Huntington Beach Forensic Genealogist Traces Cold-Case Killer's DNA Back to The Mayflower
Categories: Crime-iny
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That's not Mayflower as in the popular nationwide moving company of today but Mayflower as in the wooden boat that left England with the pilgrims who arrived near what would become Plymouth, Massachusetts, in the 1620s.
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| Sarah Yarborough, R.I.P. |
After Detective Jim Allen joined the sheriff's cold-case team last November, a scientist from the state's crime lab suggested he contact Colleen Fitzpatrick, whose background is in nuclear physics although she is now a forensic genealogist, meaning she uses DNA profiles to find relatives or track people down. Her freezer at Identifinders International in Huntington Beach even contains DNA from a cousin of Amelia Earhart's navigator just in case the pair's suspected remains are ever found.
Fitzpatrick determined that the murder suspect's DNA strongly matches a profile that was created for the family of Robert Fuller, who came to America in 1630 and is related to three passengers who were aboard the earlier arriving Mayflower: Edward Fuller, Edward's brother Samuel Fuller and Samuel's 12-year-old son. Fitzpatrick followed the Y chromosome--the male line of the family--so she believes the murder suspect may still have the last name Fuller.
"Our first thought was, 'What are we going to do with that?'" Allen told the Associated Press. "But maybe that'll be the extra tidbit that will generate that one phone call, that one tip we need to help solve the case."
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