Show Notes
Each investigator has that one case that haunts them, the one that just won’t budge. For Detective Tim Horne, the Billboard Boy was that case. He was just a young crime scene tech when the skeletal remains of a little boy were found beneath a billboard in his jurisdiction. With no leads, the unsolved murder turned into a cold case. But Horne kept the case in a box beneath his desk where he would literally bump into it for the next 25 years. It was a daily reminder that he needed to solve it. The unidentified remains couldn’t stay unidentified forever. When the clock starts ticking down to his retirement, he knows it’s now or never. Horne is determined to make something happen. That’s when he turns to forensic genealogy, and the research of Barbara Rae-Venter. Famous for her work on the Golden State Killer and Bear Brook cases, Rae-Venter uses DNA profiling to provide a single piece of information that could help Horne solve the case. But can he do it before time runs out?
More from What Remains
The events that took place in Chester County, Pennsylvania in August 1978 were unthinkable. Family killing family. A father calling for the murder of his own son. For years The Johnston Gang got away with everything—theft, burglary, violence—until the brazen attacks of August 1978 crossed a line, and the family crime empire began to crumble. Host and writer Amanda Lamb shares her own memories of the murders and the trials that followed. Her father was the lead prosecutor who helped bring the killers to justice. A fictional account of The Johnston Gang’s downfall was portrayed in the 1986 movie “At Close Range,” but this is the real story of a violent family crime operation and the long task of bringing its leaders to justice.
Indigenous woman are ten times more likely to be murdered than the rest of the population in some parts of the US. More than 4 in 5 indigenous women experience violence in their lifetime. These are simple facts, facts that Brittany Hunt and Chelsea Locklear who are members of the Lumbee Tribe are trying to understand. They started “The Red Justice Project” podcast to shed light on these cases. In this episode, they share their insights on why they believe indigenous women are more often murdered and the cases are rarely solved. We also dive into the case of an indigenous woman whose skeletal remains were found in a storage unit in Durham, North Carolina in 2016, but were not identified for five years. Find episodes of The Red Justice Project here https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-red-justice-project/id1529944821
Carla Davis isn’t your typical American living the good life in Dubai. While we sleep, she teases the knots out of stubborn cold cases as a self-taught forensic genealogist. But she doesn’t just give her time and talent, she opens her wallet. Carla has become one of our country’s leading cold case philanthropists, a group of people who are changing the outcomes of many of these cases by helping pay for DNA testing. In this episode Carla shares why she’s committed to forensic DNA analysis and takes us on a journey from solving her own family mystery to solving one of the most stubborn, high-profile cold cases in recent history.
17-year-old Brittanee Drexel went against her mother’s orders and traveled from New York to Myrtle Beach for spring break 2009. She disappeared on a crowded street and was never seen again. Thirteen years later, there is a break in the case when a tipster leads investigators to a killer. In a hand-dug grave outside of town they make a gruesome discovery. In this episode, the long search for Brittanee and justice on her behalf. Complete transcript available at https://www.whatremainspodcast.com.
Two men, with no connection, were both found dead in rural Chatham County, North Carolina more than forty years ago. To complicate matters, one man’s head and hands were removed to prevent his identification. Both cases had been cold for years, until the magic of modern-day DNA testing and a forensic genealogist got involved. In this episode, we share the story of a grieving and confused family who takes us on their journey from shock to heartbreak and finally acceptance. We also introduce you to lab in Texas that uses cutting edge technology to extract usable samples from degraded DNA. Full transcript available at https://www.whatremainspodcast.com.