Portland Cold Case Solved 40 Years Later Using Public DNA Database
Portland detectives solve the 1979 murder of Anna Marie Hlavka by using genetic genealogy to cross-reference suspect DNA with public profiles on GEDmatch. The investigation reveals the killer as Jerry Walter McFadden, a convicted murderer already executed in Texas in 1999.
Portland detectives announce the resolution of a 40-year-old murder case involving 20-year-old Anna Marie Hlavka. Investigators reopen the 1979 cold case using innovative genetic genealogy techniques that gained fame during the Golden State Killer investigation. The police team partners with Parabon NanoLabs to cross-reference the unknown suspect's DNA against public ancestry profiles.
Parabon Chief Genetic Genealogist CeCe Moore explains that her team uploads DNA samples to the free database GEDmatch to identify distant relatives of the suspect. The researchers then build extensive family trees to reverse engineer the unknown suspect's lineage. Since launching this service, Parabon successfully identifies 33 individuals for law enforcement agencies across various active and cold investigations.
This forensic genealogy approach leads detectives to Jerry Walter McFadden, a man born in 1948 who lived in Texas. Because Texas executed McFadden for a different murder in 1999, his DNA profile never enters the FBI's CODIS database, making traditional matching impossible. Portland detectives travel to Texas to interview McFadden's family members and obtain a confirmatory DNA sample to close the case.