Tracey Hobson

In December 2019, the DNA Doe Project announced a tentative match for this victim. On January 7, 2020, the Barron County Sheriff's Department and the DNA Doe Project announced that, via matches with familial DNA samples, the victim was confirmed to be Kraig Patrick King (b. 1961), of White Bear Lake, Minnesota. King was last seen alive in fall 1981, and law enforcement believe he was murdered in April or May 1982. Investigation of his homicide is ongoing.

On January 14, 2020, after several unsuccessful attempts to create a usable file, it was announced that a match to Sue Ann Huskey was confirmed. Huskey was seventeen at the time of her murder and was originally from Sulphur Springs, Texas. The match was made possible after the International Commission on Missing Persons was able to extract DNA from dental and bone remains, after decades of attempts by national laboratories.

It was announced on January 30, 2020 that the victim was identified as 21-year-old Tamara Lee Tigard, last known to reside in Las Vegas, Nevada.

However In May 2019, GEDmatch required people who had uploaded their DNA to its site to specifically opt in to allow law enforcement agencies to access their information. This change in privacy policy was forecast to make it much more difficult in future for law enforcement agencies to solve cold cases using genetic genealogy.

In May 2019 the Washoe County Sheriff's Office announced that Washoe County Jane Doe is 33-year-old Mary Edith Silvani. She was born in Pontiac, Michigan, and grew up in the Detroit area. She later moved to California as an adult.

The DNA Doe Project took the case in 2018. In January, the organization announced a tentative identification in the case, which would not be released until the suspect's trial concluded. Despite this, Dodd's identity was released on February 11, 2019. She was 21 and last seen in Jacksonville, Florida. Joseph Wayne Burnette, a long term person of interest in the case confessed to the murder in August 2018, leading him to be charged with her death (and that of another female, 28 year old Felisha Pearson).

In June 2019 the victim had been identified. She was 23 at the time of her death in May 2006. She was originally from Minden, Louisiana. She was separated from her husband, with whom she had two young children.

On September 11, 2019, Grate pleaded guilty to her murder and was sentenced to life in prison without parole plus 16 years.

The DNA Doe Project took on the case in 2018. On August 6, 2019, Orange Socks was identified as 23-year-old Debra Jackson, who was from Abilene, Texas.

The victim was identified in December 2019 as Michelle Evon Carnall-Burton, aged 22 at the time of her murder. She had disappeared from Cherryvale, also south-east Kansas in 1986, and had lost contact with her family.

In March 2018 the DNA Doe Project announced it had solved its first case, known for decades as the "Buckskin Girl." They identified her as Marcia Lenore Sossoman (King). Her father had died in 2018 a few months before the identification was made, but other family members gathered to commemorate Marcia Sossoman (King) when they unveiled a new gravestone bearing her name at her grave in Riverside Cemetery, Miami County, Ohio.

In 2018, the DNA Doe Project took the case at the request of the County Sheriff's Office. In order to raise the funds required to complete the necessary DNA analysis, the DDP set up its first-ever "Doe Fund Me" campaign on behalf of the victim. The campaign was a quick success, as by this time "Stevik" had gained Internet fame among web sleuths. Adequate funds were raised within 24 hours. By 22 March 2018, DDP volunteers had obtained his DNA results and began analyzing through GEDmatch and related genetic genealogy research.

Chandler became the first case for the DDP. They analyzed the autosomal DNA of the highly degraded sample of the man's DNA, which had been stored in paraffin for about 15 years. Despite the obstacles, and after over 2,500 hours of work, the DDP researchers were able to conclusively determine in June 2018 that Joseph Newton Chandler III, was Robert Ivan Nichols, son of Silas and Alpha Nichols of New Albany, Indiana. This identification was verified when Robert's son, Phillip Nichols, volunteered a DNA sample, which proved to be a match.

In July 2018 it was announced that she had been tentatively identified through genetic genealogy by the DNA Doe Project. In September 2018 her identity was confirmed by the Washoe County Sheriff's Office. However the Sheriff's Office withheld further information due to its ongoing homicide investigation.

