Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / DNA cracks case of two women brutally murdered in Mississippi. WHO’S NEXT?
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- 0:00Speaker 1: Oh no, it's not Santa, it's Nancy Grace. Are you
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- 1:41Speaker 1: willing Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. And she was Betty
- 1:54Speaker 1: was there to help her get recover from her operation.
- 2:00Speaker 1: And they were watching TV and there was a knock
- 2:04Speaker 1: at the door and Betty went to the door and
- 2:08Speaker 1: opened it up, and this man burst in attacked her,
- 2:18Speaker 1: and Betty was trying to keep him away from her friend,
- 2:23Speaker 1: and he killed her. Betty and then got to her
- 2:31Speaker 1: friend and um for some reason left before he could
- 2:38Speaker 1: killed her, and then her friend called the police leaded up.
- 2:45Speaker 1: That's what I remember, and then he really great, you
- 2:51Speaker 1: are hearing a report from Knock Knock the unsolved murders
- 2:56Speaker 1: of Betty Jones and Catherine Kraigler. I mean, it's great.
- 3:00Speaker 1: This is crime Stories. Thank you for being with us.
- 3:03Speaker 1: Straight out to Robin Wilenski, Crime online dot com investigative
- 3:08Speaker 1: reporter and author of an incredible book, It's Beautiful Life.
- 3:12Speaker 1: The crime scene investigation behind the Casey Anthony murder Case.
- 3:19Speaker 1: Robin Wilenski, Let's start at the beginning, these two ladies
- 3:23Speaker 1: living together. How were they killed? Oh, this is a
- 3:26Speaker 1: horrendous story. So Betty Jones is sixty five years old
- 3:31Speaker 1: taking care of her friend Catherine Krigler. I believe it is.
- 3:35Speaker 1: She was an eighty one year old woman and she
- 3:38Speaker 1: had a leg Nancy that was anti tated. So they're
- 3:42Speaker 1: watching television there, they're hanging out doing what elderly people do, relaxing,
- 3:48Speaker 1: and they get a knock on the door and this
- 3:51Speaker 1: man comes and immediately immediately when she opens the door,
- 3:56Speaker 1: Betty's throat is slashed, so she's down on the floor
- 4:01Speaker 1: and he goes into the back bedroom and he raped
- 4:05Speaker 1: the eighty one year old woman with only one leg,
- 4:09Speaker 1: and she manages somewhat. I don't know how, Robin. I've
- 4:13Speaker 1: got to ask you a question, how do you even
- 4:16Speaker 1: say that? How do you even say that? Because I
- 4:20Speaker 1: recall when I first started prosecuting, I would not curse
- 4:25Speaker 1: when I first started prosecuting, and I remember the first
- 4:30Speaker 1: time I had to stand in front of a jury
- 4:33Speaker 1: and it was I guess a rape and murderer, and
- 4:39Speaker 1: I had to read a statement and it had every
- 4:43Speaker 1: filthy word that you can imagine. The f word, the
- 4:47Speaker 1: p is in Peter word, the every word, every word
- 4:52Speaker 1: was in there. And you know what, Robin, that time
- 4:55Speaker 1: I actually faltered in front of the jury, and I
- 4:58Speaker 1: kept going, guess what, George. Next year I had to
- 5:00Speaker 1: read it, it wasn't so hard. The next time I
- 5:03Speaker 1: had to say it all, it wasn't hard at all.
- 5:05Speaker 1: Pretty soon I was just saying it all on my own.
- 5:07Speaker 1: I wasn't even reading it anymore. Now. That all came
- 5:10Speaker 1: to a screeching halt when I had the twins John,
- 5:13Speaker 1: David and Lucy, because I do not want to hear
- 5:16Speaker 1: that coming out of their mouth. But Robin Willinski, I
- 5:20Speaker 1: always want to slow down because you and I are
- 5:23Speaker 1: in the crying business. Guys with me is awesome. Reporter
- 5:26Speaker 1: Robin Willinsky, investigative reporter with Crime online dot Com, a
- 5:31Speaker 1: renowned DNA expert in forensic science. Kathleen Murphy, North Carolina
- 5:38Speaker 1: family lawyer, she knows her stuff. And doctor Michelle Dupree,
- 5:42Speaker 1: renowned medical examiner out of South Carolina and author of
- 5:47Speaker 1: Homicide Investigation Field Guide. My point that I'm getting at, Robin,
- 5:53Speaker 1: is you gave me so much information right there, just
- 5:56Speaker 1: rolled off your tongue can't you just slow it down?
