1
00:00:07,080 --> 00:00:07,760
Speaker 1: Who as.

2
00:00:11,240 --> 00:00:16,200
Speaker 2: I think many of us started to realize as we

3
00:00:16,239 --> 00:00:20,840
Speaker 2: worked these unidentified remains cases that many of them were children,

4
00:00:21,600 --> 00:00:26,400
Speaker 2: and unfortunately, with children, the people that harm them are

5
00:00:26,480 --> 00:00:30,760
Speaker 2: usually the people that would report them missing. So they

6
00:00:30,800 --> 00:00:32,120
Speaker 2: were never reported missing.

7
00:00:37,840 --> 00:00:40,440
Speaker 3: For ten years, the world did not know her name.

8
00:00:40,960 --> 00:00:46,440
Speaker 3: For ten years, she was known as Opahlikah Baby Jane Doe.

9
00:00:46,760 --> 00:00:50,280
Speaker 3: On January twenty eighth, twenty twelve, police responded to a

10
00:00:50,320 --> 00:00:54,360
Speaker 3: call from a trailer park in Opelika, Alabama. A child's

11
00:00:54,400 --> 00:00:58,360
Speaker 3: pink shirt, a small bundle of hair, the bones let

12
00:00:58,360 --> 00:01:02,640
Speaker 3: them know she was probably between four and seven years old.

13
00:01:03,880 --> 00:01:07,479
Speaker 3: There wasn't enough left to build a DNA profile. Law

14
00:01:07,560 --> 00:01:14,040
Speaker 3: enforcement was stuck. This is the kind of case Kristin

15
00:01:14,080 --> 00:01:17,800
Speaker 3: Middleman says. Authorm's project five to two five was designed

16
00:01:17,800 --> 00:01:21,880
Speaker 3: for cases involving children that have reached a dead end,

17
00:01:22,480 --> 00:01:26,840
Speaker 3: where traditional DNA testing methods come up short, where the

18
00:01:26,880 --> 00:01:30,560
Speaker 3: remains have been sitting in an evidence locker somewhere for years.

19
00:01:32,080 --> 00:01:35,080
Speaker 3: Today we talk about Authorm's quest to solve five hundred

20
00:01:35,160 --> 00:01:39,039
Speaker 3: and twenty five cases of missing or murdered children, the

21
00:01:39,120 --> 00:01:42,480
Speaker 3: cases they've solved, and the names that have been given back.

22
00:01:43,680 --> 00:01:51,280
Speaker 3: This is America's crime Lab. I'm Alan Lance Lesser. Kristin

23
00:01:51,320 --> 00:01:55,360
Speaker 3: Middleman is the chief Business Development Officer at AUTHRM. She

24
00:01:55,480 --> 00:01:58,480
Speaker 3: is a soft spot for Project five two five, maybe

25
00:01:58,560 --> 00:02:00,320
Speaker 3: because she has five children of her own.

26
00:02:01,360 --> 00:02:05,760
Speaker 2: Project five two five is a mission to identify five

27
00:02:05,840 --> 00:02:09,000
Speaker 2: hundred and twenty five missing and murdered children in the

28
00:02:09,120 --> 00:02:11,680
Speaker 2: United States and give them their name back.

29
00:02:12,360 --> 00:02:14,639
Speaker 1: We picked five two five because.

30
00:02:14,400 --> 00:02:18,400
Speaker 2: May twenty fifth is Missing Children's Day in the United States.

31
00:02:19,520 --> 00:02:23,240
Speaker 2: Every time we found one of these skeletons of an

32
00:02:23,240 --> 00:02:26,880
Speaker 2: abused child, a murdered child. Once we identified, then we

33
00:02:26,960 --> 00:02:30,000
Speaker 2: realized that they weren't even a case on someone's desk.

34
00:02:30,360 --> 00:02:32,400
Speaker 2: And we all sit here and we talk about the

35
00:02:32,440 --> 00:02:34,960
Speaker 2: backlog of cases getting bigger and bigger.

36
00:02:35,120 --> 00:02:36,440
Speaker 1: It's even worse than that.

