A few key takeaways from the radio interview:
* Catherine Parker Johnson left Memphis, Tennessee in about 1977 and traveled to California.
* Catherine's daughter told investigators that Catherine was a drug-addict, and was living a difficult and "marginalized" lifestyle.
* She briefly returned to Memphis in May of 1981 to visit her two children, and then returned to California.
* The daughter received one letter from her after that, sent from Inglewood California (about five miles from where the bones were found).
* The law enforcement databases indicated numerous misdemeanor arrests, primarily drug-related in the Inglewood/Lennox area.
* The last law enforcement contact with her occurred in August of 1981.
* Despite numerous arrests prior to August 1981, no record of her existence after that could be found.
* She was born in 1957, and the last contact was when she was 23 years old (Det.Skipper mistakenly said 24).
* Investigators have been unable to locate many of the police reports pertaining to her prior arrests. They are still in the process of trying to get various agencies to look up the actual documents, mugshots, etc. in connection to those arrests.
* The RBPD cold-case team is seeking information about any persons who traveled with her to California, or persons with whom she associated while she was living in California. The available records pertaining to her LE contacts are completely lacking as to names of her associates.
* Investigators are currently focused on two separate theories about who the suspect could be. He did not elaborate as to the theories, other than to say one theory is focused on her being specifically targeted, and the other that her murder was more of a random nature as a result of her lifestyle.
Det. Skipper made one statement about the DNA that needs clarification. He said:
"[the DDP Volunteers] would give us a list of potential relatives of the Jane Doe all over the United States. In the course of the investigation, we contacted people in 7 states. We contacted over 60 people. A lot of people don't want you to get their DNA. Most people don't want you to get their DNA. ... More relatives than not, refused to give us DNA - politely refused. The interesting thing is the police do not get the DNA. We help locate the people and ask them to provide it. If they provide it, they either give a sample to put into Ancestry, or if they are already in Ancestry - the database, they allow the DNA Doe Project. So the DNA Doe Project keeps all the DNA. The police department only identifies the people and asks them to give it. So we never get the DNA, so we couldn't look up ..."
It is more accurate to say that the persons are asked to take an ancestry test, and then transfer the results to GEDMatch. If they already have taken an ancestry test, they are asked to upload the results to GEDMatch. The DNA Doe project never takes possession of the DNA, or keeps it. Once the kit is transferred to GEDMatch, we then obtain the GEDMatch kit number so that we can compare it to the Doe profile and other GEDMatch profiles. The person providing the sample always has the option of removing the profile from Ancestry and/or from GEDMatch, and nobody would have access to it after that.
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