How Ancestry Websites Solved a Cold Case

February 13, 2024

In this episode, Payton and Garrett dive into the case of two women who were murdered 100 miles apart. When police can’t identify the women, they turn to an emergent technology to help solve this cold case.

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AUDIO TRANSCRIPT

You're listening to an Oh No Media podcast.

Hey, everyone, welcome back to our podcast. This is Murderwith My Husband. I'm Payton Moreland, and I'm Garrett Moreland, and he's thehusband. I'm the husband. If you are watching on YouTube, please subscribe.Please turn on notifications. You guys, it helps us with the algorithm. I hateto beg, but I'm going to do it. And if you are listening on a podcast, leave usa review. We really appreciate it. It's a great way to support the show. Soyeah, thanks for being here.

And wait, before we get into your 10 seconds, I did justwant to tell everyone we have bonus content on our Patreon, on our Applesubscriptions. It is two full bonus episodes a month. You get two more episodesof Murder with My Husband. You get ad-free content. You get early release.There are also a ton of benefits. So check that out if you are tired oflistening to ads or just want more. It's so fun over there. So go check it out.All right, let's get into your 10 seconds.

Well, Valentine's Day is coming up. Is Valentine's Daycelebrated worldwide? Actually, I think so because isn't St. Valentine not fromAmerica? Like, I don't think that's an American thing. Yes, it is. It'scelebrated around the world. Interesting. Yeah, to celebrate St. Valentine.Look at that, babe. You know what you're talking about. Yeah, anyways,Valentine's Day is coming up. I may or may not have a surprise for Peyton. Doyou think I have a surprise for you? Probably. Except you need to tell me becauseI already told you that I made dinner reservations. So if I need to cancelthat, you need to tell me. It's true. Well, maybe I don't have anythingplanned, then. Okay. And okay, let's just clear the air here real quick. Youand I never celebrate Valentine's Day. No. Well, we don't celebrate anythingreally. Birthdays, yeah. We're not like huge. Like we s, like even forChristmas this year, neither of us got each other gifts. Yeah, we do giftsthroughout the year type thing, but the last couple of Valentine's Day lastminute on Valentine's Day, we've been like, oh, let's go out to dinner, youknow? And then there's never ever any availability anywhere. Why is everythingtaken right now? Are you freaking kidding me?

So this year, I was like just in case Valentine's Day rollsaround and we're like, hey, let's just grab a quick dinner to celebrate. I madeus reservations, so we'll see what happens there. So we got Valentine's Day.It's also you're listening the day after the Super Bowl. I'm kind ofindifferent about who I want to win, honestly. I kind of go back and forth. Um,I think at the end of the day, I don't really care.

Also, I wanted to address something. I know a lot of peoplehave been talking. Why are you laughing? I just don't know where this is going.This is really important announcement I wanted to talk about how a lot ofpeople on our YouTube videos, on our Instagram posts everywhere was like, ohno, now robbers TikTok. Robbers are going to break into your house. CU, theyknow how. I'm just like, office or office. That's not going to happen. Okay,number one, I don't know if I want to say this out loud because then everyone'sgoing to try to find the office. So never mind. But first of all, we lock thedeadbolt. We have three deadbolts that we lock every single time, right, babe?Yeah. So you're not getting in, okay? But honestly, we clarified in that storythat there was a deadbolt that we needed to lock, but because we left the keysinside, we didn't lock it. And everyone was like, oh my gosh, you just showedeveryone how to break in. And I'm like, we literally said that. There's also adeadbolt lock that we lock. Also, someone had a good point. They said that,thank you for showing me that because I was going to get a magnetic lock forwhere they're staying. And they're like, I'm not going to anymore because Ididn't realize how easy it was. Yeah. Um, basically any place with a magneticlock, they can do that. It's actually the way any locksmith usually gets intoan office or somewhere with a magnetic lock is they get a pole, basically orsomething, and they just wave it in front of the trigger and it opens it. So ifyou're considering a magnetic lock, don't do that. Get a double all we got formy 10 seconds today.