In 2018 the DNA Doe Project took on his case and was able to identify him that year. His family requested that his identity be withheld for privacy.

In 2018, the identity of Anaheim Jane Doe was established by the DNA Doe Project, although due to the fact the case was an ongoing homicide investigation, her identity was not released to the media until January 2019. The decedent was 20-year-old resident of Anaheim named Tracey Coreen Hobson.

She was reported as wearing a New Zealand-made bra. DNA links were established with New Zealand and Sussex in the United Kingdom by the DNA Doe Project in 2018.

The DNA Doe Project began work on the case in 2018 and through collaboration with NCMEC and NamUs, "Annie Doe" was identified as 16 year old Anne Marie Lehman in March 2019, who was coincidentally known by the nickname "Annie" when alive.

The victim was believed between 30 and 60 years old at the time of her death and her body bore signs of arthritis in her back. She was about 5 feet 3 inches in height and weighed between 130 and 150 pounds. She had prominent front teeth and cheekbones, and wore multiple layers of clothing. In her possession were a Greyhound Bus ticket and a distinctive coin. In 2018 her autosomal DNA was analyzed by the DNA Doe Project, and distant relatives were identified in Cabell County, West Virginia. In July 2019, the decedent was identified as Louise Virginia Peterson Flesher. Flesher was born 1915 (about 65 when she died), was native to West Virginia and the mother of three children. She had also resided in Wyoming prior to her death. This case took 14 months and was particularly hard to solve because there was endogamy in her ancestors (the practice of marrying within a specific social group, caste or ethnic group). Volunteer researchers eventually constructed a family tree of 43,130 people before they identified her.

DNA Doe Project (AKA DNA Doe Project, Inc. or DDP) is an American non-profit volunteer organization formed to identify unidentified deceased persons (commonly known as John Doe or Jane Doe) using forensic genealogy. Volunteers identify victims of automobile accidents, homicide, and unusual circumstances, and persons who committed suicide under an alias. The group was founded in 2017 by Colleen Fitzpatrick and Margaret Press.

In 2017 Fitzpatrick, Press and a small group of volunteers formed the volunteer-based, nonprofit DNA Doe Project (DDP) a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization based in Sebastopol, California. The two, along with many volunteers, use genetic and traditional genealogy sources in conjunction with DNA from unidentified victims and working with local law enforcement agencies to build family trees through GEDmatch, a free public DNA database. Through this process, they have been able to identify some persons in cold cases.

At the 2017 American Academy of Forensic Sciences conference, Elizabeth Murray, an Ohio forensic anthropologist, met Colleen Fitzpatrick and Margaret Press, founders of the DNA Doe Project, who discussed what genetic genealogy techniques could do for this case. The victim's body had long since been buried, but a vial of blood had been held in a lab for 37 years. The vial had not been refrigerated, however, resulting in the DNA becoming highly degraded, with only 50–75% of markers remaining. With the help of Greg Magoon, a senior researcher at Aerodyne Research, they were able to upload this DNA data to GEDmatch.

In September 2016, authorities announced the possibility that this decedent was a victim of alleged serial killer Shawn Grate, who claimed he had killed this victim after encountering her selling magazines door-to-door. Grate has stated he believes the decedent's name may have been Dana. She was also called "Vicky" by investigators, as she was discovered near Victory Road. In January 2018, the results of isotope analysis conducted upon her remains indicated she likely originated from the southern United States, possibly Texas or Florida. In 2019, Police asked the DNA Doe Project to help identify the body.

On November 13, 2016, a male torso was found in the Illinois River in Schuyler County, and a skull was later found on June 12, 2017, in Kingston Mines. The remains were named the Peoria County John Doe. According to the Peoria County Coroner, the decedent died from blunt force trauma to the head. On January 27, 2020, the remains were identified as 56-year-old John H. Frisch. Frisch was not reported missing, but used addresses in Peoria and Hawaii throughout his life, according to Peoria County Sheriff's Office. Investigators are retracing Frisch's days prior to his body being found. Mr. Frisch's parents are deceased, and he has very limited family in the area.