37
00:02:37,080 --> 00:02:40,400
Speaker 2: Some of these victims, especially these young children, they're not

38
00:02:40,639 --> 00:02:41,800
Speaker 2: even on a backlog.

39
00:02:41,880 --> 00:02:43,600
Speaker 1: The case is just lost in time.

40
00:02:43,840 --> 00:02:48,000
Speaker 2: They have been taken out of reality and harmed in

41
00:02:48,080 --> 00:02:51,400
Speaker 2: the most terrible way by the people they trusted the most.

42
00:02:51,840 --> 00:02:54,799
Speaker 1: To me, that was a devastating concept.

43
00:02:55,400 --> 00:02:58,079
Speaker 3: Christian knew AUTHORM could make a dent in solving these

44
00:02:58,120 --> 00:03:01,959
Speaker 3: cases because authrooms to discovered many ways of cracking these

45
00:03:01,960 --> 00:03:07,679
Speaker 3: cold cases. Open In January twenty twelve, a child's remains

46
00:03:07,680 --> 00:03:12,000
Speaker 3: were found near a trailer park in Opahlika, Alabama. She

47
00:03:12,040 --> 00:03:16,119
Speaker 3: became known as Opahika Baby Jane Doe because no one

48
00:03:16,120 --> 00:03:17,480
Speaker 3: could find out who she was.

49
00:03:18,840 --> 00:03:23,320
Speaker 2: She was found in a riverbed and Opalaika, Alabama, and

50
00:03:23,400 --> 00:03:27,320
Speaker 2: her bones were beaten so many times that she had

51
00:03:27,440 --> 00:03:30,360
Speaker 2: hundreds of breaks that had healed over and over and

52
00:03:30,440 --> 00:03:33,280
Speaker 2: over again at different times, knocked out teeth.

53
00:03:34,760 --> 00:03:37,600
Speaker 1: It's one of those cases you see and you get sick.

54
00:03:38,520 --> 00:03:42,280
Speaker 3: Ten years after her body was found, authroom scientists took

55
00:03:42,320 --> 00:03:45,960
Speaker 3: a look. They extracted DNA from the girl's scalp.

56
00:03:46,320 --> 00:03:49,160
Speaker 2: We were able to build a profile for her that

57
00:03:49,320 --> 00:03:52,920
Speaker 2: led to the identification of her parents, and the mother

58
00:03:53,800 --> 00:03:56,560
Speaker 2: was still under the impression that she was fine and

59
00:03:56,640 --> 00:03:59,520
Speaker 2: living with a father that had gained custody and was

60
00:03:59,560 --> 00:04:03,440
Speaker 2: paying wild support. Eleven years after this child was murdered,

61
00:04:03,800 --> 00:04:07,080
Speaker 2: every two weeks to the person that actually murdered her

62
00:04:07,600 --> 00:04:11,040
Speaker 2: and left her under that river. No Plaika. These crimes

63
00:04:11,120 --> 00:04:15,600
Speaker 2: don't stop. They continue until someone has an answer, until

64
00:04:15,600 --> 00:04:19,440
Speaker 2: that victim gets their name back, their story back. Her

65
00:04:19,520 --> 00:04:22,479
Speaker 2: name was a Moor Wiggins and she has been buried

66
00:04:22,520 --> 00:04:25,599
Speaker 2: now her mom got to go to her gravestone and

67
00:04:25,680 --> 00:04:28,160
Speaker 2: at least pay respects and know where her child is.

68
00:04:28,800 --> 00:04:31,359
Speaker 2: She's no longer paying child support to the monster that

69
00:04:31,440 --> 00:04:35,360
Speaker 2: did this. He's confessed to the crime and his wife

70
00:04:35,360 --> 00:04:38,880
Speaker 2: at the time is undergoing trial for necessity to murder.

71
00:04:39,839 --> 00:04:44,880
Speaker 2: But this story is one that happens all too often.

72
00:04:49,200 --> 00:04:53,600
Speaker 3: This is what motivates Kristen, giving victims their identity back

73
00:04:54,080 --> 00:04:58,160
Speaker 3: and giving families answers seeing justice served.