So let's hop into today's case.

Our sources for this episode are Web of Death Season 1Episode 4, Cold Case Files Season 2 Episode 26, NationalObserver.com, KTLA.com,ForensicMag.com, AETV.com., Scientificamerican.com, VC District Attorney.com,Storiesoftheunsolved.com, The Cinemaholic, Bakersfield, VCStar.com,Kerngoldenempire.com, and Wikipedia.

I'm guessing this case is based in Bakersfield. Really? Yousaid Bakersfield in the sources so that's what I assume. That's around there.Okay, are you doing a new thing where you listen now? Yeah, to get littlehints, yeah, here and there. I know sometimes I just don't. I feel like it'simportant to say the sources but sometimes I'm like dang it, kind of gives awaysome things. Yeah, it's important though.

So by now, many of us have used or at least know of someonewho's used sites like Ancestry.com to build out their family tree, maybereconnect with a long-lost cousin, see if they're related to a celebrity. Evenwhat most people don't expect to find is the answer to a decades-old cold casejust because they've uploaded their DNA. Shockingly, the US sees about 1,000Jane or John Doe cases a year that remain unidentified.

That's crazy, 1,000 people who are unidentified a year. Buttoday, over 600 of those cases have been solved using investigative geneticgenealogy through direct-to-consumer sites like Ancestry.com. 600 people havebeen identified. However, this isn't always a perfect solution, primarilybecause genealogy sites like this are a privilege, not a necessity, meaningmore marginalized communities don't have access to or don't want to provideinformation to commercialized sites like these, particularly those who are sorooted in oral tradition. I know a lot of people might disagree with this, andthat's okay, but I'm fine giving my DNA to everybody just because I havenothing to hide, and if we could help catch someone, I'm like, ah, yeah, I'lljust give it out. Well, this is the reason, though, why those who make uphonestly the biggest murdered and missing populations in North America, theindigenous people community, weren't seeing results from investigative geneticgenealogy until very recently when in 2022 the process brought an indigenouswoman who'd been missing for 40 years home for the first time.

So it's July 15th, 1980, the perfect summer's day in theSouthern California town of Delano. That morning, a handful of irrigationworkers showed up early for their shift on a local almond orchard. But as theytook to their posts, one of them spotted something that left them shaking. Awoman was lying in the middle of the field. She was curled up in the fetalposition, presumably asleep, but as the worker got closer, he realized she wascovered in blood. And when he saw she wasn't moving or breathing, he knew itwas time to call the police. Within the hour, the Kern County Sheriff'sDepartment was already swarming the scene. And after questioning the otherworkers, it was clear there were no witnesses. The crime likely happenedsometime in the middle of the night. And since the victim was left with nojewelry, no purse, and no ID, it was clear this wasn't going to be a quick caseto solve, which is so true. If you can't even identify the victim of a murder,how do you even go about investigating that murder? Yeah, that's a good point,actually. I feel like wouldn't you just have to... you couldn't do anything?No, you could maybe follow forensics, but if there's nothing that can only getyou so far. Interesting.

So there were a few pieces of evidence for police to workoff, though. Near her body was a half-smoked pack of cigarettes, an emptybottle of beer, and some tire tracks, but there were no footprints in sight,almost as if she'd been pushed out of a moving vehicle. The woman herself wasstill fully clothed with multiple stab wounds in her chest. She was wearing apink top, blue jeans, and pristine white sneakers that didn't appear to have aspeck of dirt or blood on them, which told detectives that their victim hadlikely been killed somewhere else, probably in a lying down position whereblood couldn't drip onto her shoes like gravity wasn't there. Okay, so afterbringing the victim in for an autopsy, officials determined her to be between30 and 35 years old, of either Hispanic or indigenous descent. She had beenstabbed over 28 times in the chest with a series of defensive wounds on herhands that showed she had tried to fight off her attacker. There was alsoevidence that she had been sexually assaulted. And on top of that, the womanseemed to have been intoxicated at the time of her death with a 0.3% bloodalcohol content. Now, remember, if you blow anything over a 0.08%, you couldget a DUI, so 0.3% is pretty significant. Luckily, pathologists also found afew different clues that could help narrow down her identity. For example, shehad a scar on her cheek, one on her left thigh, and another 4-inch mark on herstomach, leading officials to believe that she had at least one child through aC-section. On top of that, she had two pretty unique tattoos: a heart on herlower left arm that had the word "Shirley" written in the center ofit with the words "love you" on top and "Seattle" on thebottom. So, "Love you, Shirley," in the heart, "Seattle."The second was of a rose on her upper left arm that read "mother" ontop and "I love you" on the bottom. So the Kern County Police figuredthey have some pretty good identifying features to at least kick off theirsearch with, like they can get this out to the news and then see if anyonerecognizes her.

