Improvements in DNA techniques are opening up a world of possibilities for solving cold cases – and answering questions for relatives of missing people around the globe
Pioneering forensic techniques could unlock the identity of Britain’s most infamous serial killer… Jack the Ripper.
An agreement between a US forensic genealogy company and London’s King’s College could see the unveiling of the Victorian era’s most prolific serial killer thanks to extraordinary new crime cracking methods involving the use of tiny amounts of DNA. Funded by grants and crowdfunding, a 75-strong team at Othram, based in Texas, has been solving cases across the US for five years.
Their techniques have enabled them to name people after examining DNA from remains which have been unidentifiable for days, months or, in some cases, years. Even remains that have been chemically treated, burnt or immersed in liquid for years, have failed to confound them.
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With 250,000 unsolved homicides across the US each year and up to 75,000 sets of remains classed as ‘unidentified’, these new methods are truly groundbreaking. Othram’s experts combine advanced genetic sequencing techniques with proprietary algorithms. This is a unique way of comparing DNA data with samples uploaded to ancestry sites, to create highly accurate genetic profiles from the DNA fragments they receive.
Named after May 25 – International Missing Children’s Day, the company’s Project 52 – its passion project – aims to identify that same number of nameless children in the US within the next couple of years. Meanwhile, in the UK, top cop Peter Kirkham says their methods could help identify victims of gangland killings and could even reveal the identity of Jack the Ripper.
The ex-Metropolitan Detective Chief Inspector told The Mirror: “I think probably Jack the Ripper samples are still there from victims and impossible suspects, so there is scope for all manner of things really. Ever since DNA technology arrived on the scene, there’s always been a potential tension between using a sample to see if you can get a profile, and thereby destroying it because the sample you have is so small, or whether you leave it and come back to it when the technology has moved on, so you are more confident that you will get a result.
“There are loads and loads of cases that are going back more and more years where the DNA hasn’t been sampled or looked at for a variety of reasons – one of them being the amount of DNA you need for a sample. Now that we can conduct profiling from such small samples ,there will be cases that fall into those categories.”
Attempts to identify Jack the Ripper – the serial killer who murdered at least five women in the Whitechapel area of London in 1888 and was never caught – using DNA have taken place before. Back in 2019, examination of a stained silk shawl said to have been found next to the mutilated body of Catherine Eddowes, the Ripper’s fourth victim, was analysed by historian Russell Edwards, who identified Aaron Kosminski, a 23-year-old Polish barber and a prime police suspect at the time, as the killer.
And there could be scope to follow in the footsteps of the US experts, who have had incredible results, in their mission to identify the remains of missing children. One was Amore Wiggins, who was five years old when she was murdered.
When her skeletal remains were found scattered around a trailer park in 2011, while horrified investigators discovered the little girl had suffered multiple fractures and was severely malnourished before her death, they were unable to find out who she was. She became known as Baby or ‘Opelika’ Jane Doe after the location in Alabama, where her partial remains were discovered.
Then in 2022, 11 years after her discovery, the Opelika Police Department sent Othram a tiny fragment of DNA and by using groundbreaking technology, they built a comprehensive genealogical profile of her. Amore’s identity was discovered and by 2023, Lamar Vickerstaff, 50, had been identified as the youngster’s father. Her father is now awaiting trial for her murder.
Amore’s mother Sherry Wiggins, 37, was a teenager when she gave birth and, chillingly, after losing custody to her much older partner and his new lover in 2009, she had paid Vickerstaff child support for 11 years after Amore’s death. “Opelika Jane Doe’s bones were in a river bed, so they were really difficult to work with,” explained Othram’s chief development officer Kristen Mittelman.
“She looked to be a three to six year old child, with multiple fractures from different times. She was blind and her teeth were missing and she had been malnourished. We identified the father, who said he didn’t have a child. We then identified the mother, who had lost custody to the father, who was twice her age and had continued to pay child support every two weeks for 11 years after he had [allegedly] murdered her daughter.”
What horrified Kristen was how many of the children whose remains they have examined haven’t even been reported missing – often because of who has killed them. She said: “Usually, when a child is murdered, they’re murdered by someone they trust, someone who would be expected to report them missing.
“There’s a huge need for these children to get their voices back, not only because no one deserves to remain nameless forever, but because their attacker is still out there, often with access to other children and potentially they could strike again.”
Working with the remains of children who have been abused for prolonged periods is sadly not so unusual.
“We’ve had bodies come here that have so many broken bones, because they were abused over a two or three year period of their four year life,” said Kristen. “It’s devastating to see.”
Now the hope is that Othram’s technological discoveries could be used to help solve some criminal and missing person cases here.
Denise Syndercombe-Court, Professor of Forensic Genetics at King’s College, London, said: “We’ve had an agreement with Othram for some considerable time. We haven’t actually done any case work, but we’ve always planned to work together and we probably will in the future.”
The scope would be more limited here than in the US, as the UK already has a very powerful DNA database. She explained: “If you get a bit of DNA from a crime scene, you’ve got about a 65% chance of actually getting a name of somebody who is potentially associated with the scene and may, of course, be involved in the crime.
“That gives police a significant advantage over other countries who don’t have a powerful database like that. In the United States, they’re not so good at making sure their felons are on the national database. But there will be unsolved serious cases in the UK.
“What happens at the moment is they get reviewed every so often and the hope is somebody will come onto that database.”
But Prof Syndercombe-Court says that of the 20 or 30 cases put forward annually for familial searches, probably only 25 to 30% are resolved, and these would be the kind of cases that would benefit from this technology. She added: “We also have unidentified remains in the UK as in all countries and the technology could resolve questions for relatives.”
Back in the US, Project 525 has also helped identify Jimmy Allen Dollison, who was found on a roadside in Garnett, Kansas, in 1973 – a few weeks after he was murdered. The 16-year-old was wearing a brown corduroy jacket, brown hiking boots and a black leather belt with a large buckle.
Despite the identifying details on Jimmy’s body, including a ring with the number 78 and a silver chain with a large cross, plus the fact the teenager was reported missing by his family, he was only identified earlier this year when his DNA was sent to Othram, who found siblings he was related to. He had remained nameless for more than 50 years.
Another ‘last chance’ case solved by Project 525 concerns toddler Mary Sue Fink, whose remains were found in a barrel in Honolulu, Hawaii, in 2014. A decade later, police submitted Mary’s DNA fragments to Othram and she was successfully identified. Born in 1959, Mary is thought to have been aged between two and six years old when she died, with no further details yet known surrounding the reason for her death.
“There are so many cases that have touched my heart for so many reasons,” said Kristen. “Often you don’t have much evidence in these investigations, so you’re dealing with someone’s last chance to get justice for that family.
“These children would be erased from history without this technology. People need to know if they murder their children they’re going to get caught, it’s just a matter of time.
“There’s nothing you can do to the body to conceal it – they’ve worked remains that have been floating in an ocean for over 100 years, we’ve worked remains that were thrown in a sewage tank, remains that were exploded, burned and chemically treated. You can name it, we’ve done it and there’s nothing you can do to get away with it.”