Margaret Press is a novelist who has also had careers in computer programming, speech, and language consulting. She retired from computer programming in 2015 and relocated from Salem, Massachusetts to Sebastopol, California to live near family. As a hobby, Press had begun working in genetic genealogy in 2007, helping friends and acquaintances find relatives, as well as helping adoptees find their biological parents. After reading Sue Grafton's novel "Q" Is for Quarry, about a Jane Doe, Press hoped to use genetic genealogy to also identify unidentified homicide victims.

On March 7, 2015, skeletal remains of a white female were located near Tylersville Road in West Chester, Butler County, Ohio. The decedent was examined and estimated to be between 35 and 60 years old at the time of her death, which occurred as early as the fall of 2014. She had unique dental work, including implants. Her DNA did not match any profiles in national databases. In March 2019 she was identified as Darlene Wilson Norcross. The cause, time and manner of her death are still undetermined.

On January 11, 2015, the decomposed remains of a man were found in a shed in Mill Creek, Washington. It appeared as though the man, who is called Mill Creek Shed Man, had been living in the shed. He is thought to have died about a year before he was found, but it could have been longer. The man appeared to be between 50 and 65 years old, about 5’11” (some reports state 5’9,” some state 6’1”), and African American. The pinky finger on his right hand was missing. Other findings were a “prominent sternal fissure, healed nasal fracture, lumbar scoliosis, and arthritis.” No cause of death could be ascertained, and there were no signs of foul play. The following information is not confirmed, although it can be found online. There is “local lore” that states that our John Doe had permission to live in the shed from a man who once owned the property on which it was located. A man named Jerry Diggs/Deggs lived on the property where our John Doe was found, but there is no proof he and Mill Creek Shed Man are the same person. Jerry apparently gave his birth date as 12/31/1949. He claimed to be from the East Coast and to have worked as a security guard for a bank. He stated that he was struck in the head during a bank robbery and received a head injury. On September 26, 2019 the DNA Doe Project (DDP) proudly announced the successful identification of Mill Creek Shed Man. His name was being withheld by officials at the time. Snohomish County Medical Examiner's Office (SCMEO) confirmed the identity on September 2, 2019 by comparing the deceased DNA with DNA submitted by the man's sister, whose name was provided by DDP on August 6, 2019. In December his name was released 65-year-old Nathaniel Terrance “Terry” Deggs, originally from Baltimore, Maryland and later The Bronx, New York.

A man aged 40 to 46 was discovered in a hotel room, after having died on May 2, 2014, from what were determined to be natural causes. He registered under the name "Alfred Jake Fuller" and provided a birth date of November 8, 1970. No records were found to match this information, leading investigators to speculate he used an alias. The man was estimated to be 5'10," at a weight of 255 pounds. He wore a short goatee and had curly brown hair. A blue "discoloration was on the left side of his face and a large nevus was in between his shoulders. His personal items included a prepaid Visa card and a "fugitive recovery agent" document. He was fully clothed and wore two pieces of jewelry on his neck.

On March 10, 2007, the remains of an unknown female were discovered in a wooded area of Marion County, Ohio. She was aged between 15 and 24 and had died between 2002 and 2006, most likely within the two years prior to her discovery. She was between five feet three to five feet nine inches tall and had brown, straight hair. No clothing or personal effects were found with her body, which was completely skeletonized.

On October 29, 2006, the badly burned body of a female aged 17 to 25 was discovered in Kilgore, Texas. The victim's cause of death remained undetermined, yet the manner of death was ruled a homicide due to the fact that the body was set on fire deliberately and the victim had been raped.

On April 21, 2004, a woman's skeletal remains were found rolled up in a carpet in Phoenix, Arizona. In February 2020, she was identified as Ginger Lynn Bibb.