- 5:59Speaker 1: For me, We're used to it, we live in it
- 6:02Speaker 1: every day. But for those joining us, say that again. Place. So,
- 6:09Speaker 1: there are two women. One is sixty five years old
- 6:13Speaker 1: taking care of her eighty one year old friend. The
- 6:16Speaker 1: eighty one year old unfortunately only has one leg. She
- 6:20Speaker 1: had one leg that was amputated for a medical reason.
- 6:24Speaker 1: And they are home watching TV. The sixty five year
- 6:27Speaker 1: old is and there's a knock on the door in
- 6:31Speaker 1: their home in Mississippi, and unfortunately for her, for Betty Jones, Nancy,
- 6:36Speaker 1: she answers the door and a guy is there standing
- 6:39Speaker 1: there with a knife and slips her throat and she
- 6:43Speaker 1: collapses on the floor and dies. And this animal goes
- 6:50Speaker 1: and rapes an eighty one year old woman. I have
- 6:53Speaker 1: an eighty one year old mother. Your mom, Nancy, who
- 6:57Speaker 1: I've met, is in her eighties. You cannot even put
- 7:01Speaker 1: yourself in this horror of this guy raping your eighty
- 7:07Speaker 1: one year old mother. And she struggles and manages after
- 7:12Speaker 1: he leaves and takes off with one leg. Think about
- 7:16Speaker 1: that one leg hopping along on one leg after being
- 7:20Speaker 1: raped at eighty one years old, and manages. It has
- 7:24Speaker 1: a presence of mind to get to her in those days.
- 7:29Speaker 1: Rotary phone on the wall. This is twenty eight years
- 7:32Speaker 1: ago and has the presence of mind to call nine
- 7:36Speaker 1: one one. You know what it brings to mind? Kathleen Murphy,
- 7:39Speaker 1: North Carolina lawyer. As a prosecutor, you have to go well.
- 7:43Speaker 1: As a lawyer, you have to go to CLA continuing
- 7:46Speaker 1: a legal education every year. And if you don't go,
- 7:50Speaker 1: and especially if you don't pay your bardis, they are
- 7:53Speaker 1: about three inches up here, you know what. Okay, they
- 7:57Speaker 1: would love to disbar you over a technolity. Oh yeah, yeah.
- 8:01Speaker 1: Forget all the lawyers that are like stealing money or
- 8:05Speaker 1: as they like to say, co mingling accounts, or all
- 8:08Speaker 1: these men lawyers that forced their domestic clients to have
- 8:12Speaker 1: sex before they'll finish the divorce. Yeah, don't worry about that.
- 8:15Speaker 1: But if you don't pay your duser, you mesk Cille, honey,
- 8:19Speaker 1: you're out. You cannot make a living. So as one,
- 8:23Speaker 1: I would always go to prosecutorial continuing legal educations because
- 8:27Speaker 1: the cills can last for days and you have to
- 8:31Speaker 1: leave work, you have to leave home. You're there all
- 8:33Speaker 1: day getting cille. Well, I remember this when it was
- 8:37Speaker 1: a pack prosecuting attorney's counsel, Clee. I'm getting to my point.
