A vicious murder committed by stabbing the victim to death at night, a community left on edge as the shocking crime was not followed with immediate answers.

For many Idaho Falls residents the recent murders of four University of Idaho students in Moscow, a community that had not seen a murder in seven years, rekindled memories of the 1996 murder of Angie Dodge.

Once the Moscow case is resolved, it appears likely that the technology that finally helped solve the Dodge case will also have led investigators to the suspect in the University of Idaho murders.

Bryan Kohberger’s recent arrest was reportedly the result of an investigation that used genetic genealogy, a scientific field originally focused on helping individuals uncover their ancestry, but in recent years has been used to identify suspects in difficult or cold cases.

Kohberger, 28, was arrested Friday in Pennsylvania at his parents’ home after investigators identified him as the suspect. He was extradited Wednesday night to Moscow, where he will face first-degree murder charges.

Investigators caught a break in the case thanks to a sample of DNA recovered from the crime scene that was connected to Kohberger through his ancestral relations.

According to the probable cause affidavit, the suspect’s DNA from the Moscow crime scene was discovered on the snap of a tan leather knife sheath that was found laying on the bed next to one of the victims. The sheath had “Ka-Bar” ‘USMC” and the United States Marine Corps eagle globe and anchor insignia stamped on the outside of it, the affidavit said.

Genetic genealogy is used by several companies, such as 23andMe or AncestryDNA, to help customers identify their heritage by comparing their DNA. Some of those companies also have opened their databases up to law enforcement agencies, allowing them to compare DNA samples from crime scenes to determine if the suspect’s DNA is related to anyone in the databases, and, if so, how distantly.

According to a fact sheet from Virginia-based Parabon NanoLabs Inc., which was involved in analyzing DNA from the Dodge case, in genetic genealogy, genealogists use “comparative DNA analysis, which measures the amount of DNA that is shared between two people, combined with traditional genealogy research using historical records to infer relationships between individuals.

“… Highly experienced professional genetic genealogists then cross-reference the DNA results with other data sources used in traditional genealogy, such as census records, vital records, obituaries, and newspaper archives to build family trees. Once candidate shared ancestors are identified, descendancy research is employed to try to determine the possible identity of the unknown individual.”

CeCe Moore, a genetic genealogist who worked on the Dodge case with Idaho Falls Police, said investigators would have turned to genetic genealogy after the state lab failed to find a match with any previous defendants.

“We don’t know how long it took to zero in on Bryan, but likely they were building family trees day and night,” Moore said.

Several details about the case have still not been released, Moore said the genealogists could have identified Kohberger’s family. More likely, however, is that they identified his distant relatives, such as cousins or great-grandparents. A genealogist then could have looked for a relative who matched the suspected age and gender and who lived in the right location. In this specific case, a big tell would be anyone who owned a white Hyundai Elantra, like that seen driving from the scene.

“That would have obviously made him stick out like a sore thumb,” Moore said.

In the Dodge case, the answers came 20 years after she was murdered when DNA from a semen sample was found to be related to several DNA samples in databases of people researching their heritage. In the Dodge case a family tree of the suspect’s DNA was established, and police identified one member of that tree, Brian Dripps, as a suspect. Dripps was later confirmed to be a match when police who were surveilling him recovered a discarded cigarette butt with his DNA.

Genetic genealogy was a fairly new discipline at the time it was used in 2019 to identify Dripps as the killer in the Dodge case.

Many Americans first heard of the investigative practice following the 2018 arrest of Joseph James DeAngelo Jr., known as the Golden State Killer, who’d eluded discovery for decades.

In the Moscow case, the waiting period was weeks rather than years, though residents were still left on edge as the brutality of the murders was followed by weeks of uncertainty. Moscow police faced pressure and criticism as students at University of Idaho left campus, and internet sleuths began sharing theories about friends and family members of the victims.

According to the the probable cause affidavit in the Moscow case, after police had used other evidence to narrow in on Kohberger as a suspect, they worked with Pennsylvania law enforcement to recover trash from the Kohberger family residence located in Albrightsville on Dec. 27. That evidence was sent to the Idaho State Lab for testing and the lab found that a “DNA profile obtained from the trash and the DNA profile obtained from the sheath, identified a male as not being excluded as the biological father of Suspect Profile. At least 99.9998% of the male population would be expected to be excluded from the possibility of being the suspect’s biological father.”

Genetic genealogy has been used to solve other cases in Idaho, such as identifying the Buffalo Cave remains in Clark County, which were unidentified for more than 40 years until the Clark County Sheriff’s Office learned through genetic genealogy they belonged to Joseph Loveless, who had been dead for more than a century.

In 2020 genetic genealogy was used to help identify David Dalrymple as the suspect in the 1982 rape and murder of a 9-year-old Nampa girl, Daralyn Johnson.

In both the Dodge and Johnson cases police arrested and the courts convicted innocent men of the crimes.

Charles Fain spent 18 years on Idaho’s death row for Johnson’s murder, the Idaho Press reported. Fain was freed in 2001 when DNA evidence ruled him out as the perpetrator.

Christopher Tapp spent 20 years in prison after he was wrongfully convicted of Dodge’s murder in 1998.

In March 2021, Gov. Brad Little signed the Wrongful Conviction Act to compensate those who have been wrongfully convicted. The bill was inspired by the exoneration of Tapp after he served 20 years in prison. State Sen. Doug Ricks, R-Rexburg, sponsored the bill.

Tapp also sued the city of Idaho Falls and received a settlement of $11.7 million.

The method has also raised privacy concerns as individuals who submit their DNA for private use have found it used unexpectedly by law enforcement. Only two companies, GEDMatch and FamilyTree DNA, allow police to use their services but GEDMatch only makes available data from users who opt in, the Associated Press reported.

Moore said she hopes the case will raise awareness among law enforcement about genetic genealogy so that they turn to it early in investigations if a match is not quickly found when they have a DNA sample.

“This is certainly the most high-profile case to use genetic genealogy,” Moore said.