74
00:05:00,440 --> 00:05:02,800
Speaker 2: Some of the cases, they're older and they're murdered by

75
00:05:02,800 --> 00:05:06,160
Speaker 2: a boyfriend, and even in those cases sometimes are not

76
00:05:06,240 --> 00:05:09,279
Speaker 2: reported missing. I have one I can tell you about.

77
00:05:09,560 --> 00:05:12,000
Speaker 3: December twentieth, nineteen seventy six.

78
00:05:14,240 --> 00:05:17,440
Speaker 2: She was known as Beth do Her body was found

79
00:05:17,440 --> 00:05:19,880
Speaker 2: in the bottom of a lake. She was pregnant, fifteen

80
00:05:19,960 --> 00:05:21,000
Speaker 2: years old and pregnant.

81
00:05:21,680 --> 00:05:25,599
Speaker 3: Over forty years later, a DNA extract from Beth Doe's

82
00:05:25,600 --> 00:05:28,240
Speaker 3: bone was sent to Authrum. There was a lot there

83
00:05:28,279 --> 00:05:30,680
Speaker 3: to work with, but there was also a lot of

84
00:05:30,760 --> 00:05:36,159
Speaker 3: damage from degradation and bacterial contamination. But by then Authorm

85
00:05:36,200 --> 00:05:40,760
Speaker 3: had special tools and equipment to analyze the sample. Soon after,

86
00:05:41,000 --> 00:05:44,320
Speaker 3: local law enforcement found a close match with a relative,

87
00:05:44,920 --> 00:05:48,000
Speaker 3: a nephew. It turns out that side of the family

88
00:05:48,040 --> 00:05:50,440
Speaker 3: had been missing an aunt and a sister since the

89
00:05:50,480 --> 00:05:56,880
Speaker 3: mid nineteen seventies. Her name was Evelyn Cologne. The nephew

90
00:05:56,920 --> 00:06:00,640
Speaker 3: had uploaded his DNA profile to many genial logs sites,

91
00:06:00,920 --> 00:06:04,640
Speaker 3: hoping to reconnect with his aunt Evelyn. The family had

92
00:06:04,640 --> 00:06:08,200
Speaker 3: lost touch with her, but assumed she was alive because

93
00:06:08,240 --> 00:06:11,200
Speaker 3: they had received a letter from Evelyn around the time

94
00:06:11,240 --> 00:06:14,000
Speaker 3: they last saw her. It said that she and her

95
00:06:14,040 --> 00:06:18,039
Speaker 3: boyfriend had welcomed a new son. It turns out the

96
00:06:18,120 --> 00:06:21,039
Speaker 3: boyfriend had written the letter after her murder.

97
00:06:21,640 --> 00:06:22,679
Speaker 1: Evelyn was dead.

98
00:06:26,920 --> 00:06:30,279
Speaker 3: It wasn't the news the family was expecting, but now

99
00:06:30,400 --> 00:06:34,679
Speaker 3: they had the truth. Evelyn's boyfriend was arrested and charged

100
00:06:34,720 --> 00:06:58,359
Speaker 3: with her homicide. Walker County Jane Doe was found on

101
00:06:58,440 --> 00:06:59,960
Speaker 3: November one, nineteen eight.

102
00:07:01,839 --> 00:07:05,880
Speaker 2: She was thirteen fourteen years old when she was found

103
00:07:05,920 --> 00:07:08,440
Speaker 2: on the side of the road on Halloween Day. That

104
00:07:08,520 --> 00:07:10,600
Speaker 2: file is one of the most horrendous files I have

105
00:07:10,720 --> 00:07:20,200
Speaker 2: ever read in my entire life.

