How genetic genealogy helped find Christine Jessop's killer | Toronto Sun
''Last fall, investigators reached out to
Texas-based Othram — a genetic laboratory that works exclusively with law enforcement to provide leads and identify subjects through DNA.
“We build a genealogical profile, depending on the investigative leads,” Othram CEO David Mittelman said.
“It’s an iterative process. It’s not a vending machine. We’re basically a support team for the cold case squad, and as they need information, we mine the data we have to try and produce information.”
In this case, detectives worked with Othram — using information submitted to the GEDmatch database — to develop two family trees.
From three, Code said, they were able to narrow down their focus to Hoover.
“Simply put, (genetic genealogy is) not a DNA match,” Code said.
“It provides a potential family lineage from a DNA sample.”
''While this wasn’t the first Canadian case Othram has participated on, it’s the first one where their work has been made public.
“This is technology that has not been available before,” Mittelman said.
“The real innovation is being able to lift information from such an old piece of evidence.
“It’s amazing.”