Dogged detectives, DNA technology are keys to solving cold cases: US expert

Barbara Rae-Venter. Screenshot from her Facebook

Renowned genetic genealogist Barbara Rae-Venter shares her experiences in solving dozens of cold cases

By Lee Yeon-woo

In 2019, a criminal case was solved in the United States two decades after the dead bodies of a woman and a 10-year-old boy were found. The woman's body was discovered in South Carolina and the boy's corpse in North Carolina.

The breakthrough in the case, which made local headlines, was possible thanks to genetic genealogy, which uses DNA evidence from cold cases to develop profiles, then trace family links to identify potential suspects.

But what made the story resonate with Koreans was the victims' racial background. One of the victims was identified as a Korean woman named Cho Myoung-hwa, who met a U.S. solider based in Korea and went to America with him. The couple had a boy in the U.S., who was the victim found in North Carolina. They were killed by Cho's husband.

Barbara Rae-Venter, a retired patent attorney and genetic genealogist, played a key role in the discovery of the truth. She calls the murder case the “billboard case” because the boy's remains were found underneath a billboard near a highway in North Carolina.

“When his remains were found, they were totally skeletonized,” she said during a recent Korea Times interview in Songdo, a reclaimed city near the port city of Incheon. “So there was nothing left. They figured he was probably either Hispanic or white, but they didn't have anything to go on. So I ran the DNA.”

Rae-Venter said the billboard case was one of the most dramatic stories she has worked on following the request of detectives who was struggling to solve cold cases.

She got a phone call from one of the detectives, Maj. Tim Horne, who was an investigator for the Sheriff's Department in Orange County, North Carolina. The request came just months before he was set to retire from the police.

“This is a 20-year-old case and he wanted it solved in six months. So I said I couldn't make any promises, but I assured him I'd do my best,” Rae-Venter said. “So we get the DNA and we put it into a new database that had been opened. It was called GEDMatch Genesis.”

The DNA analysis led them to narrow down the family of the victim. Following Rae-Venter's advice, Horne contacted the relatives to ask them if one of their siblings has a biracial child. The 10-year-old victim was later identified as Robert Bobby Adam Whitt. The body found in South Carolina, 200 miles away from where the boy was found, was identified as Cho, his mother.

“The motive for why little Bobby and his mom are along the highway was because his dad apparently had a new girlfriend and he didn't want him anymore,” said Rae-Venter. “So the detective was really excited. We actually had solved the case in less than 48 hours.”

Joseph James DeAngelo Jr., the so-called Golden State Killer, is accompanied by Sacramento County Public Defender as he makes his first appearance to Sacramento County Superior Court, California, in 2018. Yonhap-AP

Rae-Venter became famous for her role in solving another notorious cold case involving the so-called Golden State Killer.

Joseph James DeAngelo Jr., was a serial killer, rapist and former police officer who committed at least 13 murders and 51 rapes and was found to be the criminal behind the cold case that terrified Americans. He was in custody for another crime when he was identified as the Golden State Killer.

Rae-Venter said DNA technology is one of the core factors that helped solve criminal cases that remained cold for decades. Dedicated investigators and their determination are another key factor that helped reveal what actually happened and who the killers were.

When asked if technology or dogged investigating was more important in solving cold cases, the genetic genealogist said both are equally crucial.

Referring to now retired investigator Tim Horne, Rae-Venter said the case could have remained a cold case if not Horne's dogged determination.

“He quite literally kept the evidence box underneath his desk. So he would hit it every day with his leg to remind him that he really wanted to solve this case,” she said. “So he's keeping it alive, for somebody like me to come along with some new technology and be able to solve it. So it really has a lot to do with the people who are working on the cases being really dedicated and doing exactly that.”

Rae-Venter visited Korea on Oct. 19 to deliver a keynote speech at the eight International CSI Conference held in Incheon. She introduced how her approach, adopting genetic genealogy in investigation, can work as a powerful tool for solving unsolved cases such as the Golden State Killer case. She calls the methods Investigative Genetic Genealogy (IGG).

She also explained how IGG was applied to solve the Golden State Killer case. She uploaded the attacker's DNA from the preserved rape kit to an open-source platform frequently used by the public to trace their ancestry. From there, she tracked down people who shared similar DNA characteristics with the attacker and found his potential relatives.

Lim Si-keun, a forensic sciences professor at Sungkyunkwan University who moderated Rae-Venter's session, pointed out that there are limitations to solving cold cases in Korea by utilizing her methods, as Korea has no private platforms that offer DNA analysis services. Instead, the Korean government has collected the DNA of criminals and established a government-run database in 2010, he said.