Tag:

Genetic Genealogy

Hitchhiker's 50-Year-Cold Case Cracked By NJ College's Genealogy Center Hitchhiker's 50-Year-Cold Case Cracked By NJ College's Genealogy Center
Hitchhiker's 50-Year-Cold Case Cracked By NJ College's Genealogy Center After nearly five decades without answers, the 1974 murder of Mary Schlais has been solved, thanks to groundbreaking work by the Ramapo College Investigative Genetic Genealogy (IGG) Center in Mahwah, NJ.  On Nov. 7, 2024, the Dunn County Sheriff’s Department announced the arrest of Jon Miller, 84, of Owatonna, MN, in connection with Schlais’s death. Schlais, then 25, was hitchhiking from Minneapolis to Chicago when she was killed. Her body was found with multiple stab wounds along a road in Dunn County, WI, on Feb. 15, 1974.  At the scene, investigators collected a stocking cap t…
NJ College Cracks Hot Missing Persons Case NJ College Cracks Hot Missing Persons Case
NJ College Cracks Hot Missing Persons Case Students and staff from a New Jersey college center have cracked a hot missing persons case from across the country. The Ramapo College of New Jersey's Investigative Genetic Genealogy Center (IGG) worked in collaboration with authorities in St. Louis County, MI, to successfully identify “St. Louis John Doe,” who had been missing since 2021. "This was a hot case, which generally refers to the presence of active, investigative leads," reads a release from Ramapo College's IGG. "The use of IGG in hot cases is a fairly new and growing concept." IGG's assistant director, Cairenn Binder, sa…