- 8:42Speaker 1: To stick with me, people. This was about the Columbus Strangler,
- 8:47Speaker 1: the Columbus Georgia strangler. And as I'm hearing Robin Walinski,
- 8:55Speaker 1: oh here come the chill bumps up my arm. As
- 8:58Speaker 1: I'm hearing Robin Walinski, Oh here they come on the legs,
- 9:02Speaker 1: recount what happened to these two lovely ladies. They sound
- 9:06Speaker 1: like the ladies at my hometown church, Liberty United Methodist
- 9:09Speaker 1: Church and Making Georgia that have taken care of me
- 9:11Speaker 1: and my family for years. Anyway, at this pack seminar,
- 9:15Speaker 1: we were talking about the Columbus strangler. This was a
- 9:18Speaker 1: guy that would pick out little old ladies elo ells.
- 9:23Speaker 1: He would go into their home at night, rape them
- 9:27Speaker 1: and strangle them. And I remember I had gotten up
- 9:30Speaker 1: to go get some coffee in the seminar was walking
- 9:32Speaker 1: back in and it was all dark, and the one
- 9:35Speaker 1: minute I was gone, the whole room went dark and
- 9:38Speaker 1: there was a screen up and there were the crime
- 9:40Speaker 1: scene photos and there was a little old lady on
- 9:44Speaker 1: her bed splayed on her bed dead. And I will
- 9:50Speaker 1: never forget seeing that photo in thinking who would do
- 9:56Speaker 1: this to this little old lady, this sweet a low lady.
- 10:00Speaker 1: And it was to the point that when the grandma's
- 10:04Speaker 1: that lived alone, their children come check on them at
- 10:07Speaker 1: eleven o'clock at night, lock all their doors, and sure
- 10:10Speaker 1: enough that would be the one that would die that night.
- 10:13Speaker 1: It was like a horror movie. And hearing this reminds
- 10:18Speaker 1: me of that Kathleen. The point, one of the points
- 10:22Speaker 1: Robin Willinski made is who would pray on an eighty
- 10:26Speaker 1: one year old lady this way? Somebody who is obviously
- 10:32Speaker 1: obviously has a brain that has dysfunctioned or disconnected from
- 10:38Speaker 1: the real world. Somebody who clearly has no remorse, clearly
- 10:43Speaker 1: has no sense of right and wrong. This was the
- 10:48Speaker 1: Grizzly Murder. I remember this murder because my mother too
- 10:52Speaker 1: lived alone. I remember this murder in nineteen ninety one.
- 10:56Speaker 1: In the world is wrong with these people? I still
- 10:59Speaker 1: feel bad and I can remember it. I had to
- 11:01Speaker 1: be in the second or first grade pushing a little
- 11:04Speaker 1: girl or get I didn't push her, I got in
- 11:06Speaker 1: front of her to go across the monkey bars, and
- 11:09Speaker 1: she just looked at me like she was hurt. I
- 11:12Speaker 1: still remember that moment. I feel like doodoo. I can't
- 11:14Speaker 1: remember the one time one time I hit my sister
- 11:18Speaker 1: in the arm and she just looked at me. Yeah,
- 11:20Speaker 1: one time, Jackie, Jackie's laughing a rear end off. One
- 11:23Speaker 1: time I hit her in the arm and she just
- 11:25Speaker 1: looked at me. I never hit her again. I can't
- 11:27Speaker 1: remember those. And they bother me. Who would do this thing? Listen?
- 11:33Speaker 1: I remember the coroner hand, the sheriff was there too,
- 11:38Speaker 1: and the mothers the place. And I say it was
- 11:42Speaker 1: one of the worst I am saying some of her
- 11:46Speaker 1: the head had ever seen. And it was and I
- 11:50Speaker 1: think her anty and and I had told me how
- 11:56Speaker 1: that this person whoever had done it, had really, you know,
- 12:03Speaker 1: been very brutal, gets trying every way you could be brutal,
- 12:08Speaker 1: and had cut her growth that she you know, that
- 12:13Speaker 1: she had been a very in struggle. Hi, Nancy Grace here,
- 12:21Speaker 1: have you ever googled yourself, your neighbors, somebody at work?