However, they had no idea that 3 days later, a similar crimewould be reported about 130 meters away. Oh, that's kind of far, actually. Soon the afternoon of July 18th, 1980, at around 12:35 p.m., a janitor fromWestlake High School in Thousand Oaks, California, discovered a similarlygruesome sight. There, on a dirt hill near the school's parking lot, was thebody of a woman, again of either Hispanic or indigenous descent. The janitorcalled the Ventura County Sheriff's Department, who, after arriving, determinedthe woman had been stabbed repeatedly in the chest. Her shoes had been tossedup onto the hillside, and smeared blood on the pavement indicated she had beendragged out of a vehicle and left here after her death. Again, she had nopurse, no ID, and after interviewing multiple people on the high school campus,no one admitted to seeing anything useful. So Ventura County PD brought her infor an autopsy, completely oblivious that just 3 days before, a nearlyidentical crime had happened up in Kern County.

So, like Jane Doe Kern, which is our first victim in thiscase, this victim, who we will refer to as Jane Doe Ventura, was around 25 to30 years of age. They were about the same height and build. She'd been stabbed16 times, with defensive wounds also covering her hands, and she'd beensexually assaulted. Even more heartbreaking, they determined that this victimhad been about 20 weeks pregnant at the time of her death. Oh my gosh, again,being stabbed so many times. Yeah. And while she had a few moles and scars,nothing was quite as distinguishable as the marks on the victim in Kern, whichmeant finding out who this woman was would prove even harder. And remember,this is the 1980s, which means evidence collection is limited. There are no DNAdatabases like we have today. They do pull fingerprints off of Jane DoeVentura, but after scanning them through several states, nothing comes back ahit. And after drawing a sketch of the victim and questioning locals about herpossible identity, detectives in Ventura hit a dead end on their Jane Doe.

However, the detectives up north in Kern County were havinga little bit more luck. When Jane Doe Kern's fingerprints also produced noresults, they passed the information on to police in Seattle because of hertattoo. Remember, it said Seattle on it. Problem was, she didn't fit thedescription of any missing persons cases in that area either. Thinking shemight have been a migrant worker, police also combed nearby farms, questioninganyone and everyone willing to speak with them. They also put out a publicappeal with her sketch to see if anyone might flip on the TV and recognize thewoman. And that's when the Kern County Sheriff's Department finally got a hit.One woman called to ask if the person in the sketch also had a tattoo, one withthe words "Shirley" and "Seattle" written on it. Now, thiswas a detail police hadn't included in their media statement, so they knew thislead was obviously worth pursuing. And when they speak to this witness, shesays their Jane Doe might be a waitress in a bar out in Bakersfield, about ahalf-hour away.

So the waitress's name she believed was Becky Owa. Now,you'd think this would be a massive lead, right? Like, they probably justidentified their Jane Doe. But even pulling at this thread gets them nowhere.They start searching for Becky Owas in the area, but there aren't any that arereported missing or that match the identity of their Jane Doe.

Wait, I'm confused.

So someone says they recognize her and they know who it is,but the police can't do anything with that information. They say they think hername is Becky O, but when police go searching for Becky O records, there's noone, which means this could be a fake name, this could be like an assumedidentity.

