How genetic genealogy helped find Christine Jessop's killer
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It’s a revolutionary new tool for solving cold cases.
It’s called genetic genealogy, and it allows police to develop profiles of suspects using DNA databases to generate leads in tough cases.
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How genetic genealogy helped find Christine Jessop's killer Back to video
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That’s how Toronto Police managed to shake loose a lead in the murder of Christine Jessop 36 years ago, which resulted in investigators determining Calvin Hoover murdered the girl.
“Genetic genealogy is not evidence,” said Staff-Supt. Peter Code.
“We use it as an investigative tool, a technique to give us potential persons of interest.”
Here’s how investigators linked Hoover to the crime.
Last fall, investigators reached out to Texas-based Othram — a genetic laboratory that works exclusively with law enforcement to provide leads and identify subjects through DNA.
“We build a genealogical profile, depending on the investigative leads,” Othram CEO David Mittelman said.
“It’s an iterative process. It’s not a vending machine. We’re basically a support team for the cold case squad, and as they need information, we mine the data we have to try and produce information.”
In this case, detectives worked with Othram — using information submitted to the GEDmatch database — to develop two family trees.
From three, Code said, they were able to narrow down their focus to Hoover.
“Simply put, (genetic genealogy is) not a DNA match,” Code said.
“It provides a potential family lineage from a DNA sample.”
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From there, investigative work narrowed a list of persons of interest down to one name.
“Calvin Hoover, upon review of the investigative file, is a name that we know had a connection to the Jessop family,” Code said.
As investigators tracked down Hoover’s whereabouts, they discovered he committed suicide in 2015.
An autopsy was performed at the Centre of Forensic Sciences in Downsview, and investigators discovered a sample of his DNA was kept on file, which matched the semen left in Christine’s panties 36 years ago.
GEDmatch, a database of over 1.2 million DNA profiles, has been used to solve a number of high-profile murders in the U.S.
Joseph James DeAngelo, the so-called Golden State Killer, was identified in 2018 using GEDmatch data.
Commercial genealogy firms like 23andMe and Ancestry.com do not permit law enforcement access to their databases.
While this wasn’t the first Canadian case Othram has participated on, it’s the first one where their work has been made public.
“This is technology that has not been available before,” Mittelman said.
“The real innovation is being able to lift information from such an old piece of evidence.
“It’s amazing.”
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