Company specializing in cold case victim identification helped authorities discover who Jane Doe No. 7 was
The company called "Othram" tells News 12 that normal DNA profiling uses 20 markers to identify a person. They say their technology used hundreds of thousands of markers.
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Suffolk County police and the FBI turned to a company specializing in cold case victim identification to figure out who Jane Doe No. 7 is.
Further coverage: Task force investigating Gilgo Beach murders identifies Jane Doe No. 7
Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney announced Friday that the "Fire Island Jane Doe" who went missing in 1996 was Karen Virgata.
The company called "Othram" tells News 12 that normal DNA profiling uses 20 markers to identify a person. They say their technology used hundreds of thousands of markers.
"We can take any type of evidence - sometimes every very old, skeletal remains from an unidentified person," says David Mittleman, of Othram. "We can take these remains and build a very different profile from the kinds of profiles used today."
Further coverage: Court documents: Suffolk DA's office has requested cheek swap from Rex Heuermann
News 12 is told the DNA technology tries to find a person's nearest relative to give police a better profile of who the person is.