Okay, got it. But we're back in the '80s, right? As well,not social media or anything. Okay, got it.

While I never came across it in my research, I would imaginepolice also went to bars in the area to inquire about her, like, "Hey, didBecky work here?" But if they did, it never got them anywhere. And overthe next several months of searching for Jane Doe Kern, no one calls to reporta missing woman with the same description. As a last straw, police go around todifferent tattoo shops in the area to see if anyone recognizes the woman's ink.

So they have this Becky name, but they're not even sure thatis their woman. Okay. So one artist in Kern County says it looks like a stylethat's frequently done in Los Angeles's skid row, and Jane Doe might havegotten it there, which just leads police on another wild goose chase that endsup producing no leads.

So without anywhere else to turn to and still no idea thatthere's another Jane Doe who was killed with a similar M.O. 130 miles away,each department kind of moves on from their investigations with their Jane Doe.If they can't identify their victim, they really got nothing to go on. Theyeach box up what little evidence they have, and each county respectively buriestheir Jane Doe in anonymous graves, which is where the women will remain forthe next two decades.

But in 2004, there's a major bill passed by Californiavoters called Prop 69. This is the DNA Fingerprint, Unsolved Crime, andInnocence Protection Act. Essentially, the law now requires every previouslyconvicted felon to give a sample of their DNA for a national database.

Wow, so that wasn't a thing before? Nope, and going forward,that also includes anyone who's simply arrested for felony crimes likeburglary, sexual assault, and murder. They now have to give their DNA, which,again, you would think it's so common now that you have to give your DNA orfingerprints. I give my fingerprints recently for, I think it was like TSAtravel or something. Yeah, like I feel like you give them for so many reasonsnow.

So around the same time, Kern County is establishing a ColdCase Unit, where they plan to reexamine old Jane Doe cases. So this is just intrue crime. You will see that we go through this period where things areobviously progressing, and then a lot of units also start to say, well, withthings progressing as they have, maybe we should start looking at cold casesand try to solve them with the stuff we have now. 100%. Yeah.

So come 2008, they finally unpack that 1980 case of theirJane Doe Kern, number five, the woman they found in the almond orchard. Nowwith DNA analysis on the rise and this new bill passed, they decide, why notsend some of the victim's clothing out for analysis, compare it against thisnew system that Prop 69 had designed, and see if any convicted felons mighthave left something behind on her clothes. And shockingly, they get a hit. Wow!

DNA found in Jane Doe Kern's panties are a match with aconvicted felon named Wilson Shst. Could you imagine that? Could you imaginebeing in jail, new technology comes out, you think you've gotten away withthis, yep, and all of a sudden you're like, oh no. I guess if he's already injail for X, and maybe he doesn't care anymore if he's there for life. But well,he was actually in jail for kidnapping, robbery, and sexual assault, so notnecessarily murder, but he's going to be there for a long time. Okay.

So here's the thing. This is so funny you bring that upbecause I was just thinking about how when DNA became a thing, right, a bunchof killers who thought they've gotten away with it were probably pooping theirpants, like oh my gosh, they might test this DNA. Yeah, so I was just thinkingthe other day, do you think killers now, this new wave is that they think, ohmy gosh, some stupid podcast is going to look into this murder and thenpossibly pull my name up and might get police to reinvestigate? Because we'veseen that in Your Own Backyard, the Tara Grinstead case, like a lot of podcastshave actually urged police to relook into these cases.

I don't think so. I think, I think in reality, they, I mean,if you're really a killer, I think they're not thinking like that. I think theyhave. I think they have too big of an ego. They probably don't even care.They're like, "I'm never going to get caught." I'd be surprised ifthey're like, "Oh, those podcasts out there." But I don't know, Icould be wrong. Maybe they listen to the podcast. Would have gotten away withit too if it weren't for that meddling podcast. I don't know. I maybe, theylisten to podcasts. Maybe they are scared. I just feel like if you're really akiller like that, your state of mind is, I don't know. I would like to say,like, just weird, completely different than other people, right? Because if itwas me, in my mind, anytime the case got brought up, that I was involved, like,they had killed someone and that case got brought up, whether on the news, on apodcast, on a documentary, any press would not be good, because you'd be like,"I just want everyone to forget about it," you know?