- 12:25Speaker 1: A crush? Fifty seven percent of Americans and meant keeping
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- 13:16Speaker 1: nancy right away to start searching truthfinder dot com forward
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- 13:36Speaker 1: I'm tired of the hearsay, of the folklore of what happened,
- 13:40Speaker 1: and I want to tell for real. I want to
- 13:42Speaker 1: talk with people that were there. I want to know
- 13:47Speaker 1: what happened that night, what happened on September third, and
- 13:51Speaker 1: why haven't we figured out who did this? You had
- 14:01Speaker 1: to think about how you were going to tell me
- 14:03Speaker 1: that my grandmother had been taken away? For sure? You
- 14:10Speaker 1: really want to hear I? Could you sure? I do? Listen, dude,
- 14:14Speaker 1: this is pretty this is as bad as it gets.
- 14:20Speaker 1: I'm just surprised at what this town really is compared
- 14:24Speaker 1: to what I thought it was the fact that it
- 14:26Speaker 1: was aboulent death and those things just don't happen. And
- 14:30Speaker 1: start with Mississippi, so many pieces of so many people
- 14:42Speaker 1: that I don't know, with information that contraduces itself in
- 14:48Speaker 1: all these articles, and so it's hard to know where
- 14:51Speaker 1: to start. You know, you are hearing Knock Knock, a
- 14:56Speaker 1: podcast by the grandson Betty. It's Jason Jones using the
- 15:03Speaker 1: podcast medium to try and find answers as to who
- 15:07Speaker 1: killed his grandmother. Listen, you know, I still, you know,
- 15:13Speaker 1: I still don't want to go in the house. But
- 15:17Speaker 1: her throat was slashed and there was just a lot
- 15:21Speaker 1: of blood. I don't know if Bettie ever would have
- 15:25Speaker 1: thought that I would have been queen, that I would
- 15:28Speaker 1: have been here, that I would be here right now,
- 15:31Speaker 1: and I how scary that would have been. Whatever, I'm
- 15:43Speaker 1: gonna arm myself with a couple of microphones in a
- 15:45Speaker 1: recorder and go and try to meet people that can
- 15:50Speaker 1: get me a step closer not only to my grandmother
- 15:53Speaker 1: but also to her killer. I have no idea where
- 15:56Speaker 1: this is going to go, and it kind of scares
- 15:58Speaker 1: the hell out of her. But I don't think I'm
- 16:00Speaker 1: going to merge from this without some scholars. The only
- 16:07Speaker 1: thing that lasts are the stories that we tell, and
- 16:11Speaker 1: in order for me to tell the story, I've got
- 16:14Speaker 1: to do it. Now you are hearing from Knock Knock.
- 16:20Speaker 1: It's a serialized true crime podcast, and that was Jason
- 16:24Speaker 1: Jones trying to solve the murder of his grandmother, Betty Jones,
- 16:30Speaker 1: who died along with her roommate Katherine Kriegler. And to you,
- 16:35Speaker 1: Robert Wilensky, investigated reporter with Crime online dot Com. I
- 16:39Speaker 1: know that the moment one of them answered the door,
- 16:43Speaker 1: the purps slashed her throat. He then went to the
- 16:46Speaker 1: back of the home and he raped the eighty one
- 16:51Speaker 1: year old grandmother and killed her. But two people died
- 16:57Speaker 1: because the l ol, the little ola that answered the
- 17:00Speaker 1: door went into such a deep depression after the murder
- 17:05Speaker 1: and her own rape, she died as well. Isn't that true,
- 17:09Speaker 1: Robin Willinski? It is a Betty Jones. The sixty five
- 17:13Speaker 1: year old woman who opened the door was slashed in
- 17:15Speaker 1: the throat and was dead there at the scene by
- 17:18Speaker 1: the time the police arrived. The eighty one year old
- 17:21Speaker 1: woman Catherine who was raped, who was able to call
- 17:25Speaker 1: nine one one. She was treated and they did a
- 17:29Speaker 1: rape kit and sealed it at the hospital, and then
- 17:33Speaker 1: she later went to a home. She could no longer
- 17:35Speaker 1: live alone. That's why she was living with this woman.
