Las Vegas cold case solved with DNA testing, genetics and nonprofit crowdfunding – Indianapolis News | Indiana Weather

(CNN) — Melonie White was a young mother of a boy, a stylish fashionista and an inspired search for a new career when her body was found strangled and lifeless.

White was 27 when hikers found her body near Lake Mead National Recreation Area, about 10 miles east of Las Vegas, on August 27, 1994. Nearly 30 years to the day she was killed, White was 27 year old. Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department identified White’s alleged killer as Arthur Joseph Lavery using DNA testing and forensic genetic genealogy. He died in 2021, according to police.

After White’s body was found, an autopsy ruled her cause of death a homicide, with evidence of strangulation and head trauma, according to police. She was strangled with a ligature, hit and dragged by a car in the desert car wash, police said. At the time of the investigation, the police found several leads, but no suspect was identified. The case went cold.

For decades, her grieving family was left without answers and with a devastating desire for the truth.

In 2010, cold case detectives recovered additional items and sent them for DNA testing, which led to the DNA profile of a male suspect. But a suspect wasn’t identified until 2021 with the help of the Las Vegas nonprofit Vegas Justice League. The nonprofit paid the costs to send the case to a lab that used DNA testing and genetic genealogy to successfully identify Lavery as the suspected killer.

Solving crimes through crowdfunding

Founded in 2020 by entrepreneur Justin Woo, the Vegas Justice League — and its national initiative Project Justice — have helped solve 41 cold cases across the country, including nine murders in Las Vegas. The initiative provides funding for forensic genetic genealogy, a law enforcement technique that uses DNA analysis and genealogical research to identify suspects in criminal cases or “Jane Doe” victims whose identities have never been determined.

Funding for the cases comes from donations from the six members of the Justice League, including Woo and his wife Lydia Ansel, as well as donations from the community. Once enough money is raised for a case, the nonprofit alerts law enforcement, who then refer the case to a lab that specializes in forensic genetic genealogy, such as Othram, a Texas lab that works exclusively with law enforcement.

On August 26, 2024, approximately three years after law enforcement referred the case to Othram, White’s alleged killer was finally identified.

“It’s nice to wrap this up,” Walter White, Melonie’s brother, said in a statement press conference on October 22. “The effect of her death really crushed my mother. This was probably the biggest thing going on for our family it was that my mother was absolutely devastated, it took a long time for that to get back to normal.”

White’s other younger brother, Jason White, also spoke during the press conference and recalled the day he learned his sister had been killed. He was a student at Arizona State University and it was the Friday before his semester started when he got the call that shattered their family.

“I just want to say how grateful we are to the officers of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department for never giving up on finding Melonie’s killer,” Jason White said as he choked back tears.

“We are very, very grateful for the contributions of the Justice League of Vegas, whose donation for police DNA testing allowed police to solve the case. We will always miss Melonie and believe that solving her crime will help bring a measure of peace to her and to all of us.”

Las Vegas Homicide Lt. Jason Johansson also thanked the Justice League for their “unwavering support in providing our community, friends and family” with assistance in solving the case investigations.

“It is their support that has directly led to the now closure of nine cold cases that would never have been solved without their help,” Johansson said.

Putting the puzzle together

The Vegas Justice League has also funded ongoing DNA testing for at least 82 other pending cases. It costs about $7,500 per case, Woo says, pointing to the million-dollar sequencing machines used for testing and the staff of geneticists and researchers who then help assemble all the pieces of the puzzle.

“We have every confidence that every case will be solved, but sometimes it takes a long time, months or even years, with the investigations that they do,” Ansel told CNN.

Investigators use genetic genealogy to solve cold cases by using suspect DNA collected from crime scenes, analyzing it and turning it into a raw data file. The suspect’s DNA file is then uploaded to databases such as GEDMatch, which is used by people who submit their DNA genetic testing kits to discover their ancestors and find relatives.

GEDMatch analyzes the suspect’s DNA data files and locates individuals who have uploaded their DNA data files to the site and are related to the suspect. A genetic genealogist then builds an extended family tree of the person who uploaded their DNA to try to locate where the suspect is in the family tree.

Investigators then collect DNA from extended family members until a relative’s DNA matches DNA found at the crime scene, leading to an arrest.

The powerful new forensic method has become widespread among law enforcement investigators over the past few years. He was used to solve some of the most frustrating cold cases in the country, most notably his arrest The Golden State Killer in 2018. Joseph James DeAngelo was arrested in 2018 in a suburb of Sacramento, California on suspicion of being the man who killed 12 people and raped more than 50 women in the 1970s and 1980s.

The idea for Vegas Justice League started when Woo learned about Othram and saw that they were crowdfunding cases. Woo decided he would sponsor one, which ended up solving the case of Stephanie Isaacson, a 14-year-old girl who was kidnapped on her way to school, sexually assaulted and beaten to death in 1989.

“It started as just trying to help our local community,” Woo said. “When I did the first one, I didn’t know what was going to happen. It lasted seven months. But when we saw the results, the amount of impact we could have, we just couldn’t stop and made it our mission.”

The activity of the nonprofit organization did not go unnoticed. Vegas Justice League was presented with a key on the Las Vegas Strip in honor of their efforts to solve cold case cases on October 30th in a ceremony attended by the LVMPD.

Behind every unsolved murder case is a family that has never stopped crying or longing for justice. While solving a case won’t heal the deep wounds of their loss, it can provide a sense of closure. Ansel believes this is the goal they are striving to achieve.

“It’s such a mixed bag of feelings, where you feel devastated with them over the loss of their child who will never come back,” Ansel said. “But then you feel gratitude that they got answers and some kind of end to this sometimes 30, 40-year nightmare.”