1988 Murder of Santee Woman Solved Through Genetic Genealogy Testing
, 2022-03-16 02:00:00,
County Sheriff’s Department
Investigative genetic genealogy has identified the killer of a Santee woman found dead in her apartment in 1988, the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department announced Wednesday.
The stabbing death of 29-year-old Diane Lynn Dahn is the fifth local cold-case homicide solved through investigative genetic genealogy, sheriff’s officials said. The process matches DNA collected at crimes scenes with samples submitted in public databases, often by people seeking to identify relatives.
Advancements in DNA technology led to the eventual identification of a suspect, Warren Robertson, who lived in the same Graves Avenue apartment complex as the victim. Robertson died in an Indiana house fire in 1999, officials said.
Though a DNA profile of the suspect was compiled through fingernail scrapings and a hair found on the victim, no leads were generated as to the suspect’s identity until recently. In 2020, a genetic genealogy investigation was undertaken, matching the suspect’s profile against genetic profiles submitted on commercial databases, leading investigators to Robertson’s direct descendants.
According to Sheriff’s Homicide Crime Analyst Jeffrey Vandersip, the profile was matched against those of users who opted in and consented for law enforcement to conduct a genealogical analysis.
The technology gained large-scale notoriety through its use to identify the…
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