DNA Detectives: How Family Trees and Tech Solve Cold Cases

Imagine a giant jigsaw puzzle with thousands of pieces missing. For decades, police had mystery crimes called 'cold cases' that went unsolved because clues ran dry. But today, detectives have a brand-new high-tech helper: investigative genetic genealogy!

DNA is like our body's secret instruction manual, and we share huge chunks of it with our parents, cousins, and distant relatives. When scientists find a tiny trace of DNA from an old crime scene, modern sequencers can scan millions of tiny markers. Then, powerful computers compare those markers against public family tree websites where curious people build ancestry charts.