- 17:38Speaker 1: And she went to a home and just two months
- 17:41Speaker 1: later passed away. You know, I've been listening to this
- 17:45Speaker 1: guy's podcast and it is incredible. You know, it shows
- 17:50Speaker 1: me that, you know, in my own life, after I
- 17:53Speaker 1: became a victim of violent crime, you never This is
- 17:56Speaker 1: her grandson, Jason Jones, This is Betty's grandson. He didn't
- 18:01Speaker 1: get over it. He kept looking for answers to Robin Wilinsky,
- 18:07Speaker 1: what is it that made him keep going? We've seen
- 18:11Speaker 1: it so many times with crime victims' families. I think
- 18:15Speaker 1: that there's this very deep, very very deep, what I
- 18:19Speaker 1: call the need to know. And you love someone so
- 18:23Speaker 1: much and you have all these scenarios in your mind
- 18:27Speaker 1: as to what happens, and you know, the movie of
- 18:32Speaker 1: all these different ways that the person could have died
- 18:35Speaker 1: and suffered, just it goes through your mind over and
- 18:38Speaker 1: over like an old VHS tape that's stuck in a machine.
- 18:42Speaker 1: Nancy right, and it keeps going and going in a loop.
- 18:45Speaker 1: But they really want to get to the truth, and
- 18:47Speaker 1: so the relatives of the deceased never stop looking, never
- 18:52Speaker 1: stop until they get the answer. With me now, George
- 18:56Speaker 1: Skiro DNA expert and forensic scientists, what would do you
- 19:00Speaker 1: make of this crime scene? George S. Giro, Well, that's
- 19:03Speaker 1: it was a very brutal crime scene from what I've
- 19:06Speaker 1: I've heard. I've worked closely with the Startville Police Department
- 19:11Speaker 1: on this case for a number of years. Our lab
- 19:15Speaker 1: back in two thousand and five was the first one
- 19:18Speaker 1: to develop a profile from a semen stain that was
- 19:23Speaker 1: associated with miss Kriegler. What do you mean by a profile?
- 19:27Speaker 1: A profile? It is a DNA profile. It's essentially a
- 19:31Speaker 1: series of numbers that show various locations on a DNA
- 19:35Speaker 1: molecule that will allow us to identify an individual. In
- 19:39Speaker 1: this case, we had a semen stain from an unknown individual.
- 19:45Speaker 1: Doctor bos Scales, who was then director, had developed that
- 19:48Speaker 1: profile and that profile was here and throughout the years,
- 19:54Speaker 1: the Starkville Police Department was submitting samples of potential suspects
- 20:00Speaker 1: throughout the years uh to see if they matched this
- 20:04Speaker 1: particular profile and throughout the years UM leading up until
- 20:10Speaker 1: twenty eighteen, there were no identifications to this profile. This
- 20:14Speaker 1: profile was in CODAS, there were no hits in codis UM,
- 20:18Speaker 1: so this this profile remained unknown for at least thirteen years. Now.
- 20:23Speaker 1: When you say CODAS, explain. CODAS is the Combined DNA
- 20:27Speaker 1: Index System and that is a database program that UM
- 20:33Speaker 1: houses DNA profiles from typically from convicted offenders, from crime
- 20:39Speaker 1: scene samples, and from arrestees UM that is used UH
- 20:45Speaker 1: crime labs used that database to search UH for unknown
- 20:49Speaker 1: UM unknown DNA profiles found at crime scenes to see
- 20:53Speaker 1: if they can't get a match to an individual within
- 20:56Speaker 1: that database. Two holderly woman dat one brutally murder the
- 21:02Speaker 1: other alert to dial nine one one and the gruesome
- 21:05Speaker 1: killer still remains unknown. And although this happened almost three
- 21:10Speaker 1: decades ago, investigators and family of the victims are not
- 21:14Speaker 1: letting this case go unsolved. I'm just opened to faceball
- 21:19Speaker 1: to day and like several years a single man, I
- 21:28Speaker 1: just feel like a failure sometimes for not being able
- 21:33Speaker 1: to solve it. Labor Day in nineteen ninety a man
- 21:36Speaker 1: entered the home of sixty five year old Catherine Kriggler.
