Episode 105 DOE: ID 'Mary Jane Doe' Tabetha Slain Murlin

In may, 1992, a construction worker renovating a home in Fort Wayne, Indiana made a gruesome discovery. In the flooded basement of the home, he discovered a woman's body wrapped in a blanket. Investigators were unable to determine an exact cause of death due to the condition of her remains, although they did make one important discovery; she was about 26 weeks pregnant when she died. Although police suspected foul play, they didn't have much in the way of leads to ID a suspect in her death, and they didn't even know who she was. Efforts to ID her came up empty, and she was laid to rest with the moniker 'Mary Jane Doe'.

Decades would pass before DNA & genealogy would finally provide some answers by late 2023; the dead woman was Tabetha Slain Murlin who was about 23 when she died. Her family had lost contact with her in the late 1980s, and although they tried to look for her over the next three decades, they had no luck, and presumed the worst.  Now, police know who Tabetha is, but if she met with foul play, they don't knew who it was at the hands of. They would also like to determine the identity of her baby's father, and perhaps genealogy will one day help them do that. 

Anyone with information on what led to Tabetha Murlin's death should reach out to authorities at 260-427-1201 for the Fort Wayne Police Detective Bureau; Fort Wayne CrimeStoppers at 260-436-7867; or report an anonymous tip using the P3Tips mobile app.

After more than three decades, 'Mary Jane Doe' finally has her name back; it's Tabetha Slain Murlin, and this is her story.

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Episode 104 Sherri And Megan Scherer And Genevieve Zitricki Part 2 Of 2

This is the Part 2 of the Scherer/Zitricki cases. If you have not listened to part 1 yet, stop now and listen to that part first.

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Episode 104 Sherri and Megan Scherer and Genevieve Zitricki Part 1 of 2

In 1998, an unthinkable crime rocked farm community Portageville, Missouri.  Sherri Scherer and her 12 year old daughter Megan were shot and killed, and Megan was sexually assaulted, in their own home in a 41 minute window of time.  A massive investigation into one of the state’s most heinous crimes ensued.  And soon, with the discovery of more and more crimes, the investigation would burgeon into a multi-state investigative effort to catch a killer.  Finally, forensic genealogy using DNA collected from an adolescent rape survivor provided answers to the questions that had haunted investigators and families in Missouri, Tennessee, and South Carolina.  But many fear that these crimes were just the tip of the iceberg for the monster that was Robert Brashers.

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Episode 103 Doe: ID 'New York Billy' Clarence Wilson 

In 1986, the body of a man was pulled from Crater Lake in Montgomery TX 40 miles North of Houston. It soon became clear to investigators that he was the victim of a homicide having been shot multiple times, and his body weighed down with cinder blocks. Due to the injuries the man had suffered along with the water exposure and decomposition, police were unable to ID the man. He did have a couple tattoos, but it was not enough to help police give him his name back.  Somehow, police came to believe that the dead man went by the street name "New York Billy' but they didn't have much else, and he was laid to rest; buried with little hope of him ever being identified, or his killer caught. Years later as DNA Science evolved, police exhumed the man's body and used genealogy to finally ID him after decades. It turned out that New York Billy was actually Clarence Wilson who would have been 34 years old when he was found. He was living in Texas after a falling out with family back in Modesto, CA. He was last known by his family to be alive in 1985. 

Now the police know who New York Billy is, but they don't know who killed him or why. That part of the mystery remains, but police are working hard to provide answers. 'New York Billy' finally has his name back; it's Clarence Wilson, and this is his story

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Episode 102 Jane Hylton 

Sometime between 10:30 p.m. and 3:30 a.m. on the night of July 6-7, 1985, someone entered the house she was staying at and stabbed Jane 54 year old Jane Hylton 29 times.  Police set their sights on the most likely suspect – another resident of the house, 20 year old Ricky Davis.  It was just too far-fetched to believe that someone else random had come along and killed Jane, and Ricky was arrested, tried, convicted, and sent to prison.  But when the Northern California Innocence Project took up his case, they found untested DNA evidence. And this evidence would change everything.  Forensic genealogy showed that Ricky was innocent – and someone else entirely was to blame for Jane’s vicious murder. 

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Episode 101 DOE: ID 'Valentine Sally' Carolyn Eaton 

On Valentine's Day, February 14th, 1982, the body of a young woman was discovered by a worker along interstate 40 in Williams, Arizona. It became clear quickly to investigators that she had been murdered, and her body dragged out of sight of the road.  She was given the moniker 'Valentine Sally' An autopsy revealed that she had died from suffocation or asphyxiation. One potential clue found by the ME, was that Valentine Sally had recently had a tooth drilled in preparation for a root canal, and baby aspirin remnants were found packed into the open hole in her gum.Police were able to find multiple witnesses that they were confident had interacted with Valentine Sally in the days before she was killed. One of them gave her a ride and recalled her talking about a toothache. The other witness, a truck stop waitress, was the one who provided Valentine Sally with the baby aspirin for her gum. This waitress was able to describe an older man in a cowboy hat who was with Valentine Sally, and a sketch was made of him

 Police sifted through hundreds of missing persons cases to ID Valentine Sally. They came to believe that she was Melody Cutlip; a runaway from Florida who left home in 1980. Despite Melody's mother saying that Valentine Sally was not her daughter, officials buried her and marked her headstone with the name Melody Cutlip, and closed her case. The case was thrown for a loop, when the real Melody Cutlip showed up alive and well. Police were back to square one with not much to go on. 

