Identifying the Victims of the Conception Boat Fire
On Labor Day, 2019, The Conception caught fire on the last day of a 3-day diving trip off of the coast of California. Tragically, all 33 passengers and 1 crew member perished in the fire. In this interview, Kimberly Gin, Coroner at the Sacramento County Coroner’s Office shares how she and a Deputy Coroner […]
Recapping ISHI 30 with our Student Ambassadors
The 30th International Symposium on Human Identification Keynote Speaker, Paul Holes, related the chilling story of the case that dogged him for over 20 years—the notorious Golden State Killer, who committed over 100 burglaries, more than 50 rapes and at least 13 murders from 1974 to 1986. 2019 also saw continued interest in the power […]
Identifying the Golden State Killer: An Interview with Paul Holes and Barbara Rae-Venter
In April of 2018, news broke that the elusive Golden State Killer had been identified through a new technique called genetic genealogy (or investigative genealogy). In just 4 ½ months, Paul Holes and his team (including genealogist Barbara Rae-Venter) put a name to the man who had terrorized California for years. In this interview, […]
Beyond Genetic Genealogy: Building Family Trees to Investigate Crime
“Class! Class!” Diahan Southard raises her voice and claps twice, cutting through the buzz of conversation that fills the room. Dutifully, her class responds. “Yes! Yes!” It’s a technique that Southard has learned from her experience with raising three children and over 20 years of teaching. Her audience is broken up into small […]
Fall Edition of The ISHI Report Now Live
The Fall edition of The ISHI Report is now live! We hope that many of you were able to participate in the 30th International Symposium on Human Identification that took place in Palm Springs. This issue includes features and interviews with several speakers and attendees from the just completed conference. A very […]
Using Isotopes to Tell the Stories of the Unidentified
According to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs), 600,000 individuals go missing in the United States each year. While many are quickly found, it is estimated that 4,400 unidentified bodies are recovered each year, with 1,000 of them remaining unidentified after one year. All told, there are currently more than 40,000 sets of […]
Fun Facts from ISHI 30
The 30th International Symposium on Human Identification was one of the largest yet, with approximately 1,000 attendees! Here are some other fun facts about the meeting as well as a video of the highlights. These 1,000 attendees represented 46 countries from around the globe. According to the post-ISHI survey, most attendees self-identified as […]
The 30th International Symposium on Human Identification: Elevating DNA Forensics
In the fall of 1989, a small group of forensic scientists, law enforcement officials and representatives from Promega Corporation gathered in Madison, Wisconsin, for the very first International Symposium on Human Identification (ISHI). At the time, DNA typing was in its infancy and had not yet been validated as a forensic method. The available technology […]
Genetic Genealogy – What Does the Future Hold?
Across the United States, and increasingly internationally, detectives are closing cases that have long since grown cold using investigative genealogy. Killers and other predators who have managed to escape justice due to a lack of leads are now finding themselves behind bars. Investigative genealogy relies heavily on open-source DNA databases, such as GEDMatch, […]