106
00:07:20,520 --> 00:07:23,840
Speaker 3: There were so many details at the crime scene. A

107
00:07:23,880 --> 00:07:28,000
Speaker 3: rectangular brown pendant with a smoky glass stone that hung

108
00:07:28,080 --> 00:07:31,480
Speaker 3: on a thin gold chain around her neck, red leather

109
00:07:31,600 --> 00:07:37,440
Speaker 3: heels with light brown straps, pierced ears, pink painted toenails,

110
00:07:38,400 --> 00:07:43,240
Speaker 3: light brown hair with a reddish tint. Multiple witnesses claimed

111
00:07:43,240 --> 00:07:46,120
Speaker 3: to have seen a young girl carrying strappy, red high

112
00:07:46,160 --> 00:07:49,680
Speaker 3: heeled sandals. One witness said the girl had asked for

113
00:07:49,800 --> 00:07:56,280
Speaker 3: directions to a nearby prison. Her naked body was discovered

114
00:07:56,360 --> 00:07:59,760
Speaker 3: by a truck driver in a grassy area off a highway.

115
00:07:59,400 --> 00:08:00,680
Speaker 1: In Huntsville, Texas.

116
00:08:01,480 --> 00:08:06,920
Speaker 3: She'd been brutally sexually assaulted and strangled. There are so

117
00:08:07,160 --> 00:08:10,480
Speaker 3: many specific details that it's hard to imagine how she

118
00:08:10,600 --> 00:08:17,239
Speaker 3: remained unrecognized and unclaimed for so long. Her tombstone red

119
00:08:17,760 --> 00:08:25,840
Speaker 3: unknown white female.

120
00:08:26,440 --> 00:08:30,840
Speaker 1: That child was tortured and left disfigured at the side

121
00:08:30,840 --> 00:08:31,280
Speaker 1: of the road.

122
00:08:32,040 --> 00:08:37,600
Speaker 2: No one was able to identify her, and somehow the

123
00:08:37,679 --> 00:08:40,920
Speaker 2: evidence in this case went missing, So all that was

124
00:08:41,000 --> 00:08:42,679
Speaker 2: left was an autopsy slide.

125
00:08:43,679 --> 00:08:47,520
Speaker 3: An autopsy slide, a sliver of tissue preserved on a

126
00:08:47,559 --> 00:08:51,000
Speaker 3: glass slide designed for viewing under a microscope.

127
00:08:51,640 --> 00:08:52,520
Speaker 1: That's all there was.

128
00:08:53,320 --> 00:08:56,760
Speaker 3: And when there is such scarce DNA evidence, author must

129
00:08:56,840 --> 00:09:01,720
Speaker 3: sometimes hesitant to run the technology. DNA is tested, it

130
00:09:01,840 --> 00:09:06,120
Speaker 3: is destroyed in the process, So Kristen says, unless authorm

131
00:09:06,160 --> 00:09:09,040
Speaker 3: is confident they can build a profile, they have to wait,

132
00:09:09,800 --> 00:09:12,560
Speaker 3: She says, they pause about twenty five percent of cases.

133
00:09:13,160 --> 00:09:17,040
Speaker 3: They decided to pause the Walker County case. But when

134
00:09:17,080 --> 00:09:19,439
Speaker 3: they pause a case, that doesn't mean they give up.

135
00:09:20,120 --> 00:09:21,320
Speaker 3: They have other methods.

136
00:09:21,960 --> 00:09:25,640
Speaker 2: We actually do mock case work in the research lab

137
00:09:25,720 --> 00:09:28,720
Speaker 2: with DNA that doesn't belong to a victim.

138
00:09:29,120 --> 00:09:32,680
Speaker 3: Basically, when the DNA evidence is scarce, they start with

139
00:09:32,760 --> 00:09:36,000
Speaker 3: a different DNA sample and they put it through the

140
00:09:36,040 --> 00:09:40,360
Speaker 3: same conditions that affected the limited DNA evidence. Maybe they

141
00:09:40,400 --> 00:09:44,280
Speaker 3: expose it to extreme temperatures or certain chemicals to mimic

142
00:09:44,320 --> 00:09:48,760
Speaker 3: the original DNA properties that they can test their technology

143
00:09:48,800 --> 00:09:53,320
Speaker 3: on first, and that's led to some breakthroughs. But on

144
00:09:53,360 --> 00:09:57,600
Speaker 3: the Walker County case, they attempted something they'd never done before.