- 21:39Speaker 1: She was raped and strangled. He passed out with broken bones,
- 21:43Speaker 1: but when she woke up, she was able to call
- 21:45Speaker 1: nine and then he I Krigler died from her injuries
- 21:56Speaker 1: and deep depression months later. Her friend, though eighty one
- 21:59Speaker 1: year old Betty Jones, did not have much time to think.
- 22:02Speaker 1: The killer immediately stabbed her several times in the neck.
- 22:06Speaker 1: You are hearing reports from our friends Simone Woolridge at
- 22:09Speaker 1: WRGTV reporting on the murders of Betty Jones and Katherine Kraigler.
- 22:15Speaker 1: Betty's grandson launches a podcast not not to try to
- 22:20Speaker 1: revive interest in his grandmother's death. Take a listen to
- 22:24Speaker 1: Simone Woolridge. Who is this person responsible for this horrendous murder?
- 22:29Speaker 1: And why were Krigler and Jones the chosen ones? The
- 22:32Speaker 1: man walked away with just a couple of bucks and
- 22:34Speaker 1: a memento. He got in the house and he asked
- 22:37Speaker 1: a question like where is the silver, and like here
- 22:41Speaker 1: there to rob. He immediately kills the victim and he
- 22:44Speaker 1: doesn't take anything with twenty dollars. Police say sexual homicides
- 22:48Speaker 1: of the elderly only occur in three percent of homicide cases,
- 22:52Speaker 1: and scary enough statistics show that most suspects know their victim.
- 22:56Speaker 1: You kind of feel like you're walking through a dream
- 23:02Speaker 1: and you're going to wake up and everything's gonna be fun.
- 23:04Speaker 1: I remember telling my mom get dressed, Let's go get her.
- 23:08Speaker 1: She's okay. Be back. In twenty fifteen, was to Sergeant
- 23:12Speaker 1: Bill Lott of the Startpall Police Department. I had randomly
- 23:17Speaker 1: set up a Google alert for the keywords Betty Jones,
- 23:20Speaker 1: Labor Day murders, and Starkwall, Mississippi, and out of the blue,
- 23:25Speaker 1: one day, I received a notification that there was a
- 23:27Speaker 1: brand new press release from the Starkwall Police Department. A
- 23:32Speaker 1: few days later, I called Sergeant Lott and he was
- 23:35Speaker 1: gracious enough to take my call, and since then he
- 23:38Speaker 1: has been so helpful to me, my family, and the
- 23:42Speaker 1: Kriggler family, providing information on the work both he and
- 23:46Speaker 1: the SPD are doing to help solve this crime. You're
- 23:49Speaker 1: hearing Betty's grandson, Jason Jones and then a break in
- 23:53Speaker 1: the case. Listen. I was absolutely floored and just stunned.
- 23:58Speaker 1: This has been a tad story in my life since
- 24:02Speaker 1: I was ten. Jason E. Jones has been looking for
- 24:04Speaker 1: answers for much of his life after the death of
- 24:06Speaker 1: his step grandmother, Betty Jones. The parents didn't want to
- 24:10Speaker 1: talk to me about it because there was nothing really
- 24:12Speaker 1: to tell. He started a podcast with his brother in
- 24:14Speaker 1: hopes of finding out more. He says his family was
- 24:17Speaker 1: thrilled to hear that suspect Michael Devon was arrested in
- 24:21Speaker 1: the nearly three decade long case. Zero credit goes to
- 24:26Speaker 1: our podcast for the apprehension of this suspect. The credit
- 24:30Speaker 1: goes to the startful police department. Joining me right now,
- 24:34Speaker 1: renowned forensic scientist George Skiro, who worked on the case
- 24:38Speaker 1: for such a long time. George Skiro explain what happened
- 24:42Speaker 1: and how it was done. First of all, Nancy credit
- 24:46Speaker 1: has to go to the Starkville Police Department for never
- 24:48Speaker 1: letting go of this case, in particularly Sergeant Bill Lott,
- 24:52Speaker 1: who has always been progressive on this case and was
- 24:54Speaker 1: always looking at the science and seeing where things were
- 24:57Speaker 1: progressing to. Eventually, Sergeant lot Uh partnered up with Parabond,
- 25:04Speaker 1: which is a company that does they do phenotyping of
- 25:08Speaker 1: DNA where they look for certain characteristics such as hair color,
- 25:12Speaker 1: eye color, facial shape, that sort of thing, and in
- 25:15Speaker 1: particularly they also edit a new component to their tests.
