformed criminal justice, creating the foundation for solving decades-old cold cases.

CeCe Moore pioneered the use of consumer genetic databases to help law enforcement trace violent offenders through distant cousins. Her genealogical research cracked the 1987 Van Cuylenborg murders and the 1988 April Tinsley case in Indiana.

Contra Costa County investigator Paul Holes spent decades pursuing the East Area Rapist. Weeks before his planned retirement in 2018, Holes uploaded crime scene DNA to open-source genealogy site GEDmatch, leading directly to the suspect's family tree.

For six decades, Anna Anderson claimed to be Grand Duchess Anastasia, the youngest daughter of Tsar Nicholas II. Posthumous DNA testing in 1994 compared her tissue against living Romanov relatives, conclusively proving she was a Polish factory worker.

Found dead on Adelaide's Somerton Beach in 1948 with a Persian poetry scrap, the man became Australia's greatest mystery. In 2022, DNA extracted from hairs in his plaster death mask finally identified him as Melbourne electrical engineer Carl Webb.

Lost since the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, King Richard III's grave was excavated under a Leicester city council parking lot in 2012. Geneticists compared mitochondrial DNA from the skeleton to living maternal descendants, confirming his identity.

Executed by Bolshevik revolutionaries in 1918, the Russian imperial family was buried in unmarked forest graves. Forensic geneticists used DNA from living royal relatives, including Britain's Prince Philip, to confirm the remains between 1993 and 2008.

Found inside a cardboard bassinet box in Philadelphia in 1957, the unidentified four-year-old boy became known as America's Unknown Child. In December 2022, detectives used genetic genealogy to identify him as Joseph Augustus Zarelli after 65 years.

Between 1974 and 1986, the Golden State Killer committed 13 murders and dozens of assaults across California. In 2018, detectives used genetic genealogy to identify 72-year-old former police officer Joseph James DeAngelo, ushering in a new era of forensics.