How DNA family trees are bringing justice to rape survivors decades later

Cleveland, Ohio – Cuyohoga County prosecutors continue DNA family trees.

“One thing I have learned by working with victims of violent crimes in these last 12 years is to know the value that the victims give to know who the (suspect) is,” said Mary Weston, an assistant and supervisor prosecutor of the genetic operations that link the DNA or Gold Unit.

Prosecutor Michael O’Malley launched it in 2020 with funds from the United States Department of Justice to review cold cases and determine which could be resolved through forensic genetic genetics or family DNA searches. On Friday, his office announced Seven suspected rape – Some accused of crimes of more than 30 years have been identified.

To date, the unit has identified 16 criminals and has resolved 23 cases of rape of 62 Cold Case DNA profiles.

One of those cases was the rape of a 9 -year -old boy who played in the forest in 1998, Weston recalled. After his unit identified the suspect, the victim quickly took him out of a photo alignment, decades later.

“They told me a victim: ‘I never knew if he was by my side at Starbucks,” Weston said.

The genealogist Barbara Rae-Venter, who works with the county of Cuyahoga and the agencies of application of the law throughout the country, said that the cases of unsolved rape devastate the survivors.

“Even if the (suspects) are dead and can no longer be prosecuted, it is still very important to know who it was and that they are responsible in some way,” he said.

On Friday, a jury found Kenneth Edmond guilty of rape and kidnapping in two Cleveland attacks more than 20 years ago. Prosecutors took the cases to a large jury in 2015, and was accused as a “John Doe”. He was identified by research genealogists as a suspect in 2022.

Edmond assaulted a 72-year-old homeless woman on September 15, 2000, while standing under the Detroit-Superior bridge, according to prosecutors. More than a year later, he grabbed a 21 -year -old woman while walking near East 9th Street and Carnegie Avenue and attacked her sexually.

Edmond is scheduled to be sentenced on March 26.

How investigations work

Weston was one of the three prosecutors to join a rape working group in 2013 after Thousands of kits not tested in the evidence of the Cleveland Police were discovered. Since then, the working group has accused more than 960 accused, the greatest number of said unit in the country.

In cold cases, prosecutors bring information from DNA compiled from sexual aggression kits to large jurors for accusation to avoid the statute of limitations of 25 years. These accusations are updated later with the names of the defendants once there is a break in the case or the profile is identified.

Profiles that do not coincide with the databases of state or national criminals (which have DNA digital records collected from crime scenes, criminals condemned and arrested from serious crimes) require more sophisticated investigation methods.

One of those methods is forensic genetic genetics. The gold unit works with Rae-Viverer to develop family trees of cold cases suspects using commercial DNA databases.

Rae-Ventor is the founder of Firebird Forensics, a non-profit organization that helps investigations of the law and the director of genetic genetics of research in Gene by Gene, the family company of Familytreeized

Only two companies, Familytree and Gedmatch, allow the police to use their data with permission from consumers.

When the application of the law is entrusted, RAE-Viverer determines how much DNA a suspect shares with other profiles in the database.

“According to that, what you do is build what we call a speculative family tree for the person you are trying to identify,” said Rae-Ventor. “Let’s say you have a couple of people who share enough DNA with the suspect to qualify as second cousins. There are tables that we can use that show how much coincident is it equal to what type of relationship. “

Since Second Cousins ​​share a group of great-grandparents, SAR-VANTER can use that information to build an inverse family tree and find all the descendants of the great-grandparents.

“Among those people is the person you are looking for,” he said. “And then you start using other information that you know about the person to try to reduce the suspicious pool.”

Rae-Vant said that the technique was first used in 2009 to help the adopted find their biological relatives. He began using the technique more recently to help solve cold cases.

For example, she helped identify Joseph James Deangelo as the murderer of Golden State in 2018 after a 40 -year -old human hunt.

Prosecutors can also perform family DNA searches in criminal databases to identify relatives of a suspect and build a family tree in that way. The Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office last year signed a memorandum of understanding with the Ohio Attorney General’s Office to execute several of those searches.

In an example, said Weston, the DNA profile of a suspect got a success in the offender database for a first -degree relative who was dead. The researchers obtained a search warrant for a medical biopsy of the dead relative and determined that the sample belonged to the suspect’s father. Later, the victims chose the son of a photo alignment, solving three cases of rape.

Last year, Ohio’s criminal investigation office helped identify relatives of eight DNA profiles linked to crimes in the Cleveland area. Cuyohoga County prosecutors have submitted eight more cases to the State so far this year, with at least four more planned, according to a spokesman for the Attorney General.

The County aims to spend about $ 56,000 in federal subsidies money to help pay research, since family DNA searches are more work and expensive than traditional DNA tests.

They also have a more limited range than forensic genetic genetics, according to Rae-Ventor. Family DNA searches require a father, a child or a brother to be in the criminal database, while forensic genetic genetics can issue a broader network.

From criminals identified by the Gold Unit to date, half come from family DNA searches and half come from forensic genetic genetics. Both methods come with challenges.

“One of the most difficult things to learn and for our office to learn is that not all cases can occur for genealogy,” said Weston.

“If the laboratory had to consume the entire DNA only to get something (the criminal database), it has no luck. There are some serious cases that we can never solve because there is simply DNA. “

Weston said that forensic genetic genetics is mainly limited by cost. Much of the work of your unit is determining which profiles are the most appropriate for the tests. Family DNA searches through the criminal investigation office are mainly limited by labor.

The Gold Unit must request family DNA searches through the Attorney General’s office. A multidisciplinary team of experts then reviews the case -by -case application, and one of the greatest considerations is the quality of DNA.

Throughout the State, the Criminal Investigation Office worked 20 family DNA cases last year. A spokesman said he hopes to work a similar number this year.

Looking to the future

Rae-venter expects the police to use forensic genetic genetics more frequently and not only for cold cases.

“What is really chilling is how many of these cold cases are series, which means that if they had been tested in a timely manner, presumably all the downstream rapes that occurred would not have occurred,” he said.

Not everyone shares the same optimism to use forensic genealogy to solve crimes. About the moment in which the murderous case of Golden State was resolved, groups like aclu and others raised concerns about privacy and genetic surveillance.

Rae-Vant said that genetic privacy is “a horse left by the barn a long time ago.” She said that the average European descent has relatives in databases everywhere.

“It’s really a false concern,” he said. “I’m not sure what people think it will happen with their DNA. The thought that the police are studying through their DNA trying to find who knows what is so totally ridiculous. “

As for the gold unit, Weston said he would like to expand his work to solve homicides in the case of cold. Until recently, the Federal Financing of the Unit limited its scope to sexually motivated crimes.

For now, he hopes that his work will help change the way society sees victims of rape.

Violation cases can be difficult to prosecute, especially when traumatized victims often remember things badly or avoid presenting themselves to the trial, Weston said. The cases in which the victim is intoxicated or under the influence of drugs can be almost impossible.

“We still have problems with facts that are not comfortable for people, and people do not want to condemn people of rape if they are not sure,” he said. “But when the DNA profile is in three kits, we tend to believe in each victim, even if the facts are bad.”