- 25:20Speaker 1: It's a forensic genealogy component which Sergeant Lot latched onto
- 25:25Speaker 1: that and we were able to provide the sample from
- 25:28Speaker 1: that unknown DNA sample that we had developed us in
- 25:31Speaker 1: two thousand and five. We're able to provide that to
- 25:34Speaker 1: Parabond and they were then able to generate a lead
- 25:37Speaker 1: for Sergeant Lot to follow up them. So how does
- 25:40Speaker 1: it work towards Hero? Essentially, what they do is Parabond
- 25:44Speaker 1: takes the DNA sample and they look at many different
- 25:47Speaker 1: sites on that DNA molecule to create probably an approximation
- 25:51Speaker 1: of what that person might look like. And then what
- 25:54Speaker 1: they can do is they can take these uh, forensic
- 25:57Speaker 1: genealogy markers that are out out there in public accessible
- 26:02Speaker 1: databases where people put their genealogy information from where they're
- 26:06Speaker 1: trying to find lost relatives or you know, see who
- 26:09Speaker 1: they are related to or you know, see their ancestry,
- 26:12Speaker 1: and they're able to put this information into those genealogy
- 26:16Speaker 1: databases to see if they could come up with perhaps
- 26:19Speaker 1: a family member or someone who may have put their
- 26:22Speaker 1: DNA profile into this database to see if there's a
- 26:26Speaker 1: possibility of a relative or that particular person being in
- 26:30Speaker 1: that database too. Robin Malinski, Crime online dot Com investigative
- 26:34Speaker 1: reporter explained to me the break in the case. Who
- 26:37Speaker 1: is Michael Wayne Devon. Well, he is the fifty two
- 26:41Speaker 1: year old man who is being held responsible for this.
- 26:45Speaker 1: He's being held Nancy on eleven million dollar bond and
- 26:50Speaker 1: the DNA proves that it's him. The long arm of
- 26:52Speaker 1: the law got this guy. What we know about this guy,
- 26:55Speaker 1: Michael Wayne de Vaughn, who managed to elude murder charge
- 27:00Speaker 1: for over twenty eight years, but not allude modern technology,
- 27:05Speaker 1: The advancements in DNA testing, specifically genetic genealogy crack this case.
- 27:12Speaker 1: The same thing happened to George skiro DNA expert in
- 27:15Speaker 1: forensic scientists in the Golden State killer case, explain, Yes,
- 27:19Speaker 1: in the Golden State killer case, very much the same
- 27:23Speaker 1: type of analysis was done. What they did was they
- 27:27Speaker 1: had a pure DNA sample that they found in storage,
- 27:32Speaker 1: They took that they ran with a forensic genealogy company.
- 27:37Speaker 1: They then searched and they found relatives close to the
- 27:42Speaker 1: man who was eventually identified Joseph James DeAngelo. And they
- 27:46Speaker 1: did that again through this uh, you know, looking at
- 27:49Speaker 1: locations and doing genealogy research. Essentially to find this person
- 27:53Speaker 1: through potential relative. You know, this guy who looks exactly
- 27:57Speaker 1: why the composite I might act divold had never been
- 28:01Speaker 1: a suspect until genealogy. And I'm talking about ancestry, dot
- 28:06Speaker 1: com things like that. Those public websites put police onto
- 28:12Speaker 1: his trail. Earlier this year, police send the DNA taken
- 28:17Speaker 1: from the murder scene of these two old grandma's little
- 28:20Speaker 1: low ladies. Took the evidence, the DNA profile to Parabond.