So they find Wilson's DNA, and at the time, Wilson was aformer US Vet who'd been discharged for heroin problems, and he was serving alife sentence in a State Prison. And again, those were kidnapping, robbery, andsexual assault charges. So when current police hear he's a match, they figure,"Okay, this has got to be our guy. Like, he's already in prison forlife." Because not only was he out of prison and on parole in July of1980, DNA analysis just doesn't lie. Although, for some reason, they don'tconfront Wilson about the crime right away. They look for more evidence tobuild a case against him. And shockingly, in 2012, there's another DNA matchagainst Wilson. It comes from the underwear they found on Jane Doe VenturaCounty.

Got it? So I mean, at this point, open shut right? You gottwo murders, same M.O., and now two of the same DNA. Okay.

And it's only then that these two police departmentsrealize, "Oh my gosh, they were dealing with extremely similar cases daysapart from one another." It takes them this long to draw this uhrealization, and Wilson was likely to blame for both of these murders. So nowpolice are ready to confront Wilson about the two homicides, and they feel likethis might be their best chance to find out the respective identities of theirJane Does. When detectives finally sit down with Wilson for an interview, it'sSeptember 2013, and they begin showing him pictures of different crimes to seehow he reacts. And at first, they show him a few that they know he didn'tcommit, asking if he can offer any details. All of this is just to build a sortof rapport with Wilson, who says he knows nothing. He was in jail when thecrimes in those first two images occurred, which is true.

But then they show him a picture of Jane Doe Ventura, andWilson scan barely look at it. And same goes for the image they show him ofJane Doe Kern. That's insane. Obviously, Wilson denies both of the crimes,refusing to admit he had anything to do with them. This is despite them tellingWilson, "Well, that's weird because we found your DNA at each crimescene." But unfortunately, this isn't the smoking gun you think it is.

There's still a case to be made that Wilson just hadintercourse with these women before they were killed. What are the chances onboth of them? I totally agree, but the defense is obviously going to do this.Yes, 100%, which so it doesn't exactly prove that he was the one who wieldedthe knife. So, all right, they figure he's not going to confess to anythingtoday. We have our suspect though. So let's see what else we can dig up on thisguy from around that time. If he's already in prison for life, why does he likejust admit to it so you save, you can save the money, time, you can save thefamily's more heartbreak. I don't understand.

And that's when police stumble upon a wild story, one thatdoesn't look good for Wilson. See, during the months of June and July 1980,Wilson was actually out on parole. We already said that. And at the time, hewas living with a family called the Bells, a woman that he'd met through a penpal program at the prison. But come mid-July, Carolyn Bell, a single mom, hadto leave town for work, and she left her three young sons in the care of Wilson,her pen pal that she met from prison. Gosh.

Now, when she comes back to town, she tells Wilson it's timefor him to find his own place. She kicks him out of her home for whateverreason. But about two weeks later, she goes to get the vacuum when her oldestson stops her. He says, "Mom, you might not want to use that." Andwhen she asks why, he says, "Well, while she was gone, Wilson disappearedfor a day or two only to return, saying he'd hit a deer with his car, so he hadto get rid of it.” So he put it in the trunk, which was now covered in blood.And then he made Carolyn's boys vacuum the blood out of the trunk. That wasextremely smart of the kid to say not to use it, but also as a mom, you'relike, he disappeared, he comes back with blood in his trunk, and then he madeyou, my boys, clean it up. Well, the upside is the boys thought it was a deer,which, obviously, right? We can get to the point where we know it's not a deer,but, you know what, I'm almost glad that they believed him. Yeah, but also,he's like, "Mom, Mom, don't use that, there's blood all over there."Yeah, okay.

