Crowdfunded DNA effort helps identify woman found murdered 50 years ago

Authorities named the sufferer present in Arizona desert in 1971 as Colleen Audrey Rice after cash raised inside 5 days of enchantment

A community-funded DNA challenge has helped detectives establish a murdered girl whose stays have been stuffed in a canvas sack and dumped within the Arizona desert greater than half a century in the past.

Authorities named the sufferer as Colleen Audrey Rice, who was born in 1931 in Ohio, and would have been about 39 years previous on the time of her demise, earlier than her physique’s discovery in November 1971.

The identification was made in partnership with a forensic family tree firm, Othram Inc, after a public enchantment for $6,500 to fund the challenge. The Mohave county sheriff’s workplace put up an preliminary $1,000 and posted the case to the dnasolves.com web site final 12 months, which helped increase the cash in solely 5 days.

A sheriff’s workplace Fb submit dated 24 January mentioned its chilly case investigators labored with Othram “to find out if superior DNA testing and forensic-grade genome sequencing might assist give perception into the identification of this girl and the circumstances surrounding her premature demise”.

The enchantment for funding got here after the detectives enlisted an artist from the Museum of Northern Arizona to age a highschool photograph of Rice, who was later decided to have been married and estranged from her household.

“On January 23, 2023, the sufferer discovered her voice,” the sheriff’s workplace mentioned within the submit asserting the identification.

“By way of using forensic genetic family tree, the sufferer has been recognized as Colleen Audrey Rice. DNA testing of a relative confirmed this after numerous hours of investigation into her household tree and phone with distant household relations.”

Advances in DNA expertise enabled the identification after 5 a long time of frustration, the dnasolves web site mentioned.

“Early within the investigation, her fingerprints have been despatched to the FBI in Washington and a report of her costly dental work was distributed in outstanding dental magazines. These information have been checked towards hundreds of affected person information,” the location mentioned, however not one of the inquiries led to something.

In keeping with the sheriff’s workplace: “Little is understood of her life or how she got here to be in Arizona. It's unknown if she had youngsters as no information could possibly be discovered.”

The investigation is ongoing into who was answerable for her demise, the company added.

Legislation enforcement has turn into more and more reliant on genetics to assist establish victims and suspects in recent times. Earlier this month, police in Idaho used DNA on public family tree databases to establish a person suspected within the murders of 4 college college students.

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