Ramapo College’s first-of-its-kind Investigative Genetic Genealogy (IGG) Center has been making headlines as it continues to assist in solving cold cases.
Most recently, the IGG Center assisted in making an arrest and finally bringing closure to the 1974 Wisconsin murder of 26-year-old Mary Schlais. The Center was able to use evidence from a stocking cap found with Schlais to trace back to the suspect.
With the IGG Center’s help, law enforcement was able to arrest Jon K. Miller on Nov. 5 and charge him with the murder of Schlais.
“For the Mary Schlais case, two of our staff members—Cairenn Binder and Tracie Boyle—worked tirelessly to overcome obstacles,” said Director of the IGG Center David Gurney, in an email to The Ramapo News.
The obstacle in question concerned misattributed parentage. Once the IGG Center gained its lead, it was given to Wisconsin law enforcement who eventually made the arrest after the suspect confessed.
“Most of our work is traditional genealogy,” said Gurney. The IGG Center reverse engineers family trees using census records, birth and death records, obituaries, as well as other public records to learn more about their Subjects — the person they are looking to identify.
The IGG Center makes use of GEDmatch and FamilyTreeDNA, two genetic genealogy databases that law enforcement uploads information to that allow for IGG investigations of their data.
“As in the Mary Schlais case, a genetic profile generated from crime-scene evidence is uploaded to those sites,” said Gurney. The IGG Center can then see who is related to their Subject through their genealogy. “We then turn to traditional genealogy to build out those relatives’ family trees and find common ancestors.”
In an instance where potential genetic matches have not had genealogy tests uploaded to GEDmatch or FamilyTreeDNA, the IGG Center collaborates with other investigating agencies to help provide reference testers of individuals who are potentially related to their Subject.
“Our vision is to bring expertise and ethics to bear on the three key area that are necessary for IGG to flourish as a tool of justice: practice, education, and research,” states the center’s website. “These are the three missions of the IGG Center.”
The IGG Center also offers a certificate program where Ramapo students help with unidentified human remains cases. Other criminal cases are worked on by IGG Center staff or volunteers who are carefully screened before participation.
In addition to solving cold cases and finding answers for victims of violent crime, the IGG Center’s work has also assisted in getting charges exonerated for those who have been wrongfully convicted. Just this past September, the IGG Center helped exonerate Robert and David Bintz of charges related to the homicide of Sandra Lison by identifying the real perpetrator.
“Our work helps provide answers to families of missing loved ones and victims of violent crime,” said Gurney. “Our goals for the future are to continue growing the program and helping provide answers in more cases.”
jhammer@ramapo.edu
Featured photo courtesy of @IGGcenter