So this happens, right? Like, one of the sons is like,"Hey, don't use the vacuum, there's blood," and obviously Carolynstarts interrogating her boys. She's like, "I need to know more aboutthis, what do you guys know? What was the blood like?" Blah, blah, blah.And at this point, this is when one of her boys, her oldest boys, says,"Actually, I know more about this that I've been keeping a secret."

Apparently, a few days later, after the boys cleaned up theblood, Wilson confessed to Carolyn's oldest son, Scott, that he had lied tothem and that it wasn't a deer in the trunk. It was a woman. He'd picked her upin a bar in Bakersfield, took her out to the country, and killed her. Then hedumped her body in the middle of nowhere.

Okay, so detectives don't need much more than that. TheBell's testimony lines up perfectly with the timeline of the two Jane Doecrimes in mid-July. I do have to say, though, Carolyn knew that her oldest sonhad said it was a woman and never went to police, yeah, about Wilson not sayinglike, it's just, it's just, I had to point it out, yeah, know for sure, maybeshe was scared of him or didn't believe, or didn't believe that's true,whatever.

So, by September 1980, Wilson was already back behind barsfor another felony charge, which he'd been facing time for ever since. So, in2015, they take the case to the DA and Wilson Shst is charged with the sexualassault of both women, as well as three counts of murder, one for each JaneDoe, and then also Jane Doe Ventura's unborn child. So, on October 1st, 2015,the now 63-year-old Wilson, although still serving his previous sentence, isarrested for these new charges. But it takes another three years for him tohave his day in court.

So, in May 2018, Wilson finally stood before the jury andpleaded not guilty to these crimes. And not only did Carolyn and her other son,Patrick, testify against Wilson, there's several other women who survived hisattacks that come forward to tell their stories as well. He pleaded not guiltyto all of them, even the sexual assault, yes, how stupid can you be, like, hisDNA is literally, well, he's going to say it was consensual. Got it, okay, duh.

So, they also proved that not only was Wilson's DNA found inboth women's underwear, it was also found underneath both of their fingernails.Oh, come on, man, again, they're going to say it was, what an idiot. Yeah, so,and it was also found on the beer bottle left at the scene with Jane Doe, whichis a little bit almost stronger, because how do you talk away a beer bottlethat's left by a dead body? Totally.

With all of this evidence stacked against him, Wilson'sdefense falls apart. He's found guilty for the murders of both Jane Does. Heis, however, found not guilty for the third count, for killing Jane DoeVentura's unborn child, and that's just because the laws in place during thistime of the crime were a bit different. Still, on top of his existing sentence,Wilson was given life in prison without the possibility of parole. The DAconsiders this a huge win for several reasons. One, because when you're dealingwith a Jane Doe, you don't have the faces of the victim's loved ones staringback at you in the courtroom, which means it can be hard for the jury toconnect with the victim emotionally, like they don't have a name, yeah, butthat wasn't the case here. When they wrapped up the trial, a few members of thejury said that hearing the case was one of the most important things they'dever done in their lives, simply because these two women had no one advocatingfor them outside of their attorneys. So, with no family and no concreteidentity, the jurors felt an even bigger responsibility to the victims, and Ithink they served these women well, but it still doesn't solve the biggestproblem, which is that the identity of these two women, still remains amystery. Their case is solved, but still no one knows who they are.

Wait, I didn't even—I totally forgot about that part becausehe's pleading not guilty, so he's not going to say where he met them, who theywere, nothing. No family, no one's come to claim. Is that not weird, a little?

So in July 2018, after his sentencing, police paid one finalvisit to Wilson in hopes that, okay, now that you've, you know, been convicted,can you just give us something about these women's identities? And this is whatthey learned: He did pick up Jane Doe Kern at a bar, but he says it was in thetown of Hanford. He also says he found Jane Doe Ventura hitchhiking in a towncalled Visalia. Apparently though, he never learned their names. So with Wilsonbecoming another dead end in the investigation, officials decided to turn to anew method, one that hadn't been there for them back in 1980 when they werefirst investigating this crime.