In September 2001, a man was found to have hanged himself in a motel in Amanda Park, Washington, a town on the Olympic Peninsula. The man had checked in as "Lyle Stevik," which appeared to be an alias. This name appeared drawn from "Lyle Stevick", a character in a Joyce Carol Oates's novel You Must Remember This (1987).

Extracting DNA proved difficult, as the victim's remains had been cremated. In the year 2000, however, two years before his death, the victim had had a tissue sample taken for a medical treatment. Authorities obtained this sample, but genetic analysis of the sample using traditional law enforcement techniques yielded few clues. In 2016, authorities reached out to IdentiFinders, a company run by Colleen Fitzpatrick, for help. In examining the man's Y-DNA signature, they determined that his true last name was likely "Nicholas" or some variation.

Bertha Alicia Holguín Barroterán's body was discovered in Phoenix, Arizona in October 1997. She was identified after relatives in New Mexico found out about the case due to greater media exposure.

On September 25, 1989, the remains of a female thought to be 18–24 were located in Williamson County, Texas along Interstate 35. She was about 5'2" tall at a weight between 110 and 120 pounds. Her ears were pierced, but only one earring was recovered. The victim also wore a necklace containing a white bead in the center, surrounded by two gold-colored beads on either side. She wore a white shirt with the words "Cinco De Corona" with the bottom cut into fringe, leading to her nickname, black pants a shirt cut into a bra with the words "American Legends" bearing a Native American design. She wore bikini panties and no shoes. The victim was shot to death.

Marcia Bateman's remains were discovered by a hunter not far from the intersection of I-196 and County Road 378 in Van Buren County, Michigan on Oct. 12, 1988. Nearly two months had passed since the 28-year-old was reported missing by her family in Oklahoma. While police in Oklahoma City were actively searching for Bateman, Michigan State Police Detective Sgt. Scott Ernestes said, a connection was never drawn between the remains in Michigan and the missing woman. She was finally identified in November 2019. While Bateman's death is ruled suspicious, Ernestes said there are no suspects.

The extensively decomposed remains of a young female were found at the side of a freeway in the Santa Ana Canyon in Anaheim, California, on August 30, 1987. The victim's body had almost completely skeletonized at the time of discovery, although some fragments of soft tissue were still present upon the remains. The victim—originally called "Anaheim Jane Doe" and also known as Jane Doe 87-04092 EL—was a slender young woman who had medium-length light hair, estimated to have been between 15 and 19 years old when she died, and was speculated to have been a teenage runaway. Her hands had been cut off by her killer or killers, likely as a way to prevent identification via fingerprinting.

At the crime scene, enough hair was found upon and near the body to determine that the decedent had either blond or light-brown hair, although no personal belongings beyond a red handkerchief were discovered with her remains. Her skull was forensically reconstructed by Shannon Collis in hopes of identifying the body, determining the decedent also had high cheekbones. One of her front teeth was slightly chipped, while three of her other teeth had visible cavities, and six molars were missing. She was estimated to be between five feet one to five feet four inches in height. It is believed that the victim had died approximately six weeks before her body was discovered, meaning she likely died in July 1987. She may possibly have died by repeated stab wounds to her chest area, as incisive damage to two of her ribs suggested. Therefore, her death was ruled as a definite homicide.

On September 21, 1987, the body of a woman was found in Marion County, Kansas. She had been bound at the hands and ankles, indicating she died from foul play. The victim was at least 16 years old, but most likely between twenty and thirty-five years old. Her remains were located behind hay bales and hedges at the side of a road and may have been there for months. A tattoo of a cross was located on her shoulder, although most of her body was skeletonized. She was between five feet six inches and five feet eight inches tall and had brown, four-inch-long hair. She was found with healed fractures on her ribs, indicating she had been in some sort of accident months before she died. In 2018 police asked the DNA Doe Project to help identify her.