145
00:10:02,800 --> 00:10:07,640
Speaker 2: So it was a paraffin embedded form aldehyde fixed block

146
00:10:08,840 --> 00:10:10,600
Speaker 2: FFPE block, they'll call.

147
00:10:10,520 --> 00:10:14,200
Speaker 3: It, Kristen says. In this new technique, human tissue is

148
00:10:14,240 --> 00:10:18,760
Speaker 3: immersed in a solution of formaldehyde. This stabilizes the cells

149
00:10:18,880 --> 00:10:21,840
Speaker 3: and allows the sample to be preserved and tested at

150
00:10:21,840 --> 00:10:22,600
Speaker 3: a later date.

151
00:10:23,400 --> 00:10:27,320
Speaker 2: And we started to create FFP blocks in our research

152
00:10:27,440 --> 00:10:30,960
Speaker 2: lab with fresh DNA and try to figure out can

153
00:10:31,000 --> 00:10:34,240
Speaker 2: we actually ever do this? Can we reproduce it, and

154
00:10:34,320 --> 00:10:37,800
Speaker 2: within about six months we were able to reproducibly get

155
00:10:37,960 --> 00:10:41,000
Speaker 2: sequencing results from this type of DNA.

156
00:10:42,480 --> 00:10:46,280
Speaker 3: All of this testing happened over months in author's research labs.

157
00:10:46,840 --> 00:10:50,079
Speaker 3: Once they perfected their new method, Kristen says, they were

158
00:10:50,120 --> 00:10:52,080
Speaker 3: ready to call detectives in Texas.

159
00:10:53,440 --> 00:10:54,040
Speaker 1: Within a year.

160
00:10:54,120 --> 00:10:56,640
Speaker 2: We had brought it into our forensic protocol and the

161
00:10:56,760 --> 00:11:00,480
Speaker 2: lab and we took the case back and actually we're

162
00:11:00,520 --> 00:11:03,560
Speaker 2: able to give Shery Ann Jarvis her identity back.

163
00:11:08,000 --> 00:11:15,920
Speaker 3: Forty years after her murder, Sherry Ann Jarvis's family finally

164
00:11:15,960 --> 00:11:16,680
Speaker 3: knew the truth.

165
00:11:17,280 --> 00:11:20,160
Speaker 2: She was a girl that was reported missing in Minnesota.

166
00:11:20,880 --> 00:11:23,800
Speaker 2: She was found here in Texas. No one would have

167
00:11:23,800 --> 00:11:25,719
Speaker 2: connected the two cases.

168
00:11:26,280 --> 00:11:31,520
Speaker 3: Shery Ann Jarvis, Evelyn Cologne, Amoor Wiggins. These are just

169
00:11:31,600 --> 00:11:34,760
Speaker 3: a few cases AUTHOROM has helped solve over the years

170
00:11:35,240 --> 00:11:36,840
Speaker 3: of the youngest victims.

171
00:11:37,520 --> 00:11:38,440
Speaker 1: Now bear with me.

172
00:11:38,760 --> 00:11:41,600
Speaker 3: I'm about to tell you about a database, but it's

173
00:11:41,640 --> 00:11:45,520
Speaker 3: a key component of Project five two five. It's called

174
00:11:45,679 --> 00:11:51,000
Speaker 3: the National Missing and Unidentified Person System or NamUs. It's

175
00:11:51,040 --> 00:11:54,880
Speaker 3: a federal database that houses twenty four thousand missing or

176
00:11:54,960 --> 00:11:59,880
Speaker 3: unidentified person cases, and about twenty four percent are children.

177
00:12:01,000 --> 00:12:03,840
Speaker 3: Kristin has raised money that allows Authroom to partner with

178
00:12:03,960 --> 00:12:06,960
Speaker 3: NamUs to work on these cases, but for it to work,

179
00:12:07,120 --> 00:12:09,480
Speaker 3: they need buy in from local police departments.

