A man who died in a Texas prison decades ago has been identified as the person who abducted and stabbed three Indiana girls and left them in a cornfield nearly 50 years ago, police said, citing DNA evidence.
The girls, ages 11, 13 and 14, survived the attack, but “a clear suspect” was never pinpointed and the case went cold — until now. Investigators using “forensic genetic genealogy” have identified the attacker as Thomas Edward Williams, who died at 49 in November 1983 in a Galveston, Texas, prison, the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department said Thursday.
Rhetorically of course, but phrase bothers me and makes me think I’m missing something. So what’s the difference between:
I guess it could make more clear that they are not talking about an official family tree with weddings and such, but what the genes actually show.
This makes sense. I might just be curmudgeoning, then.
They probably recently extracted some viable DNA from the crime scene evidence that had been kept all these years, but they are unlikely to have any DNA taken from the long deceased perpetrator - assuming he was buried, it is unlikely any viable DNA survived 40 years. But if he he still has living relatives, you can take DNA from them and compare it to the crime scene samples, and look for sufficient matches to conclude he was likely to have committed these crimes.
The word genetic?
“Genetic genealogy” sounds like when people say “I’m an alcoholic and a drug addict” which for non-pedants is acceptable. But it really sounds to me like “I’m from LA and I’m also a Californian”.