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Genetic Genealogy

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Hitchhiker's 50-Year-Cold Case Cracked By Ramapo College's Genealogy Center Hitchhiker's 50-Year-Cold Case Cracked By Ramapo College's Genealogy Center
Hitchhiker's 50-Year-Cold Case Cracked By Ramapo 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…

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by Cecilia Levine
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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…

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by Cecilia Levine
News
Jawbone Of Marine Who Died In Training Exercise ID'd By NJ College Students Jawbone Of Marine Who Died In Training Exercise ID'd By NJ College Students
Jawbone Of Marine Who Died In Training Exercise ID'd By NJ College Students Students at Ramapo College helped identify the missing remains of a marine who had been dead for 73 years. In July of 1951, Leland Yager, a U.S. Marines Captain, died in a military training exercise. His remains were recovered in California and buried in Missouri. Years later, a child was doing a scavenging exploration in Arizona when they discovered an unidentified human jaw bone. Last year, enforcement in Arizona referred the case to the Ramapo College Investigative Genetic Genealogy Center and students began working on the case, along with the North Texas Center for Human Identification …

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by Sam Barron
Police & Fire
Arrest Made In 1999 Killing Of High School Student Nancy Noga Arrest Made In 1999 Killing Of High School Student Nancy Noga
Arrest Made In 1999 Killing Of High School Student Nancy Noga A 49-year-old Jersey Shore man was arrested 22 years after the slaying of a Central Jersey high school student Nancy Noga. Bruce A. Cymanski, 49, was arrested at his home in Barnegat Tuesday after the return of the Middlesex County Grand Jury indictment -- and a brief foot pursuit, authorities announced. Cymanski was indicted on first-degree murder, first-degree felony murder, first-degree aggravated sexual assault, first-degree kidnapping and third-degree possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, Middlesex County Prosecutor Yolanda Ciccone and Sayreville Police Chief John Zebro…

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by Cecilia Levine