Ep:115 | The Murder of Roxanne Wood | 35-year-old Cold Case Solved with Genetic Genealogy | Murder Unscripted

35 years cold. 6 cells worth of DNA. One pink-haired genealogist. ⬇️

Roxanne Wood was murdered in her home in Niles, Michigan in February 1987. Her husband Terry was never charged, but he was never cleared either. For 35 years, a small town called him "Slash" to his face. The real killer was a stranger who lived a few miles away and had never been in the case file.

The case was cracked by genetic genealogy using a DNA sample so degraded that experts called it unsolvable, and a genealogist named Gabriella Vargas who disagreed. She built a family tree back to the 1820s and came up with a name in four days. An undercover trooper bummed a cigarette off the suspect outside a laundromat to get the confirmation sample. The match was one in billions.

Ed covers the full story... Roxanne's victimology, the cold case, the genealogy work, the exoneration, and an ending that will stay with you. The perfect first episode to kick off August's Killer Connections block.

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