Identified! WA - Everett, Male UP2137, 35-75, Lake Stickney, Jun'94 - Rodney Peter Johnson

[imstilla.grandma]

But investigators this year enlisted a Texas-based DNA sequencing company, Othram Inc., to develop a genealogical profile from a degraded DNA sample extracted from the victim's tooth.

The profile was then uploaded to a public genetic genealogy website, GEDmatch, which uses DNA profiles to help people find relatives, and it returned a hit for the victim's first cousin. Detective Jim Scharf and Jane Jorensen, the lead investigator for the Snohomish County medical examiner, determined that Johnson was likely the victim and confirmed it this month after obtaining voluntary DNA samples from his father and brother.
Detectives use family tree to ID cold-case shooting victim

 

[othram]

''The lab was about to get one-fifth of a nanogram of DNA — that is, one-fifth of a billionth of a gram — with 98% of it bacterial.

In this day and age, it was enough.''

Congratulations, a job well done! Questions for the person running Othram's account here if they are inclined:
How optimal was this amount by current standards of technology as well as contamination status?
When did technology reach the point for this amount to be sufficient (would it have been enough in 2017 for example)?
How does the current state of technology bode for other UIDs with similar contamination issues, older remains, cases with scarcer amounts of remains and quality material, and so on?

These are really great questions. We developed a forensic process called Forensic-Grade Genome Sequencing. Its based on DNA sequencing instead of what folks call "SNP testing". We are able to access ultra-degraded, low quantity, contaminated DNA. These DNA types are not optimal but they work as you can see from our recent solve. Right now, we are the only folks in the United States performing this process, end-to-end, in-house. We started in 2018.

There are other folks that use SNP testing or other methods. These methods work on some forensic evidence but fail for others. We work with many of these companies to help solve cases that otherwise would remain unsolved.

To your last question, I would say that we are hoping to clear out as many of the failed cases as possible. The challenge is to get them before the evidence is fully consumed using inadequate methods. I also should not that not all evidence will yield usable DNA. Some cases simply won't benefit from any DNA testing method because there is no DNA.

 

[JovanSrna]

Snohomish County, Washington has been very eager to utilize genetic genealogy in their cases.
The HeraldNet article takes note of several solved cases, involving various organizations.
NamUs shows 8 remaining UIDs for this county.
Two of them were cases with the DNA Doe Project before being put on hold. The problem with those was in the extraction phase because the county authorities had boiled the bones or done something like that to clean them, ruining the quality of the remains in the process. These decedents were discovered in the latter half of the 2000s. I know a lot of NamUs entries have cremated decedents, but this is just as myopic.
The remaining six cases are much older. Discovery dates range from 1977 to 1991.

 

[Jake479]

RIP Rodney Peter Johnson

 

[othram]

New write up on the Rodney Johnson / LakeStickney John Doe case: Lake Stickney John Doe

 

[othram]

The ISHI team is doing a series on Othram cases. This episode is for Rodney Johnson, with great commentary from the investigators: