- Published
Randy Gail Sperino was last seen alive on the evening of 9 November 1993, as she was getting into a pickup truck in Granite City, Illinois.
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she → publish → City
The 34-year-old's body was found hours later in a field nearby, the victim of blunt force trauma.
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body → find → trauma
DNA evidence found at the crime scene was tested against standard law enforcement databases, but no matches were found.
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matches → find → databases
For three decades, investigators from the Madison County Sheriff's Office chased leads and interviewed hundreds of people as they attempted to identify the perpetrator.
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they → chase → perpetrator
The case looked like it would remain one of more than 250,000 unsolved homicides in the US.
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it → look → US
Then, last year, detectives tried a fresh approach.
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detectives → try → approach
They sent genetic evidence to Othram, a Houston-based company that uses DNA technology to help identify the perpetrators in cold and current crime cases.
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that → send → cases
The Madison County detectives had been inspired by investigative genetic genealogy techniques used to identify the Golden State Killer, Joseph James DeAngelo, back in 2018.
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detectives → inspire → 2018
In that case, an investigative team constructed a family tree to help identify the killer.
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team → construct → killer
They were able to do so thanks to DNA data that relatives had provided to commercial databases, similar to consumer ancestry platforms.
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relatives → do → platforms
Unlike traditional forensic DNA testing, which generally relies on a direct comparison between evidence and a known person, investigative genetic genealogy can identify distant genetic relatives of an unknown individual.
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genealogy → rely → individual
Othram set about applying this technique to track down Sperino's killer.
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Othram → set → killer
While the killer's own DNA profile wasn't available, profiles submitted by his extended relatives allowed the company to identify a male family member.
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company → submit → member
"That lead broke the case open," said Captain Tim Lawrence of Madison County Sheriff's Office, which was responsible for investigating the crime.
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which → break → crime
It was a crucial clue that led the detectives to Albert "Buddy" Zigler, 70, who then confessed to the murder.
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who → lead → murder
He was charged in May this year.
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He → charge → May
Wes Sperino, Gail's son, said at a press conference: "I finally get closure and I finally know who did this."
The technique that led detectives to Zigler is credited with revolutionising how forensic cases are solved.
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cases → say → Zigler
It has been highly successful in helping solve cases involving unidentified human remains and identifying suspects in longstanding investigations.
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It → help → investigations
Othram claims it has helped solve thousands of cases.
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it → claim → cases
The company's chief executive David Mittelman likens investigative genetic genealogy to a GPS system: "The DNA profile is the GPS signal and it says 'you belong here.'
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you → liken → system
But to understand where 'here' is, you need a map."
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you → understand → map
Public records, obituaries, and census data build that map so Othram's scientists can establish how different family trees connect.
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trees → build → map
However, Mittelman is quick to point out that DNA technology can only go so far before "a cascade of investigative steps" are needed.
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cascade → point → steps
DNA science isn't the only technology that are helping detectives solve cold cases.
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detectives → help → cases
One of the challenges facing detectives on major cases investigations like the hunt for Sperino's killer is the sheer amount of evidence they dig up.
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they → face → evidence
Officers investigating Sperino's murder realised AI could help them wade through the mountains of evidence they had accumulated since 1993.
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they → investigate → 1993
They used a platform called Centerline AI, from Florida software company CentralSquare, to analyse more than 2,000 pages of records and identify evidence for the DNA testing that helped to break the case.
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that → use → case
The AI helped them reconstruct timelines and organise witness information.
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them → help → information
"It's so much easier than having a detective have to read through 2,000 pages," Lawrence says.
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Lawrence → have → pages
His team could interact with the AI like a chat bot.
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team → interact → bot
This also helped when it came to interviewing Zigler after they had tracked him down.
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they → help → him
Detectives were able to ask questions of the AI to help "figure out if Zigler was being truthful", says Lawrence.
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Lawrence → ask → AI
But the technology is "only as good as the investigator," says the captain.
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captain → say → investigator
There comes a point, he says, "where you leave the technology behind and you have to go track people down and talk to them."
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you → come → them
Investigative genetic genealogy has its limitations too.
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genealogy → have → limitations
Mittelman says: "It can't solve every case.
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It → say → case
If you have no DNA, you can't really use this technique.
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you → have → technique
"But this technique is a lot more powerful and a lot more likely to yield identities than having to rely on the chance that you find a match somewhere in a database," he adds.
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he → yield → database
While firms like Othram only use ancestry platforms where users have provided consent for law enforcement matching, there remain some concerns about the ethical implications of using this data.
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users → use → data
"There are significant privacy concerns," says Denise Syndercombe Court, professor of forensic genetics at King's College London.
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Court → be → London
…and 8 more, not listed.
The Aporia
