Using Forensic Genetic Genealogy to Catch a Serial Offender

25-year-old Navy Recruit, Pamela Cahanes, was found dead on Aug. 5, 1984. She was naked except for a pair of white underwear. A decade later, further testing on the underwear revealed semen, which investigators used to develop a DNA profile of the suspect. However, the murder remained unsolved.

By 2018, investigators had the technology for Forensic Genetic Genealogy. They were able to build a “family tree” from the suspect’s profile, leading them to Thomas Garner, whose DNA which matched the semen found on Cahanes’ underwear. Garner has also now been linked to the 1982 killing of Kathy Hicks in Hawaii, who was found beaten and strangled near a ravine. 

In this webinar are joined by Jennifer Spears, Detective at the Seminole County Sheriff's Office, who personally worked on this case for 11 years prior to it being solved. Jennifer will discuss the unique investigative strategies used throughout this case and how they turned to Forensic Genetic Genealogy to solve it.

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