Cold Cases Heat Up: How Advances in DNA Technology Are Helping to Bring Justice for Victims

Capturing The Golden State Killer

A crime spree terrorized Californians in the 1970s and '80s and for decades, dozens of murders and rapes went unsolved. But in 2018, former police officer Joseph DeAngelo, known as the Golden State Killer, was finally captured.

DeAngelo was caught after law enforcement compared the murderer's DNA — found at one of the crime scenes — to the genetic profiles publicly available on a genealogical website. The crime scene DNA sample matched one of DeAngelo's relatives, and authorities eventually zeroed in on him.

DeAngelo was accused of 13murders and 50 rapes. In 2020, he pleaded guilty to the murders and 13 counts of kidnapping and will spend the rest of his life behind bars. He is also believed to be responsible for more than 100 residential burglaries from April 1974 to December 1975. This case gained international publicity and showed investigators and the world that DNA was the newest and most advanced way to catch a killer.

The Grim Sleeper's Capture and Death

Lonnie Franklin Jr. was a serial killer who stalked L.A. for more than 20 years, killing young vulnerable Black women.

His killing spree lasted from 1984 to 2007, but the apparent gap in his violent slayings — from the late 1980s to the early 2000s — gave him his nickname: The Grim Sleeper.

Franklin was finally caught in 2010 through familial DNA testing after his son, Christopher, was arrested in the summer of 2009 and had to submit a DNA swab.

In 2016, Franklin was convicted of murdering 10 women, but prosecutors believe he has at least six additional victims. After being sentenced to the death penalty, Franklin died in his prison cell at the age of 67 in San Quentin Prison on March 28, 2020.

(PEOPLE senior writer Christine Pelisek, who broke the story of the Grim Sleeper, chronicled the case in her 2017 book, The Grim Sleeper: The Lost Women of South Central.)

1987 Murders of Jay Cook and Tanya Van Cuylenborg

In 2015, Chelsea Rustad entered a contest and won a DNA "spit kit" and uploaded her profile. She had no idea that doing so would help solve a double murder that had gone cold. In 2018, two officers at the Skagit County Sheriff's Office were investigating the 1987 murders of Jay Cook, 20, and Tanya Van Cuylenborg, 18, who were killed while visiting Seattle from Canada.

Because of Rustad's submitted DNA, authorities connected her cousin, William Earl Talbott II, now 59, to the murders. Talbott was tried and convicted of the murders in 2019 — making him the first person to be convicted as a result of genealogy research.

"Police told me that without my DNA, he would not have been arrested," Rustad previously told PEOPLE. "There would have been no trial. That family would have never had answers."

1964 Murder of 9-Year-Old Marise Chiverella

After 60 years had passed, it was unclear if the March 1964 murder of 9-year-old Marise Chiverella in Pennsylvania would ever be solved. But now, finally, police have identified her killer. With help from genealogist Eric Schubert, authorities identified James Paul Forte, who died in 1980, as the killer through DNA and genealogy tracking.

1983 Sexual Assaults and Murders of Susan Tice and Erin Gilmour

In Nov. 2022, Toronto Police announced a break in two cold-case homicides committed nearly 40 years ago. Joseph George Sutherland, 61, was arrested and charged in connection with the1983 killings of Susan Tice, 45, and Erin Gilmour, 22. Both women had been sexually assaulted and stabbed multiple times. Tice's body was found in August 1983 and Gilmour's body was found in December of that same year. The two women did not know each other.

Trace DNA was found at both scenes and in 2000, authorities linked the two unsolved murders to each other. Eventually, genetic genealogy was used to discover relatives of the suspect, which eventually led to Sutherland. Sutherland has not yet entered a plea to the charges.

1988 Sexual Assault and Murder of Betty Rolf

On Nov. 6, 1988, Betty Rolf, 60, was walking to work in a blizzard in Wisconsin when she was sexually assaulted and beaten to death by a man she didn't know. For 34 years, the case remained cold until Dec. 2022, when Gene Meyer, 66, of Eatonville, Wash., was arrested and charged with first-degree murder and first-degree sexual assault in connection with Rolf's slaying.

Authorities used familial DNA, which led them to believe that Meyer is linked to the crime, according to a criminal complaint obtained by the Post-Crescent. Authorities eventually obtained a DNA sample from the handle of Meyer's truck, which allegedly matched swabs taken from Rolf's body after her death, the complaint says.

According to online court records, Meyer has not yet entered a plea and is currently being held on a $2 million bond in Wisconsin. His preliminary hearing is set for Feb. 28.

