genealogy

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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...

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...

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...

Edward Norton, Julia Roberts Surprised by Family Trees

Norton learns he's a direct descendant of Pocahontas on 'Finding Your Roots'

(Newser) - Family lore told Edward Norton that he was related to Pocahantas. Now PBS' Finding Your Roots has told him the same. The actor was stunned to learn that he is, in fact, descended from the favorite daughter of Wahunsenaca, also known as Powhatan, who ruled over dozens of Algonquian-speaking tribes...

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....

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...

DNA Cracks 65-Year-Old 'Lovers' Lane' Double Murder

The presumed killer, Montana native Kenneth Gould, is dead

(Newser) - The children of a Montana native who died almost a decade and a half ago have learned the man with no known criminal history was in fact a double murderer. It wasn't a skeleton in the closet, but rather genetic genealogy that supplied the shock. Since 1956, detectives have...

Bones Kept in Trash Bags Are Finally Identified
Bones Kept in Trash Bags
Are Finally Identified
longform
May 9, 2021 4:20 PM CDT

Bones Kept in Trash Bags Are Finally Identified

The 'New York Times' looks at how forensic genealogy is being used in a widespread way

(Newser) - The Golden State Killer's case brought national attention to forensic genealogy as a way to identify long-unknown killers—but the same techniques can put names to long-anonymous victims as well. And as the New York Times reports, that's increasingly being done by smaller jurisdictions. As Virginia Hughes writes,...

DNA Ties Man to 1995 Murder of Bridesmaid in His Wedding

Clayton Foreman is accused of killing teacher Mary Catherine Edwards in Beaumont, Texas

(Newser) - Thanks to DNA evidence, an Ohio man has been arrested and charged with murder, 26 years after a woman who served as a bridesmaid in his wedding was brutally killed in her Texas townhouse. Mary Catherine Edwards, a 31-year-old teacher who lived alone in Beaumont, was last seen on Jan....

They Went to Investigate 1999 Murder, Found a Different Body

Christopher Lovrien, 53, is accused of killing 2 men in Oregon more than 2 decades apart

(Newser) - More than two decades ago, Mark Dribin vanished. While police haven't yet found the Oregon man's remains, they have a suspect. That man, 53-year-old Christopher Lovrien, is now being accused not only of murdering Dribin, but also of murdering Kenneth Griffin, who disappeared in February 2020 and whose...

He Was a Fertility Miracle Worker, but He Had a Big Secret

HBO delves into the case of Quincy Fortier in 'Baby God'

(Newser) - Quincy Fortier was never charged with any crimes and never lost his medical license, but hushed-up accusations long swirled around him—and since his death in 2006, it has become increasingly clear that the onetime "Doctor of the Year" in Nevada is actually one of several OB-GYNs accused of...

DNA Slavery Study Yields Suprises
DNA Slavery Study
Yields Surprises
NEW STUDY
Jul 24, 2020 12:20 PM CDT

DNA Slavery Study Yields Surprises

More enslaved people came to the US from Nigeria than previously thought, researchers say

(Newser) - Using historical records has been the most traditional way to shed light on the dark stain of slavery in the United States. Now, per new research that the Scientist calls "the largest DNA study to examine African ancestry in the Americas," gene analysis is helping put more pieces...

Killer IDed in 38-Year-Old Cold Case, but He Won't Go to Prison

Harold Warren Jarrell, suspected of murdering 8-year-old Kelly Ann Prosser in Ohio, died in 1996

(Newser) - In September 1982, 8-year-old Kelly Ann Prosser was abducted while walking home from school in Columbus Ohio, then beaten, sexually assaulted, and strangled to death. Her body was discovered in a field two days later, but her killer was never found. Now, nearly four decades later, authorities say they have...

The Internet Named Her, Then Solved Her Mystery
For 12 Years, She Was
Known Only as Lavender Doe
in case you missed it
Nov 24, 2019 2:00 PM CST

For 12 Years, She Was Known Only as Lavender Doe

Then volunteers dug into her DNA

(Newser) - She was given the name "Lavender Doe" by a stranger—a commenter on a true-crimes website that recounted the slim details of the young woman's case. She was found dead, her body on fire, on Oct. 29, 2006, near Longview, Texas. She was at most 25, blond, and...

Cops: Serial Rapists Who Struck in 1990s Found With Genealogy

Including the so-called 'Potomac River Rapist'

(Newser) - Police say two serial rapists have been caught—one in California and one in South Carolina—thanks to genetic genealogy. Giles Daniel Warrick, accused of sexually assaulting 10 women and killing one in Washington, DC, and Maryland in the 1990s, was arrested last week in Conway, SC, after authorities connected...

Guess Who Tom Hanks Is Related To?
Guess Who Tom
Hanks Is Related To?
Nov 20, 2019 8:00 AM CST

Guess Who Tom Hanks Is Related To?

Turns out Hanks, who plays Fred Rogers in new movie, is Rogers' 6th cousin, per Ancestry.com

(Newser) - It felt like a "no-brainer" that Tom Hanks was cast as Mister Rogers in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood , opening nationwide Friday. Some even say the 63-year-old actor "was born" to play the gentle children's show host. That turns out to be more true than any...

DNA Triggers Trial in 1987 Killing of Canadian Couple

They were traveling from British Columbia to Seattle when they disappeared

(Newser) - Jurors in Washington state on Friday heard about the mysterious final days of a young Canadian couple killed in 1987—as well as the novel method authorities used to finally make an arrest three decades later, the AP reports. William Earl Talbott II was arrested last year and charged with...

DNA Arrest of 82-Year-Old Leaves Town in Shock

Ray Vannieuwenhoven is accused in a 1976 double murder

(Newser) - All it took was a licked envelope, and Wisconsin police arrested 82-year-old handyman Ray Vannieuwenhoven for allegedly murdering a young couple on a camping trip in 1976—but some people are struggling to believe it, the AP reports. "I said, 'You gotta be kidding me,'" said...

After Discarding Napkin, Man Arrested for 1993 Murder

Police believe DNA has solved another cold case

(Newser) - Police in Minnesota say a napkin discarded at a hockey game helped link a man to a brutal murder committed more than 25 years earlier. Investigators say 52-year-old Jerry Westrom was identified as a suspect after a close match to DNA found at the 1993 crime scene was discovered on...

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