Free Republic

For the first time in the U.S., an identical twin has been convicted of a crime based on DNA analysis. The breakthrough came from Parabon Nanolabs, who’s scientists used deep whole genome sequencing to identify extremely rare “somatic mutations” that differentiated Russell Marubbio and his twin, John. The results were admitted as evidence in court, making last week’s conviction of Russell in the 1987 rape of a 50-year-old woman a landmark case. Case background On Dec. 19, 1987, the victim, a 50-year-old woman, was working as a clerk at a gas station in Woodbridge, Va. She left the store to...

Here's an absolutely wild story out of the state of Alabama. In 1997, a headless body was discovered in the woods of Marshall County, Alabama along the Little Cotaco Creek near Union Springs. The headless man appeared to have been decapitated with a saw, as well as having his hands and feet removed as well, making him impossible to identify at the time. In addition, the man's heart and spleen were also removed with "surgical precision" according to authorities. But now, 26 years later, the man has been identified as Jefferey Douglas Kimzy of Santa Barbara, California. Now the question...

In June 1986, the Josephine County Sheriff’s Office (Oregon) responded to the Quartz Creek area regarding human skeletal remains being located on a homeowner’s property. The homeowner was in the process of putting in a new septic system when the owner discovered the remains in the ground approximately 4 feet deep and notified law enforcement. The homeowner had only owned the property for approximately 10 years. With the remains, other items were located within the gravesite such as, fabric believed to be from a dress, a worn set of dentures and two rubber implements, believed to be from a walker...

On Jan. 26, 2023, detectives assigned to the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office (PCSO) Robbery/Homicide – Cold Case Unit arrested 55-year-old Michael Lapniewski, Jr., for a murder that occurred in 1987. Detectives conducted an extensive investigation over a period of several years. A suspect was developed after advancements in DNA testing. According to detectives, on Feb. 9, 1987, deputies responded to a residence in unincorporated St. Petersburg for a deceased person. The victim, 82-year-old Opal Weil was located deceased by her sister-in-law after not answering her telephone. Weil had obvious and visible signs of trauma. Deputies discovered the suspect fled the...

The murder investigation included records of Italian social clubs, draft cards, and Ellis Island immigration logs. For decades, it seemed that Lindy Sue Biechler’s killer would never be found. The 19-year-old newlywed’s stabbing death in her Lancaster County apartment in 1975 had stunned her community and shattered her family. As years passed, police kept working the case, slowly eliminating suspects as technology improved. Detectives on the scene had managed to save a sample of the killer’s DNA. But for decades it had no match in DNA databases of convicted criminals. That’s when CeCe Moore, a genetic genealogist at Parabon Nanolabs,...

The faces of three ancient Egyptian men who lived up to 2,797 years ago have been reconstructed using genetic data extracted from their mummified remains. It is the first time such a technique has been used on human DNA of that age. The trio came from Abusir el-Meleq, an ancient city on a floodplain to the south of Cairo, and are estimated to have been buried some time between 780 BC and 5 AD.... ...'This is the first time comprehensive DNA phenotyping has been performed on human DNA of this age,' Parabon said in a statement. The firm's experts found...

A family's nearly two-decade wait to find out who killed their beloved daughter came to an end this month, as investigators announced an arrest in the cold case. The Orlando Police Department said Monday that 38-year-old Benjamin L. Holmes was arrested in the murder of Christina Franke. Franke was 25 and a student at the University of Central Florida majoring in education when she was found dead in her Audubon Park apartment in October 2001, according to FOX35. The college student had been robbed and assaulted, and her killer had left a large amount of DNA at the scene, police...