A DJ's chewing gum helped crack a Pennsylvania murder cold case dating back to 1992, along with new Genetic sleuthing like the kind used recently in tracking down the Golden State Killer suspect in California.
On Monday the Lancaster County district attorney's office charged Raymond Rowe, 49, also known by his entertainment name DJ Freez, with criminal homicide in the death of Christy Mirack in her East Lampeter Township home on Dec. 21, 1992, ABC News reported.
Mirack, a school teacher, was 25 when she was found dead in her home – beaten, strangled and sexually assaulted.
District Attorney Craig Stedman agreed earlier this year to upload DNA recovered from the scene into a public genetic genealogy database, resulting in a match to a close relative close of Rowe, Lancaster Online reported.
While Rowe was DJ’ing at an elementary school event on May 31, undercover investigators retrieved chewing gum and a water bottle he discarded. Testing then reportedly found a match with the DNA from the decades-old crime scene.
Lancaster Online said Rowe was 24 at the time of Mirack's murder and living four miles from her home. He reportedly was never on the murder investigation's radar.
Stedman said he believed it was the first time the genealogy technology was used to solve a homicide investigation in Pennsylvania.
In April, using a similar process, Sacramento investigators were able to arrest Joseph James DeAngelo for brutal crimes tied to the Golden State Killer and East Area Rapist, the Sacramento Bee reported.
The method has raised concerns over privacy since genealogy websites used by many to trace their own ancestry, The Atlantic magazine reported.
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