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Genetic Genealogy

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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…

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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
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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
Body Found By Delaware River Fishermen ID'd As NJ Man 20 Years Later: Bensalem Police Body Found By Delaware River Fishermen ID'd As NJ Man 20 Years Later: Bensalem Police
Body Found By Delaware River Fishermen ID'd As NJ Man 20 Years Later: Bensalem Police A body found by fisherman in the banks of the Delaware River in 2003 has finally been identified. The body of Edward Anthony Nece, whose father lives in Riverside, NJ was identified through DNA samples, Bensalem police announced Monday, Feb. 19. Nece's body was found by fisherman on Oct. 19, 2003, in a drainage area on the Yellow Freight property located at 2627 State Road. At the time, Nece had no identification, and his description did not match any reports of missing persons in the area.  An autopsy found the cause of death was drowning but the manner of death could not b…

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by Cecilia Levine