They reached out to an organization called the DNA DoeProject. Also interesting to me that none of the bars or wherever any of thesepeople worked claimed, "Oh, they didn't come to work, they're not hereanymore." Why would you? Again, when I was doing my research, I never sawanything that police even went and talked to the bars. I'm just assuming thatthey did. Like, yeah, why would you not say, "Oh, so and so didn't come towork?" Right? Like, after you saw someone was missing. I don't know, itseems strange to me.

So the DNA Doe Project, or DDP, is a volunteer group thatuses genetic genealogy to solve the identities of Jane and John Doe. And thevolunteers pride themselves on not giving up on a case until it's solved,whether that means taking 10 or 10,000 hours. They're keeping the file open. Soback in 2018, they teamed up with law enforcement, who handed over a piece ofthe blood-stained blouse that Jane Doe Kern was wearing at the time of herdeath. And while it had been decades and the evidence was starting to degrade,they managed to pull a sample off of it. After which, the DDP ran the resultsthrough their database, and they found something that was pretty revealing.Let's hear it.

Jane Doe Kern descended from the indigenous First Nationspeople in Canada. Wow. But they only found 19 possible connections along herentire family tree, which is minuscule compared to the hits someone with, say,European ancestry might receive. And that's just because the indigenouscommunities were one of the least represented in these databases. A lot of thatis due to the fact that these groups prefer to pass down their family historyorally. Some even have ethical prohibitions against the collection of DNA,particularly on the deceased. Okay, I didn't know that. Interesting. Plus,they're wary of sharing that kind of information with the masses and thegovernment, for completely understandable reasons. I think a lot of people feelthat way. But as I mentioned, the DDP wasn't going to give up until they foundher.

While it took some time, they eventually located thevictim's grandfather, and they discovered Jane Doe Kern was likely born andraised in an area of Alberta, Canada called Maskwacis, home to severalindigenous groups, including members of the Samson Cree Nation. But the leadkind of stopped there.

In 2020, the DDP used a familiar tool to connect to morepeople in the Maskwacis community. They posted a sketch of Jane Doe Kern on afew Facebook groups geared toward the indigenous people in that area. And bythe end of 2020, they received a hit. So, 40 years later, is—yeah—a Cree womannamed Violet Suss reached out, claiming she'd been searching for her AuntShirley since 1980, and she believed it might be her. Holy crap. By April 2021,Violet had uploaded her own DNA to the DDP database, and when tested againstJane Doe Kern, it proved to be a match. Jane Doe Kern County was finallyidentified as a Cree woman named Shirley Soosay.

The DDP was right about a few things. After she was born in1945, Shirley did grow up on the Samson Cree reservation in Maskwacis, Canada.In fact, she was one of eight children, children who, for the most part, had apretty traditional upbringing. Her father had a ranch along the river whichShirley helped with by attending to the horses and the cattle. Meanwhile, hermother was a bead worker who designed some of traditional clothing, but in1959, when her father died from an unexpected illness, things got moredifficult for the family. Trying to maintain the ranch proved to be challengingas the family's income started to decline. And without too many places offeringsteady employment on the reservation, Shirley decided it would be best if shewent to the nearby city of Edmonton to find some work and send cash back to herfamily.

Got it, so that's what she was doing. So in her early 20s,Shirley did just that, finding some work at an Edmonton catering businesspart-time. And on the off days, she'd return home to visit her family on thereservation, spending her free time with her young niece Violet, who would goon to later identify her. But according to Violet, Shirley preferred spendingtime out in the city. And in the 1970s, Shirley set off for Vancouver to seewhat opportunities might await her there. Unfortunately, it wasn't theglamorous path that she'd probably imagined for herself. There she met a manwho became her husband. They had two boys together, but the marriage didn'tlast long. When Shirley tried to leave with the boys, her husband called theauthorities and made false accusations of abuse and mistreatment. Before long,Shirley's children were taken from her and placed in a foster home. Oh my gosh.And then she gets murdered as well. That's horrible.