180
00:12:09,920 --> 00:12:12,920
Speaker 2: The case might be a NamUs, but the evidence is

181
00:12:12,960 --> 00:12:16,079
Speaker 2: still with local law enforcement, and they are the ones

182
00:12:16,120 --> 00:12:19,079
Speaker 2: that help us collect the sample for confirmation. And if

183
00:12:19,080 --> 00:12:21,920
Speaker 2: there's an investigative lead, for example, when we're able to

184
00:12:22,000 --> 00:12:25,440
Speaker 2: help identify what family this person belonged to, we give

185
00:12:25,480 --> 00:12:27,600
Speaker 2: that information back to law enforcement.

186
00:12:28,120 --> 00:12:32,320
Speaker 3: Kristin estimates that it costs eight to twelve thousand dollars

187
00:12:32,360 --> 00:12:35,760
Speaker 3: to solve these cases from start to finish, no more

188
00:12:35,800 --> 00:12:38,200
Speaker 3: than a detective salary to work a case for a

189
00:12:38,240 --> 00:12:42,240
Speaker 3: month or two detectives who have already dedicated years and

190
00:12:42,320 --> 00:12:46,160
Speaker 3: years to these cases. With the funding in place, it's

191
00:12:46,200 --> 00:12:49,599
Speaker 3: hard to imagine why a police department would turn them down,

192
00:12:49,880 --> 00:12:50,520
Speaker 3: but they do.

193
00:12:51,480 --> 00:12:55,000
Speaker 2: I don't know, fear of new technology, fear of failure.

194
00:12:55,800 --> 00:12:59,160
Speaker 2: Sometimes people out there tell law enforcement they can do

195
00:12:59,240 --> 00:13:02,600
Speaker 2: things they can do, and law enforcement has tried and

196
00:13:02,640 --> 00:13:06,240
Speaker 2: they've been burned. And so when someone else comes and says, look,

197
00:13:06,280 --> 00:13:09,120
Speaker 2: I have a predictable way of testing DNA, let us

198
00:13:09,120 --> 00:13:12,240
Speaker 2: help you, they don't think that we're any different, And

199
00:13:12,320 --> 00:13:16,560
Speaker 2: unfortunately that's a big hurdle in DNA testing, and so

200
00:13:17,120 --> 00:13:19,840
Speaker 2: it's not even necessarily that the detective doesn't want to

201
00:13:19,840 --> 00:13:23,760
Speaker 2: work the case. They just don't trust the technology to

202
00:13:23,880 --> 00:13:24,559
Speaker 2: work the case.

203
00:13:28,080 --> 00:13:32,920
Speaker 3: October nineteen ninety nine, twenty three month old Andrea Michelle

204
00:13:32,960 --> 00:13:37,439
Speaker 3: Reyes was abducted. The investigation began in new Haven, Connecticut,

205
00:13:37,520 --> 00:13:41,160
Speaker 3: where she was last seen. Her father suspected that Andrea

206
00:13:41,360 --> 00:13:44,079
Speaker 3: was taken to Mexico by her mother, who did not

207
00:13:44,280 --> 00:13:45,240
Speaker 3: have custody of her.

208
00:13:47,440 --> 00:13:51,520
Speaker 2: When he went to law enforcement, he provided that theory

209
00:13:51,960 --> 00:13:55,679
Speaker 2: and they looked and they tried to figure out if

210
00:13:55,760 --> 00:13:58,640
Speaker 2: they could find where a non good studial parent was

211
00:13:58,679 --> 00:14:01,000
Speaker 2: living or where she could be in Mexico, but they

212
00:14:01,040 --> 00:14:04,480
Speaker 2: couldn't find her, and they ended up closing the case.

213
00:14:05,080 --> 00:14:09,120
Speaker 2: And then years later, recently one of the detectives at

214
00:14:09,280 --> 00:14:13,240
Speaker 2: New Haven actually reopened the case and started looking in

215
00:14:13,320 --> 00:14:17,040
Speaker 2: Mexico to try to figure out if he could find

216
00:14:17,200 --> 00:14:21,720
Speaker 2: any information about the non custodial parent, and in doing

217
00:14:21,800 --> 00:14:28,840
Speaker 2: so he actually made contact with the child. She was

218
00:14:28,920 --> 00:14:30,480
Speaker 2: twenty seven years old at the time.