- 28:25Speaker 1: As George Kiro was just describing, it's a private genetic
- 28:28Speaker 1: company and they compared the DNA found at the scene
- 28:30Speaker 1: it was seaman from the rape to a public genealogy
- 28:34Speaker 1: DNA database. I was recently on Doctor Oz speaking with
- 28:39Speaker 1: the detective that did the very same thing in the
- 28:41Speaker 1: Golden State killer case. And it is amazing the way
- 28:46Speaker 1: it works. Kathleen Murphy, North Carolina family lawyer, is that
- 28:50Speaker 1: people send in their DNA to find out their genealogy,
- 28:55Speaker 1: where they come from, how much Irish are they, how
- 28:57Speaker 1: much African are they, how much does how much that?
- 29:00Speaker 1: And what that does is it identifies relatives, even distant relatives. Now,
- 29:05Speaker 1: I thought what the cops did was they go to
- 29:07Speaker 1: those relatives and interview them and isolate who could be
- 29:10Speaker 1: a suspect. But what they really do is they go
- 29:13Speaker 1: way way back and they start the family tree based
- 29:17Speaker 1: on the DNA at the scene and come up with
- 29:20Speaker 1: the killer. It's actually very intricate, but they're getting at
- 29:23Speaker 1: all things like ancestry dot Com. Kathleen, thank god for
- 29:27Speaker 1: all the scientists that are making this dream come true,
- 29:30Speaker 1: because again, this was such a grisly murder and we
- 29:34Speaker 1: have so many wonderful people on your panel and so
- 29:39Speaker 1: many other wonderful scientists doing the work that needed to
- 29:42Speaker 1: be done. Back to George Guiro, DNA expert and forensic scientist.
- 29:46Speaker 1: You know, the law protects you from police intrusion, like
- 29:50Speaker 1: the police can't force you to give DNA unless they've
- 29:53Speaker 1: got a warrant. But the law doesn't protect you or
- 29:56Speaker 1: one of your relatives, maybe a distant relative, from ending
- 30:00Speaker 1: in their DNA from a bugle swab, which is a
- 30:03Speaker 1: mouth swab, and thereby getting you busted. The announcement came
- 30:08Speaker 1: on Betty Jones's birthday. George, yes it did. We had
- 30:12Speaker 1: actually worked with the Starkville Police Department when they had
- 30:17Speaker 1: submitted to the lab I think it was on Friday afternoon,
- 30:20Speaker 1: an item that was discarded by mister Devon, and we
- 30:24Speaker 1: were able to work it overnight and get them results
- 30:27Speaker 1: by Saturday morning, identifying him to the two thousand and
- 30:30Speaker 1: five profile that we had developed here at the lab.
- 30:33Speaker 1: Now that Devon has been named a suspect, police are
- 30:36Speaker 1: asking anyone who has information about the crime or Dvaun
- 30:40Speaker 1: to contact Starkville PD. The tip line is six six
- 30:44Speaker 1: two three two three four one three one six six
- 30:47Speaker 1: two three two three four one three one. Take a
- 30:51Speaker 1: listen to Betty's grandson as he reacts to solving the
- 30:55Speaker 1: case of his murdered grandma, and I was absolutely floored
- 31:01Speaker 1: and just stunned. This has been a taboo story in
- 31:04Speaker 1: my life since I was ten. The parents didn't want
- 31:08Speaker 1: to talk to me about it because there was nothing
- 31:09Speaker 1: really to tell. The zero credit goes to our podcast
- 31:13Speaker 1: for the apprehension of this suspect on the credit goes
- 31:18Speaker 1: to the Startful police Department. I'm sorry his life led
- 31:21Speaker 1: him to feel like he had to make those types
- 31:24Speaker 1: of choices. Always thought of this guy as being a monster.
- 31:28Speaker 1: He was the boogeyman behind the closet door personified Nancy
- 31:33Speaker 1: Grace Crime Stories, signing off goodbye for him,