Cold cases solved: The rollout of Australia's first forensic genealogy capabilities

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Across Australia there are hundreds of unidentified human remains people with names and families that have yet to learn what happened to them. Police investigators continue to look at these cold cases in the hope that one day they'll be solved. Now a new DNA matching technique is offering potentially game changing results. The ABC can reveal how a lab in Canberra helped solve a 40-year-old south Australian cold case and deliver answers to a New South Wales family.

Transcript

00:00 Probably this area right here.

00:11 In the Kangaroo Island bush just over 40 years ago, teenager Andrew Bennett made a shocking

00:17 discovery.

00:18 Mr Bennett and his friend found a man's body only metres from a main road.

00:23 It had gone unnoticed for up to five years.

00:28 It was just skeletal remains with clothing on it really.

00:34 So it's very different to what it looked in 1983?

00:37 Oh yeah, yeah.

00:39 Senior Constable Trevor Snyder is examining the case as part of new investigations into

00:44 15 unidentified remains.

00:47 Unfortunately this person, the identification, despite a lot of rumours circulating on Kangaroo

00:52 Island was never determined.

00:56 When police hit a dead end, samples were taken to the National Forensic Testing Centre in

01:01 Canberra.

01:02 We essentially wanted to create a one stop shop of forensic techniques where we could

01:06 collaborate with the investigators to try and see if we could resolve those cases using

01:11 the tools available.

01:13 Jodie Ward runs the National DNA Program and is working to give names to up to 750 unidentified

01:19 human remains across Australia.

01:22 One of the newest DNA matching techniques is known as Forensic Investigative Genetic

01:26 Genealogy.

01:27 It took new advances in DNA matching to finally catch him in 2018.

01:33 The technique is known for helping solve the infamous Golden State Killer case in the US.

01:39 It involves DNA being analysed and compared to samples on publicly available genealogy

01:44 websites such as GEDmatch and Ancestry.com.

01:48 What this technology allows us to do is link to those more distant cousins and then build

01:54 back their family trees to the present day.

01:57 Then for the first time in Australia, Jodie Ward and her team made a breakthrough.

02:02 We had two high confidence genetic matches.

02:07 That then opened up and rejuvenated the investigation.

02:13 New South Wales man James Hardy's older brother vanished from the Sydney suburb of Enmore

02:18 in the 1970s.

02:19 I had a lefties wallet and car keys.

02:22 It was a strange set up, you know.

02:24 I never got answers.

02:26 He heard nothing for 45 years until New South Wales police told him to call Trevor Snyder.

02:31 When he identified that his brother William was missing was really amazing.

02:37 We had solved a missing persons case.

02:40 Further testing showed James Hardy was a sibling match to the DNA taken from the Kangaroo Island

02:45 body confirming William Hardy as the missing man.

02:49 I was dumbfounded.

02:50 I could not believe how they found me.

02:54 It's incredible.

02:56 To achieve this result is outstanding, not only certainly for the police but also them

02:59 to be able to provide some answers to the family after such a long period of time is

03:03 very rewarding.

03:05 For the police and the family, one key question remains unanswered and that is just how did

03:12 William Hardy end up here on Kangaroo Island so far from home?

03:19 Police now feel they'll soon be able to close the case and reunite William Hardy with his

03:23 family.

03:24 It's given dad closure now that he can finally lay his brother to rest.

03:31 It's now hoped that countless more cold cases can be solved.

03:34 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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