219
00:14:31,240 --> 00:14:34,440
Speaker 3: That's when Authurm was looped in The twenty seven year

220
00:14:34,520 --> 00:14:37,880
Speaker 3: old woman provided a DNA sample which was compared to

221
00:14:37,920 --> 00:14:43,920
Speaker 3: Andrea's father's DNA profile with KINSNIP rapid relationship testing. This

222
00:14:44,080 --> 00:14:47,880
Speaker 3: allowed them to link them as father and daughter. This

223
00:14:48,040 --> 00:14:51,200
Speaker 3: young woman was indeed Andrea Michelle Reyes.

224
00:14:52,720 --> 00:14:55,120
Speaker 2: She's not the first. She's actually the second child to

225
00:14:55,120 --> 00:14:55,920
Speaker 2: be found alive.

226
00:15:10,880 --> 00:15:14,120
Speaker 3: Since initiating Project five two five about a year ago,

227
00:15:14,360 --> 00:15:18,400
Speaker 3: Authormis helped solve five cases of missing or murdered children.

228
00:15:19,360 --> 00:15:21,960
Speaker 2: And I don't think it's going to take that long

229
00:15:22,200 --> 00:15:25,160
Speaker 2: to get through five hundred and twenty five cases. I

230
00:15:25,200 --> 00:15:28,800
Speaker 2: think that as we start to solve these cases that

231
00:15:28,880 --> 00:15:33,000
Speaker 2: were previously completely unsolvable in a routine way and show that,

232
00:15:33,600 --> 00:15:35,560
Speaker 2: you know, we can take in five hundred and twenty

233
00:15:35,560 --> 00:15:38,480
Speaker 2: five cases and give five hundred and twenty five answers

234
00:15:38,520 --> 00:15:42,720
Speaker 2: and the only thing that's missing is funding, then I

235
00:15:42,760 --> 00:15:47,240
Speaker 2: think that people will think twice before they commit those

236
00:15:47,280 --> 00:15:49,320
Speaker 2: types of crimes in the future. I think it becomes

237
00:15:49,360 --> 00:15:54,200
Speaker 2: a deterrent to people murdering their own children. If you

238
00:15:54,320 --> 00:15:59,040
Speaker 2: have a child's remains sitting at an evidence locker and

239
00:15:59,240 --> 00:16:02,600
Speaker 2: no one saw the child be placed. Wherever you found

240
00:16:02,600 --> 00:16:05,880
Speaker 2: that child, it could be in a field under a riverbed,

241
00:16:05,960 --> 00:16:07,800
Speaker 2: like we spoke at the bottom of a lake, at

242
00:16:07,840 --> 00:16:09,480
Speaker 2: a house, inside of a TV.

243
00:16:09,960 --> 00:16:10,720
Speaker 1: I've seen it all.

244
00:16:11,440 --> 00:16:15,480
Speaker 2: When that's all the information you have, there's no other

245
00:16:15,560 --> 00:16:18,440
Speaker 2: test to be done. What are you waiting for to

246
00:16:18,480 --> 00:16:20,800
Speaker 2: solve that case? You're waiting for someone to knock at

247
00:16:20,840 --> 00:16:24,200
Speaker 2: the police station on the door and say I saw

248
00:16:24,280 --> 00:16:28,160
Speaker 2: something that day, or I saw someone bury this person.

249
00:16:28,880 --> 00:16:31,760
Speaker 2: But unfortunately, decades and decades go by and no one's

250
00:16:31,840 --> 00:16:36,680
Speaker 2: come by with any eyewitness information. You can't ever solve

251
00:16:36,680 --> 00:16:38,800
Speaker 2: a crime, and you don't know who your victim is.

252
00:16:39,040 --> 00:16:42,200
Speaker 2: You can't piece together the last few days of their lives.