The body of a woman aged between 25 and 35 years was found by hikers on July 17, 1982 in Sheep Flats, Washoe County, Nevada. The woman had been shot in the back of the head as she was bending over, possibly to tie her shoes. The bullet hole on her head had been covered with men's underwear.

The skeleton of a young man was discovered by loggers on September 21, 1982, in Dallas, Barron County, Wisconsin. This decedent was estimated to be between 18 and 24 years old at the time of his death. Basic estimations, such as the height, weight and hair color were later calculated. He was about 5 feet 7 to 5 feet 9 inches tall and likely weighed 180 to 195 pounds, with a large build. Hair found with the body was light brown.

In 1981, police found a female murder victim in a ditch in Troy, Ohio. Because the victim was found wearing a distinctive buckskin coat, she was given the name "Buckskin Girl" as the investigation continued. For decades, authorities sought the woman's identity, but to no avail.

Flesher was a woman whose remains were discovered in a well in Chesapeake, Ohio on April 22, 1981. She had been strangled to death and her murder is believed to have been committed between 1979 and 1981. She was nicknamed "Belle In the Well" based upon the circumstances of her discovery.

On April 18, 1980, the mummified corpse of a woman was discovered on the banks of the North Canadian River close to Jones in Oklahoma County, Oklahoma. The presence of three gunshot wounds upon her body clearly indicated her death was a homicide. One of these wounds contained clothing fibers and a dime that had been driven into the body by a .45 caliber bullet. Due to the fact quicklime that had been poured onto her remains in a likely attempt to accelerate decomposition, the woman became known as "Lime Lady".

Debra Jackson's body was found face-down and nude in a culvert along a highway in Georgetown, Texas on October 31, 1979. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled. Along with the pair of socks on her body, she also wore an abalone/mother of pearl stone on a ring.

The headless torso of a man was found in 1979, stashed in a burlap sack in Buffalo Cave, near Boise, Idaho. In 1991, a hand was located on the same site, leading to further excavations from which the other hand and legs were discovered. Identification was thought to be implausible, due to the missing head and the huge family tree of the deceased. However, thanks to an 87-year-old California man who agreed to take a DNA test, the remains were identified as those of his grandfather – bootlegger and accused murderer Joseph Henry Loveless. He had been accused of murdering his common-law wife in 1916, but managed to escape imprisonment by using a sawblade hidden in his shoe. The circumstances surrounding his death are, at present, unknown. By far, this has been DNA Doe Project's oldest solved case.

She was estimated to be between the ages of 18 and 25, five feet six inches tall and weighed approximately 115 to 120 pounds. She had a heart tattoo on her chest as well as an appendectomy scar. It is believed that she may have been murdered by a biker gang earlier in the year or in 1979, although some contemporary reports indicate she may have been deceased for as little as ten days. Multiple facial reconstructions of the decedent have been created, and her DNA was extracted for profiling in 2014. The DNA Doe Project began DNA testing in 2019, and was able to generate a usable profile by the end of the year.

On August 19, 1971, the skeleton of a female aged 14 to 25 was discovered in Cave Junction, Oregon. She was white with reddish-colored hair, which was frosted blond. She was between 5'2" and 5'9" at around 125 pounds. She had slightly protruding upper front teeth and had some fillings in her teeth. Some debris was noted to partially conceal the remains, which were found near the border with California. A hunting knife with deer blood was near the bones.

The decedent wore a checked pink and beige coat, a turtleneck shirt, 34B bra, blue and white underwear, Wrangler jeans and brown heeled shoes. She had several pieces of jewelry, one being a ring with the letters "AL" scratched into the mother of pearl stone. She also carried 38 cents, the oldest coin dated 1970.

Joseph Newton Chandler III, a resident of Eastlake, Ohio, committed suicide in his apartment on July 24, 2002. As authorities sought to identify his heirs, they discovered that his name and identity were fake. The real Joseph Newton Chandler III had died in a Sherman, Texas car accident at age eight on 21 December 1945. The suicide victim had stolen the boy's identity in 1978, while living in South Dakota. Authorities began a search for the man's true identity.