Who is CeCe Moore? Discover the woman who has helped solve almost 300 cold cases using genetic genealogy. 

People.com

What started out as a hobby, tracing her own family's ancestry, has turned into a full-time rewarding career. And in 2010 when advances of DNA grew, Moore and a few other self-taught peers helped find relatives for people using their own DNA. Until that point, there was no such thing as a professional genetic genealogist. At the same time, she began her successful blog, Your Genetic Genealogist, and traveling around the country to teach genetic genealogy to people. people.com

Moore began working with law enforcement in 2018, and since that time she has helped solve almost 300 cold murder and rape cases. 

CeCe's first solved case happened when a detective from British Columbia had heard about her amazing work in genetic genealogy using DNA and contacted her about a case from 1987. 20-year-old Jay Cook, and his girlfriend Tanya Van Cuylenborg were on a mission to picl up a furnace for Jay's dad, when they were brutally murdered. Jay was strangled and Tanya was raped and shot. The case went cold for 30 years, until CeCe took over. She said, "We got lucky, I found him in 2 hours." Moore gave the name William Talbot II to the police. They discovered he was a truck driver and began to follow him. While doing so, Talbot threw his coffee cup out the window and they their man by confirming that DNA off the cup with that from the crime scene. unsung science

CeCe is a self-made woman, who taught herself all she needed to know to go on to be one of the most revolutionary scientists of genealogy today. 

"Jane Doe" Identified as Missing Michigan Teenager Tammy Lowe

Tammy Lowe, an 18-year-old woman whose body was found burned behind an auto shop in Toledo, Ohio, June 19, 1987, has been identified using genetic genealogy.


38 years ago, a driver pulled off the interstate to investigate a fire he saw burning. He pulled up to an auto shop. The fire was behind the building and upon closer inspection he noticed it was a human body.


The coroner at the time said her teeth were so bad he couldn't get dental records to identify her. All they had to go on was her jeans, which were Jordache, and the pearl earrings she was wearing, five in each ear.


Because there was so little to go on, "Jane Doe" remained unidentified. They believed her death was homicide, but how she was killed was undetermined, and because they found cocaine in her system, that was what they put down as cause of death.


Over time, the police didn't give up trying to figure out who she was. Law enforcement continued to look at the missing persons reports of young women and even went so far as to create her face using clay reconstruction, to no avail. KBTX


In October, 2024 the Porchlight Project a local non-profit that helps Ohio with cold cases, offered to take on the case by offering to fund genetic genealogy DNA testing through Othram, a Texas-based company that specializes in forensic genetic genealogy. Tammy Lowe


Tammy's body was identified, but her case still remains unsolved. If you know anything about the death of Tammy Lowe, please contact:


Toledo Police Detective Bureau at 419-245-3142.

 

Chewing Gum and a Water Bottle Help Solve the 25-year-old Murder of Christy Mirack

When Christy Mirack didn't show up to teach her sixth grade class at Rohrerstown Elementary School in Lancaster, Pennsylvania December 21, 1992, her co-worker and principal got worried and drove over to her home to investigate. When he got there, he found Christy's body and ran next door to call 911. Mirack Murder 

Christy had been beaten, strangled and raped. Lying next to her body was a bloody cutting board used in her death. Christy's death was ruled a homicide by strangulation. DNA had been collected at the scene and was uploaded into the databases the police had at the time. 

After 24 years, the Lancaster County police took the DNA that had been collected at the scene and submitted it to a company called Parabon Nanolabs. The lab did the phenotype work and genetic genealogy of the DNA. Parabon's genealogist painstakingly pieced together the ancestral and genealogical data. On May 18, 2018, turned that information into the police, that showed a familial connection to the DNA, and that Raymond C. Strong was a strong possibility as the source of the unknown DNA.  https://lancastercountypa.gov/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=1185&ARC=1808

After a possible match was found, undercover police went to where Raymond C. Rowe, aka DJ Freez was playing music at a school dance. The police officers collected a water bottle and chewing gum, that were tested in the lab. The results came back as a match, and Raymond C. Rowe was arrested June 25, 2018, at his home. He pled guilty of rape and murder and will serve the rest of his life in prison. 

Christy's brother never gave up hope finding her killer, but the one question he will probably never get an answer to is, "Why?" https://lancastercountypa.gov/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=1338&ARC=1978

 

 It was January 1956 when three boys, who were out on a New Year's hike in Sun River, Montana, found the body of 18-year-old Lloyd Duane Bogle with his hands tied behind his back laying on the ground near his car. He had been shot in the back of the head. The next day a county road worker found the body of Bogle's 16-year-old girlfriend Patricia Kalitzke. She had been shot in the head just like her boyfriend but had also been sexually assaulted. Their bodies had been found in what is known as "lover's lane". great falls history museum

Bogle was an airman from Texas, and Kalitzke was a junior at Great Falls High School, that had fallen hard for one another and were considering marriage after Kalitzke graduated high school. Early on in the investigation there were a lot of leads to go on, but none panned out, and eventually they ran dry. 