253
00:16:42,520 --> 00:16:46,320
Speaker 2: That's why I think this project is necessary to show

254
00:16:46,600 --> 00:16:49,920
Speaker 2: that there is hope. The evidence right there can give

255
00:16:49,960 --> 00:16:52,240
Speaker 2: you the answer. It can give you the lead to

256
00:16:52,320 --> 00:16:55,880
Speaker 2: the identity of this person. And once you know the

257
00:16:56,000 --> 00:16:58,720
Speaker 2: name of the person that was in the TV or

258
00:16:58,760 --> 00:17:01,240
Speaker 2: at the bottom of the lake, you can figure out

259
00:17:01,520 --> 00:17:04,399
Speaker 2: who saw them last, where they were, You can figure

260
00:17:04,400 --> 00:17:07,760
Speaker 2: out who to question to actually start that investigation.

261
00:17:08,960 --> 00:17:12,600
Speaker 3: Authorom's David Middleman also says arriving at an answer doesn't

262
00:17:12,640 --> 00:17:13,960
Speaker 3: cost as much as you'd think.

263
00:17:15,280 --> 00:17:19,240
Speaker 4: At this point. Most unsolved crimes are a choice. We've

264
00:17:19,240 --> 00:17:23,200
Speaker 4: got the technology, it's been validated in the scientific literature,

265
00:17:23,560 --> 00:17:26,560
Speaker 4: it's stood up in court. These tools have been used

266
00:17:26,560 --> 00:17:29,679
Speaker 4: to solve thousands of cases. It's just a matter of

267
00:17:29,680 --> 00:17:34,399
Speaker 4: prioritizing the cases, the effort necessary to solve them, and

268
00:17:34,440 --> 00:17:37,239
Speaker 4: the funding. And we've had a really great support from

269
00:17:37,280 --> 00:17:41,879
Speaker 4: the community DNA Solves the Project five through five community,

270
00:17:42,320 --> 00:17:44,400
Speaker 4: and this has allowed us to get many of these

271
00:17:44,400 --> 00:17:47,600
Speaker 4: cases that otherwise would remain unsolved. Now to the finish

272
00:17:47,640 --> 00:17:52,600
Speaker 4: line victims identified, crime solved. But to really scale this

273
00:17:52,800 --> 00:17:56,600
Speaker 4: for everyone and for every jurisdiction, we will need support

274
00:17:56,640 --> 00:18:00,960
Speaker 4: from the local, state, and federal government to prioritize, fund

275
00:18:01,440 --> 00:18:04,800
Speaker 4: and an otherwise resource this kind of work. And when

276
00:18:04,800 --> 00:18:07,600
Speaker 4: we get to that point, we won't have these backlogs

277
00:18:07,600 --> 00:18:08,640
Speaker 4: of unsolved cases.

278
00:18:10,040 --> 00:18:13,959
Speaker 2: It's not that the detectives aren't investigating, they have no

279
00:18:14,000 --> 00:18:20,640
Speaker 2: one to investigate. They're stock and this technology helps unstick

280
00:18:20,720 --> 00:18:27,280
Speaker 2: those cases from DNA DARENZ to actual answers. And it's

281
00:18:27,400 --> 00:18:30,120
Speaker 2: just the beginning, but it's a necessary beginning.

282
00:18:34,880 --> 00:18:39,000
Speaker 3: America's Crime Lab is produced by Rococo Punch for Kaleidoscope.

283
00:18:39,480 --> 00:18:42,720
Speaker 3: Erica Lance is our story editor and sound design is

284
00:18:42,760 --> 00:18:47,200
Speaker 3: by David Woji Our producing team is Catherine Finalosa, Emily

285
00:18:47,280 --> 00:18:51,960
Speaker 3: Foreman and Jessica albert Our. Executive producers are Kate Osborne,

286
00:18:52,000 --> 00:18:56,520
Speaker 3: Mangesh Hadigadour and David and Kristin Middleman and from iHeart

287
00:18:56,600 --> 00:19:02,080
Speaker 3: Katrina Norville and Ali Perryial Thanks to Connell Byrne, Will Pearson,

288
00:19:02,320 --> 00:19:07,280
Speaker 3: Kerrie Lieberman, Nikki Etour, Nathan Etowski, John Burbank, and the

289
00:19:07,400 --> 00:19:08,680
Speaker 3: entire team at OUTHRM.

290
00:19:09,560 --> 00:19:12,160
Speaker 1: I'm Allen lance lessor. Thanks for listening.