The potential to solve decades-old Baby Doe cases with genetic genealogy has created a rift among genealogists, who are torn about getting involved. A group called the DNA Doe Project faced this dilemma when it formed in 2017. The California-based nonprofit uses genetic genealogy to put names to anonymous human remains, often referred to as Jane and John Does. The group’s first case was supposed to be an abandoned newborn who died in 1988.

Founders Colleen Fitzpatrick and Margaret Press mulled the case over but ultimately decided not to pursue it. They realized that the case was not about giving the baby a name — it was about figuring out who the mother was so she could potentially be prosecuted. Now, it’s the group’s policy not to take Baby Doe cases.

“These cases are very complex and thorny, and our mission is super cut and dry,” explains genealogist Franchesca Werden, a spokesperson for the volunteer-run organization, which has identified nearly 50 anonymous deceased people. “We want to focus on cases that are morally more clear cut.”

Other genealogists don’t see these cases as any different than other criminal investigations. “I think with any murder case, there has to be an investigation into what the motivations were,” says Rae-Venter, the genealogist who helped police identify Lopez.

Not everyone who commits neonaticide fits the pattern of a young, frightened new mother. Sometimes, these crimes are premeditated. In other cases, a male partner or friend is involved. In rare instances, there are cases of serial neonaticides. Rae-Venter says the only way to learn what happened is to identify a biological parent of the baby.
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Gabriella Vargas, a California-based genealogist and co-founder of DNA-ID, an investigative genetic genealogy company, has helped police with a handful of Baby Doe cases. As a mother, she can’t imagine how someone could kill or dispose of a baby.

“I’m not the one prosecuting them,” Vargas says. “I’m providing that baby with their identity and restoring that for the baby. That’s what my job is. What happens beyond that is not on me.”

Companies like Parabon NanoLabs and Othram, which construct DNA profiles from crime scene evidence and offer genetic genealogy services to law enforcement, see their role in much the same way. Othram is working on several Baby Doe cases, as is Parabon Nanolabs, which is assisting Barringer and the Goodhue County Sheriff’s Department in their investigations.

“The burden is really on law enforcement and prosecutors to figure out how to contextualize what happened,” says David Mittelman, PhD, CEO of Othram. He says the company turns down cases if the evidence is bad or there is little success in solving the case, but he doesn’t pick and choose cases based on the details of the murder or s***** assault. “It’s not for me to decide which crime is more or less important,” he says.

Ellen Greytak, PhD, director of bioinformatics at Parabon Nanolabs, says the company only takes on cases that meet the terms of service of the databases they use, GEDmatch and FamilyTreeDNA. GEDmatch permits police to upload DNA profiles to investigate murders, r****, and violent assaults, and robberies, while FamilyTreeDNA’s policy only allows police to use it for homicides, s***** assaults, and kidnappings. Neither mention neonaticide in particular.

In the United States, there are no laws that dictate how genetic genealogy can and cannot be used by police, but in 2019 the Department of Justice proposed guidelines for its use. The draft policy says law enforcement agencies should generally use the tool only in murder and r*** cases, and as a last resort at that.

This July, Lopez was arrested and charged with the murder of her infant child 32 years ago. She has since been released from custody and is currently on house arrest while she awaits trial. She has pleaded not guilty. When reached via email, a representative for the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office said she could not comment on Lopez’s case since it is an active prosecution.

In a statement provided to Future Human, Lopez’s attorneys wrote that in the three decades leading up to her arrest, her only contact with law enforcement was a speeding ticket 10 years ago.

“Lesa’s life story is one of a nurturing, caring mother to her two grown sons, wife for 25 years to her husband, and grandmother to her two-year-old granddaughter. Lesa has a long history of working and taking care of children as well as the elderly,” they said.

While investigators in Baby John Doe’s case finally have a resolution on what happened to him all those years ago, for Lopez’s loved ones, the revelation no doubt brings questions, shock, and devastation. As police increasingly turn to genetic genealogy to solve these cases, there will be more women like Lopez who are identified, and more families shattered by these discoveries. Barringer, for one, is hoping to close his county’s Baby Doe cases before he retires.

While Oberman, the law professor at Santa Clara University, sympathizes with the desire to get closure on a cold case, she questions whether every mother identified using genetic genealogy should be sent to prison.

“Before you use this new tool,” she says, “I think you just have to make sure you know why you’re using it and what you intend to do with the results.”
The New York Times