DNA Evidence
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The Lady of the Dunes Case: Ruth Marie Terry Gets Her Name Back After 48 Years
In July 1974 a woman was found dead in the dunes near Race Point in Provincetown, Massachusetts, with nothing to say who she was. For decades, exhumations, clay busts and confessions led nowhere. Continue reading
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The Samuel Little Case: 93 Confessions, a Drug Warrant and the Women No One Counted
In 2012, a 72-year-old drifter was picked up in Louisville on an old drug warrant. What his DNA and his memory revealed changed how the FBI counts murder. Continue reading
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The Delimar Vera Case: A Mother Knew Her Baby Survived the Fire, and Six Years Later She Proved It
In 1997, ten-day-old Delimar Vera supposedly died in a Philadelphia house fire, though no remains were ever found. Six years later, her mother spotted a little girl at a birthday party and quietly pulled five hairs from her head. Continue reading
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The Meredith Kercher Case: A Murder in Perugia the World Remembers by the Wrong Name
Meredith Kercher, a 21-year-old British student, was murdered in Perugia in 2007. The flawed investigation made Amanda Knox famous, but the man convicted of the killing walked free in 2021 — and faced a new trial by 2026. Continue reading
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The Sherri Papini Case: A 22-Day Kidnapping Hoax, a Brand on Her Shoulder, and a Story That Keeps Changing
Sherri Papini vanished on a jog near Redding in November 2016 and reappeared 22 days later, chained and branded, on Thanksgiving morning. DNA proved she had been with an ex-boyfriend the whole time. Now she insists the kidnapping was real… Continue reading
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The Hwaseong Murders: How DNA Named Lee Chun-jae 33 Years Later, and Freed the Wrong Man
Ten women and girls were murdered in Hwaseong, South Korea, between 1986 and 1991, and the case inspired “Memories of Murder.” In 2019, DNA finally named Lee Chun-jae — too late to charge him, and 20 years too late for… Continue reading
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The Sister Cathy Cesnik Case: The Nun Who Asked the Wrong Question and the Murder Baltimore Never Solved
In November 1969, Sister Cathy Cesnik left her Baltimore apartment to buy an engagement gift and never came home. Her unsolved murder, tied to abuse allegations at Archbishop Keough High School, became the subject of Netflix’s The Keepers and still… Continue reading
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The O.J. Simpson Case: Nicole Brown, Ron Goldman, and the Verdict America Still Argues About
Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman were murdered in Brentwood on June 12, 1994, and the trial that followed divided America. Three decades later, O.J. Simpson is dead and his estate has accepted a $58 million claim from the Goldman… Continue reading
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The Sherri Rasmussen Case: an LAPD detective, a bite mark in a coroner’s freezer, and 23 years of silence
In 1986 Sherri Rasmussen’s father told LAPD detectives her killer was an ex-girlfriend with a badge, and was told there was nothing there. A swab found in a coroner’s freezer proved him right 23 years later, and the fight over… Continue reading
