Thanks for that article. That was on my mind when I wrote my post but I couldn't find an article. What I remembered was ISP Sgt Kim Riley addressing the same matter when answering a question from the media but I still cannot find that. So here we have an article from three and a half years where LE apparently still hasn't pursued familial searches. One excuse given in the article is limited resources. But in a case where there was over a 100 LE personnel involved in the early few months and now there is a building being leased to house the investigation that statement doesn't sound right. (Of course, that could be the reporter's misinterpretation, too.) I agree that LE probably wanted to do something with the DNA testing. But I wonder if LE may have discovered when submitting what they had that it wasn't adequate for such testing. Hence the submission at the end of 2018. That late 2018 submission may have been a "Hail Mary" attempt to find something better than what the earlier lab results produced?
We have a case here in VA, the Childs/Metzler murders, in August 2009. Just a few years later, the sheriff proclaimed they have the killer's DNA. Not just DNA, but he stated definitively that LE not only has DNA, but it is the killer's. And yet here we are over 10 years later and no progress there either on the DNA and many of us are starting to have doubts about that DNA.
I don't buy the excuses that the ISP lab can't do it (what about the FBI or private labs), lack of resources or LE just hasn't gotten around to it. The sad reality might be that LE just doesn't have what they need to do this DNA search. I'm truly starting to believe LE needs that 'one tip', because DNA may not be a significant factor in this investigation.