The Cascade County Sherriff's office never gave up. For decades they continued to investigate these murders, with several detective attempting to solve it. In 2012 a new investigator was assigned to the case, Detective Sgt. Jon Kadner. This was his first cold case, and even though he had other cases land on his deck, he didn't give up on this one. He was assigned the task of digitizing the case file, a task that took several months. After a while, Kadner realized that the only way they were going to be able to solve the case would be through DNA. 

The original investigator had saved a vaginal swab they took from Kalitzke, and after ruling out the DNA belonging to Bogle, they were then able to seek out the assistance of Bode Technology. With the help of other labs, forensic genealogists were able to create a genetic profile, using the swab they had taken 63 years earlier. Forensic scientists are able to create family trees by using death certificates and searching public records. By creating this family tree, they are able to find a suspect, even if that person never submitted DNA to the website. In this case, it was a distant cousin, and they were able to create a reverse family tree. By doing this, it led them to a man named Kenneth Gould. He had lived with his family in Great Falls during the time of the murders, and before moving to Missouri in 1967. 1956 double homicide

After six decades, the police finally had a direction. Unfortunately, Gould had died in 2007. That meant that the investigators had to use remaining family members to get determine if he was the man they were looking for. It wasn't easy on the investigators because they had to go to his children and essentially tell them that their dad was being investigated for double murder and rape from a case in 1956. They cooperated and after all this time, they had their killer. Kenneth Gould was the killer/rapist. The familied to Bogle and Kalitzke finally had justice. It was one of the oldest cold cases solved with genetic genealogy. 

Does Law Enforcement Have Total Access to Your DNA on Genealogy Sites?

 With the lasted trend in DNA Genetic investigations being in the news a lot lately, we wanted to dive deep to see if our rights were being violated without our knowledge. With 23andMe and Ancestry.com being two of the major players in the genealogy/family tree game we thought we would see how and if they allow law enforcement free access to their records. After checking, both websites have said, "no, they do not allow law enforcement to use the DNA in their databases, and if law enforcement does indeed need access to it, they must get a warrant. Both genealogy sites have stated that they will do everything in their power to notify their consumers that the law is requesting access ahead of time, but there will be some incidences that it won't be possible to contact the consumer with advance notice.

Currently the only sites that allow law enforcement to access the DNA records is GEDMatch and FamilyTreeDNA . Even those two site have added additional rules for the use of their DNA. Basically, if you have your DNA in the websites, you must opt in, in order for law enforcement to use your DNA.

Currently the Department of Justice (DOJ) has an established temporary policy on Forensic Genetic Genealogy DNA Analysis. The National Genealogical Society has a committee that is working on best practices and standards. There are other groups, like the American Genetic Society that are advocating for the protection of genetic information. These laws and standards are evolving and will change over time to make sure that privacy laws are upheld, and the consumers that are uploading their DNA for genealogy purposes are protected. 

Solving Cold Cases: How Genealogy Technology Makes a Difference

Just recently the field of criminal investigation has seen groundbreaking advancements in DNA genealogy technology. Cold cases that have remained unsolved for years, even decades, are being solved and brought to justice. This powerful tool has been crucial in redefining how law enforcement agencies approach solving long-dormant cases. Genetic genealogy utilizes DNA from crime scenes to create a genetic profile of the unknown suspect. This profile can then be compared to genetic databases, such as those from commercial genetic testing companies, to identify potential genetic relatives of the suspect. By building family trees and tracing relationships, investigators can narrow down their search to a specific person, ultimately leading to their identification. One of the coolest aspects of genealogy technology is the ability to provide closure to victims and families of crime. This type of technology is also being used by the military, in identifying remains in mass graves from wars overseas decades later, then returning the person killed in action to their family. With the help of DNA genealogy, these families are finally able to find the closure they have been desperately seeking. This new technology had breathed new life into investigations that had gone cold, giving hope to both detectives and victims' families. As we continue the use of this amazing technology, we also need to remember that there are ethical considerations to consider as well, such as privacy concerns, whether or not consent was given to use the DNA, and the proper use of the DNA/genetic information. There is a large gray area where this technology is concerned, and we need to be careful of the slippery slope when it comes to its use. DNA genealogy technology stands as a beacon of hope for unsolved cases and unresolved mysteries. By utilizing genetic information and familial connections, we are on the path to finding justice for victims and their families. Someday, hopefully soon, there will be no more cold cases.