Three Cold Case Murders Solved After Decades Using DNA Advancements

The murder of Fawn Cox remained a mystery for more than 30 years through the use of DNA technology but the person who killed her was the last person the family would have thought of. Photo courtesy of MSN.

Every day murders go unsolved. The families of the people who have innocently been sexually assaulted, kidnapped, and violently murdered wait for justice, sometimes for decades, with many perpetrators going on to commit even more brutal murders.

According to the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), there are currently over 250,000 unsolved murders, increasing by approximately 6,000 unsolved homicides annually. This leads to growing caseloads for law enforcement, draining resources, and makes it difficult for law enforcement agencies with limited budgets.

However, in recent years, the families of unsolved murder victims have seen a glimmer of hope with the use of advanced DNA technology used to solved decades-old cases.

Law enforcement agencies throughout the country work with laboratories that specialize in genetic matches between DNA collected at the crime scene and DNA that has been entered into genetic genealogy sites and federal databases.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Combined DNA Index System is a collection of databases containing DNA profiles collected from samples from unsolved murders and other crimes, and DNA collected from offenders convicted of particular crimes.