Decades after a teenage girl was stabbed to death at her grandparents' home, DNA and genetic genealogy have been used to identify her suspected killer -- a man dead for years.
On June 15, 1984, the body of 15-year-old Reesa Trexler was found nude in a bedroom at her grandparents' house in North Carolina, Salisbury Police Sgt. Travis Shulenberger said at a news conference on Tuesday.
Trexler had been stabbed multiple times, and her spinal cord was severed, Shulenberger said.
Semen from her unknown killer was recovered from her body, Shulenberger said, but the case went unsolved for decades.
In 2018, Trexler's sister went on the "Dr. Phil" show, which "sparked new interest in the case," Shulenberger said.
“” Fortunately DNA science has come a long way since 1984.Salisbury police detectives and state investigators conducted interviews, reviewed evidence, collected DNA samples and worked with crime labs to try to solve the case, Shulenberger said.
This year, it was the use of genetic genealogy that cracked the case.
Genetic genealogy compares unknown DNA evidence from a crime scene to public databases, which are populated by the DNA of family members who voluntarily upload their own.