Using Genetic Genealogy: Cold Case Review of April Tinsley Homicide

Registration deadline: 01/10/20

Det. Martin will give a case brief of the 1988 abduction, rape and murder of 8 year old April Tinsley.  This was a high profile cold case homicide that placed the Fort Wayne, Indiana community in fear for 30 years.  The killer continued to taunt the community and law enforcement, leaving hand written notes on a barn in 1990.  He also left four threatening letters containing used condoms and polaroid pictures of the half-naked suspect on the bicycles and homes of four girls, ages 7-8.  The killer demanded media attention, bragged about killing April Tinsley and vowed to rape and kill again.

Det. Martin will discuss how detectives never gave up hope in catching the killer.  Detectives had over 1,300 persons of interest over the 30 years and narrowed the list to approximately 150 possible suspects.  He will discuss how GENETIC GENEAOLGY and Parabon Nano labs assisted in breaking the case wide open, leading to the arrest of John D. Miller in less than two months.  John D. Miller was interviewed and gave a full confession to the crime, along with grizzly details.  John D. Miller accepted a plea agreement and was sentenced to 80 years in prison.

Attendees will:
•    Learn how we contracted with Parabon Nanolabs to do Genetic Genealogy testing
•    How to use the results from Genetic Genealogy test, lead information
•    The possibility of having to track down and interview family members identified in the family tree of a possible suspect, consent to search for Buccal swab or covert trash/item pull
•    Working with Prosecutor’s office
•    The need to get a Search Warrant for the suspect standard or Consent to confirm suspect DNA for criminal prosecution
•    Criminal prosecution of Suspect

Detective Martin has been a police officer for 25 years, the last 7 as a lead homicide detective.  The last two years have been spent as the lead cold case detective with the Fort Wayne Police Department.  Detective Martin has been a member of the F.B.I. Northeast Indiana Bank Robbery Task Force for the past 7 years as well.

Prior to his current assignment in the Homicide Division, he worked undercover narcotics for approximately 10 years.  He also helped for the Clandestine Laboratory team and led this team for two years.  Detective Martin has been a member of the Fort Wayne Police Department Emergency Services Team for the past 17 years, serving several years as an Assistant Squad Leader.  Detective Martin has also worked temporary duty assignments with the F.B.I. Safe Streets Task Force, with a focus on narcotics and violent street gangs.  Detective Martin has a Bachelor Degree in Criminal Justice from Indiana State University.

Det. Martin has also been featured on 60 Minutes, CNBC, The History Channel, The BBC, and just completed a documentary for a new ABC documentary “DNA Detectives” which is set to air January of 2020.  Case investigators have just received the Honorable Mention for the TOP COPS Awards.

SNAPSHOT GENETIC GENEALOGY

Genetic Genealogy (GG) is the combination of genetic analysis with traditional historical and genealogical research to study family history.  For forensic investigations, it can be used to identify remains by tying the DNA to a family with a missing person or to point to the likely identify of a perpetrator.

By comparing a DNA sample to a database of DNA from volunteer participants, it is possible to determine whether there are any relatives of the DNA sample in the database and how closely related they are (See Snapshot Kinship Inference for more details).  This information can then be cross-referenced with other data sources used in traditional genealogical research, such as census records, vital records, obituaries and newspaper archives.

Why Use Genetic Genealogy?
Genetic genealogy gives you a powerful new tool to generate leads on unknown suspects,  when a genetic genealogy search yields useful related matches to an unknown DNA sample, it can narrow down a suspect list to a region, a family, or even an individual.  Paired with Snapshot DNA Phenotyping to further reduce to list of possible matches, there is no more powerful identification method besides a direct DNA comparison.  Identity can then be confirmed using traditional STR analysis.

How Does This Technique Differ From Familial Searches in the CODIS Database?
Our genetic genealogy service is somewhat list familial search, but it differed in three vary important ways:  (1) we only search public genetic genealogy databases, not government-owned criminal (STR profile) databases, such as CODIS; (2) because the DNA SNP profiles we generate contain vastly more information than traditional STR profiles, genetic relatedness can be detected as a far greater distance (see Snapshot Kinship Inference); and (3) because genetic genealogy matches can be cross-referenced by name with traditional genealogy sources, such as Ancestry.com, existing family trees can be used to expedite tree-building and case-solving.  This technology and our innovative techniques combine to create a groundbreaking system for forensic human identification.

This course has been certified by the ILETSB and approved to meet the following mandates:
    ☐    Civil Rights            
    ☒    Constitutional & Proper Use of Law Enforcement Authority    
    ☐    Cultural Competency        
    ☐    Human Rights
    ☐    Intro Mental Health Awareness    
    ☐    Law Updates
    ☒    Lead Homicide Investigator        
    ☐    Use of Force (must include scenario based/similar training)
    ☐    Procedural Justice            
    ☐    Sexual Assault Investigator Training
    ☐    Psychology of Domestic Violence    
    ☐    Sexual Assault Trauma Informed Response

THIS IS NOT A PUBLIC MEETING