True Crime
Chapter 6: DNA Leads to a Name
Excerpt: The Green Bay Northwoods Killings
Let’s go back to the beginning for a moment. Remember when I told you the investigators needed the killer to make a mistake?
Well it turns out, he did.
He allowed Ellen Matheys to put her shorts back on after he raped her. Some theorize he may have done it because he needed her attention to be on something else as he picked up his rifle to shoot her. If she knew she was about to die, she might scream. So he allowed her to put on her shorts while he retrieved his rifle, but it would be his undoing.
According to one forensic examiner, it helped preserve the biological material that led to the development of her killer’s DNA profile years later.
In the 90s, the authorities used the semen left in Ellen Matheys’ shorts to develop a DNA profile of their suspect. However, the DNA profile didn’t match anything in the FBI’s CODIS database. It was a dead end, until technology caught up with the evidence.
In a manner of investigation we’ve now seen in hundreds of cases, the investigators proceeded to establish a phenotype profile. With it, they could predict the killer’s physical traits. They were 93% sure the killer would have light skin and either blue or green eyes. They were able to tell with 99% certainty that he had reddish hair and at least some freckles. They were able to narrow their search.
Investigators then used Parabon Nanolabs to do forensic genealogy analysis and by December 2018, they were able to provide investigators with a family name…
Read the rest on my Substack newsletter:
The first six chapters are public and we’re about to start talking about the most intriguing part of this tale… whether our killer might be responsible for other unsolved rapes and murders.