Decades later, genealogy would provide detectives with Valentine Sally's real name; it was Carolyn Eaton who had run away from her Missouri home following an argument with her mom, over the holidays in late 1981, or close to New Year's 1982. Now police know who Valentine Sally really is, but they don't know who killed her. It seems likely that they have his DNA, and they also have the sketch of the man last seen with Carolyn. Time will tell if it's enough to close her case once and for all. 

After four decades, Valentine Sally finally has her name back, it's Carolyn Eaton, and this is her story. 

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Episode 100 Cathy Sposito Part 2 of 2

This is the second part of episode 100; Cathy Sposito. If you have not listened to part 1 yet, stop now and go back and listen to that part first.

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Episode 100 Cathy Sposito Part 1 of 2

In April 1987, Cathy Sposito was brutally killed on a popular, scenic hiking trail in broad daylight in Prescott Arizona.  Despite multiple earwitnesses to her murder, her killer eluded police.  A massive investigation turned up two prime suspects, but there was no smoking gun.  Then, a 1990 sexual assault on the same trail mirrored the MO, and again, the killer escaped.  This time, the survivor was able to describe her attacker, but his identity remained unknown. The two crimes were linked only theoretically until DNA evidence connected them, and tied them to the same man.  And that man was given a name by forensic genealogy, which solved the two cases at once. 

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Episode 99 Doe ID 'Bones 17' Lori Anne Razpotnik

On December 30, 1985 Auburn city employees  25 miles south of Seattle, Washington were investigating a car that had gone over an embankment. While surveying the area, they made a startling discovery; two sets of human remains. The remains, which turned out to be those of two young women, could not be identified at the time and were named Bones 16 and Bones 17. For investigators, it became clear that the remains were quite possibly victims of The Green River Killer who was responsible for the murders of potentially dozens of sex workers in the Seattle area. 

Eventually, The Green River Killer was caught and identified as Gary Ridgway, and though he was more than willing to talk about his crimes with investigators, he couldn't ID all of his victims, so for years some of them remained un-named; including the victim referred to as 'Bones 17'. Eventually genealogy would reveal that Bones 17 was actually Lori Anne Razpotnik; who had run away from home as a teenager in Lewis County, Washington in 1982. Lori had called home over the Thanksgiving holiday to tell her family she was okay and living in Seattle, but they never heard from her again, and were left to wonder what happened to her. Sadly, she crossed paths with Gary Ridgway. After nearly four decades, 'Bones 17' has her name back; it's Lori Anne Razpotnik, and this is her story. 

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Episode 98 Krista Martin

In October 1989, Krista Martin was found bludgeoned and raped in her apartment in Wichita, Kansas.  Krista was a very social young woman with lots of friends and quite a bit of drama in her life – none of which led to her murder.  Police investigated thoroughly, but were stumped for years.  Krista’s case went cold until the WPD reopened it in 2020 with a focus on the DNA evidence.  Like most of DNA: ID’s cases, this case never would have been solved without forensic genealogy – but in this case, the genealogical analysis uncovered a misattributed parentage event, and left one family relieved and thankful to have answers, and one family in complete denial and anger. We still don’t know what happened between Krista and Paul Hart on that day in 1989. But we do know the he lived just six houses away from Krista, and that he killed her.

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Episode 97 Doe ID: Ada Fritz

In May, 1976,  a group of boys fishing along Sessions Creek in Grand Bay, Alabama when they found what appeared to be a mannequin in the water. Closer examination told them that it was the dead body of an older woman, and they ran to get help. Police retrieved the dead woman from the water and found that she had been shot in the head. She carried no ID, and her hands and dentures were missing. Police were not able to match her to any specific women that were missing and she was cremated and her ashes place into a mass grave. That might have been the end of ever finding out who the dead woman was had it not been for a crucial piece of luck and old evidence from the case that was re-examined. Police eventually were able to get a DNA profile from the dead woman, and genealogy determined that she was Ada Fritz who seemed to drop from sight not long before her body was found. While police couldn't prove who killed her, they had a good guess. They believed that a Mississippi man named Henderson James Williams was responsible. In 1994 he had been convicted of killing his mother, whose body was found in water off Hall Road in Grand Bay. The details of both crimes were very similar. Although police have yet to prove Henderson Williams is responsible for Ada's death, they were happy to give her her name back. It's Ada Fritz, and this is her story.