1993 Murder of Jeanie Ann Childs

A 26-year-old cold-case was cracked thanks to a dirty napkin cast aside at a hockey game in 2019.

In 1993, 35-year-old Jeanie Ann Childs, was stabbed to death in her Minneapolis apartment, and for more than two decades, the case remained cold. But after the capture of the Golden State Killer, authorities decided to try the same method that led to his arrest.

Using DNA collected from Childs' murder scene, Minneapolis authorities entered the information into genealogy websites. The results pointed investigators toward two possible suspects, including Jerry Westrom who lived in Minneapolis at the time of Childs' murder.

Officers began to trail Westrom to collect a DNA sample without his knowledge. At a hockey game, they observed him order food from a concession stand, then wipe his mouth with a napkin that he later discarded.

The DNA was a match, and in 2022, Westrom was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.

2006 Murder of Francisca Perea-Dominguez

In 2006, Francisca Perea-Dominguez was found dead in her bedroom. She was stabbed to death and sexually assaulted. Although her roommate at the time, Salvador Hernandez-Morales, was always a person of interest, he wasn't charged for 16 years. In Oct. 2022, police found DNA on a toothbrush used by Hernandez-Morales helped crack the case after it allegedly matched semen found at the crime scene. A warrant is currently out for his arrest.

1995 Murder of Mary Catherine Edwards

Jan. 13, 1995 was the last time beloved teacher Mary Catherine Edwards was seen alive. The following day, her parents arrived at her Beaumont, Texas, home to check on her and found a horrifying scene. Edwards was found drowned in her bathroom with her hands handcuffed behind her back. She had been killed and sexually assaulted.

For more than 25 years, the case remained cold until DNA cracked it wide open. Her former classmate Clayton Bernard Foreman was charged with murder in 2021 after investigators used genetic genealogy to allege he is linked to the crime.

Foreman is being represented by defense lawyer Thomas Burbank, Beaumont Enterprise reports. According to online jail records, he has not yet entered a plea to the charge against him.

2001 Murder of Rose Marie Moniz

It took 20 years for authorities to nab a suspect in the murder of Rose Marie Moniz. The 41-year-old was found beaten to death in her home in New Bedford, Mass., in March 2001. The murder weapons were a fireplace poker, a cast-iron fireplace kettle and a conch shell.

In Dec. 2021, DNA found inside the conch shell linked Moniz's half-brother David Reed — who was a pallbearer at Moniz's funeral — to the slaying, authorities said.

Reed was indicted by a grand jury on charges of murder and armed robbery. He has pleaded not guilty.

Murders of Shannon Rose Lloyd and Renee Cuevas

In 1986, 23-year-old Shannon Rose Lloyd was sexually assaulted and strangled to death in her Garden Grove, Calif., home. For more than three decades, a killer was never identified. In 1989, 27-year-old Renee Cuevas' body was found on a road near Irvine. Although little is known about Cuevas' murder, in 2003, authorities were able to link her case with Lloyd's and learned the two young women had the same killer. After advancements in DNA, the Orange County District Attorney's Investigative Genetic Genealogy team identified Reuben J. Smith as a possible suspect in 2021, NBC Los Angeles reports.

Authorities had Smith's DNA because in 1998, he was arrested for sexually assaulting and attempting to kill another woman, the outlet reports. Smith's DNA matched the DNA found at both crime scenes and he was determined to be the killer of Lloyd and Cuevas. In 1999, Smith died by suicide when he was 39 years old.

1998 Murder of Jennifer Brinkman

After more than 20 years, a suspect was apprehended in connection with the 1998 death of 19-year-old Jennifer Brinkman because of advanced DNA technology and genetic genealogy.

Jeffrey Paul Premo, 52, was arrested in Dec. 2022 after investigators say they matched his DNA to an ax that was used in the murder and found at the crime scene in 1998. Premo is charged with one count of first-degree murder.

Premo was booked into the Snohomish County Jail. It is unclear at this time if he has entered a plea. Prosecuting Attorney Jason Cummings did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for comment.

1980 Rape and Murder of Helene Pruszynski

Helene Pruszynski was 21 years old when she was kidnapped while walking home, brutally raped and murdered in 1980.

For decades, her family searched for answers, and finally, in 2019, they received them. Truck driver James Clanton was arrested and charged after investigators used genetic genealogy technology on DNA evidence found on Pruszynski's body and clothing to link Clanton to the crime. He pleaded guilty to rape and murder, and in July 2020, he was sentenced to life in prison.