And I just want to point out that this was a problem thatwas somewhat rampant in those days. Not just the fact that the authoritiesdidn't listen to or really respect the accounts of indigenous women, but therewere also a lot of indigenous children who were being ripped from their homes.I mean, we know this under the guise of "You'll have a better life withthis family," which is an episode for another day. But you can imagine howdevastating this was for Shirley. Out here in the big city trying to chase herdreams of simply making an honest living, and suddenly her children are rippedaway, and her husband has left her to fend for herself, which doesn't leaveShirley with many options.

So she finds herself living on the streets of Vancouver,turning to drugs and alcohol. At this time, when Shirley came back to thereservation to visit in 1975, Violet said she didn't seem like herself.Shirley's mother begged her to just stay home, telling her she should, quote,"stay in one place now because nobody will know you." But inShirley's mind, that wasn't an option. Violet did give her some advice, though.She said, "If you keep moving around, you should at least get a tattoo,maybe something with your name on it," a suggestion that clearly tookyears later.

The question was, did Shirley's mother have some sort ofpremonition that something would happen to her daughter, or perhaps she justunderstood how dangerous the world really was? Either way, Shirley went back toVancouver, coming and going over the next few years until 1977 when she madeher final trip back to the reservation, this time for her brother Violet'sfather's funeral. During that visit, she told her family she never wanted tocome back again and was instead headed to the United States, particularlySeattle, to start a new life, which is why she had that "I loveSeattle." For the next two years, Shirley continued to write home, sendingChristmas and birthday cards to her loved ones, never missing a beat. But thenin December of 1979, they stopped. There were no Christmas cards that year.Nothing came when it was time for her mother's birthday in March of 1980. Andthat's when Shirley's family began to worry that something was seriously wrong.

Now, I need to mention that her family did search for herextensively, but it just never led back to Jane Doe. And as the years passed,Violet, her niece, became interested in true crime, wondering if there might bea solution hidden somewhere in the true crime genre. And around 2018, a truecrime show featured an image that sent a chill down her spine. It looked like aCree woman, possibly her missing aunt. But when the program mentioned thewoman's name was Becky Ooya, Violet figured, okay, well, I'm just grasping atstraws as they've obviously identified this woman. So she hits the dead ends.But then in 2020, she joins a Facebook group and finds that picture of BeckyOoya again. And she's like, okay, it looks like my aunt, but it's obviously nother. But then this Facebook group also had the picture of the tattoos, and onit, it said "Shirley," and she was at a loss for words because thisreally, really could be her missing aunt. And obviously, it was, so which is ahorrible way to find out. Horrible. Yeah.

So in May 2022, Shirley's body was brought back to Maskwaciswhere she was given a proper funeral and burial. After 43 years, Shirley wasfinally home. And although hers has an ending, the identity of Jane Doe Venturahas never been uncovered. About that, but the DDP has never stopped looking.They're still trying to find her family, it seems. So interesting in 2024 thatno one's claimed still. In fact, her DNA testing revealed she was primarily ofindigenous descent with a mix of Hispanic, Caucasian, and Asian ancestry. Herfamily could be out of the country, who knows exactly. But thanks toorganizations like the DDP, there is a lot more hope nowadays when it comes toreturning a missing loved one home.

So yes, while Shirley Soosay was the first indigenous womanto be identified using investigative genetic genealogy, she certainly wasn'tthe last. In 2023, the remains of a missing indigenous woman named Daisy MayTman were identified and brought home to her family, which means there's stillhope that Jane Doe Ventura and dozens of other missing and murdered indigenouswomen may one day see these same results. But for now, that is the story ofShirley Soosay and Jane Doe Ventura. Obviously, check out the photos in thiscase, and if you have any information, reach out. I know we say it all thetime, but oh my gosh, what a step in the right direction DNA became for thetrue crime genre.

All right, you guys, that is our case for this week, and wewill see you next time with another episode.

I love it.

And I hate it.

Goodbye.

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