New breaks may be coming in cold cases that have sat unsolved for decades, thanks to new funding for forensic genealogy efforts at the San Antonio Police Department.
At a news conference Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro presented SAPD with $1.039 million in funds for forensic genealogy in murder and sexual assault cases.
San Antonio has 366 unsolved murders and 49 unsolved sexual assault cases in the past five years alone, according to police. The total number of cold cases likely numbers in the thousands.
“Today we declare that we are determined to solve every single one of these unsolved cases,” Castro said Wednesday. “If you murdered somebody in San Antonio, whether it was last year or 40 years ago, we are determined to find you.”
Forensic genealogy uses DNA evidence from a crime scene and matches it to existing DNA profiles of offenders. If the profile doesn’t get a direct hit, it could match a relative that police can then trace back to the suspect.
The technology is how investigators in 2018 captured serial killer Joseph DeAngelo, known for many years as the Original Night Stalker and the Golden State Killer.
Three weeks after Seeman disappeared while walking home from a friend’s house, Botello was abducted outside her West Side apartment. Their remains were found on the same day — Heidi on a rural road near Wimberley and Erica inside a storm drain near her home.
Police have never made an arrest in either girl’s death.
With their cases and others in mind, Castro looked to congressional community project funding to support forensic genealogy locally.
“This is one that I knew that I wanted to fund, because this is about taking dangerous people off the street,” he said. “You think about it, many of those folks who committed sexual assaults or murders, some of them did it again.”
The funds likely won’t be enough to solve every case in San Antonio. Depending on the amount of evidence available and the number of tests that the forensic labs runs, each case can cost $30,000 or more to process, said Capt. Russ Van Geffen, SAPD’s homicide commander.
To close the gap, Castro encouraged state and local leaders Wednesday to continue securing financial support for the project.
Police Chief William McManus thanked Castro on Wednesday and gave a nod to the homicide detectives who have been investigating the cases on the ground for years.
“These are cases where traditional investigative leads have been exhausted, but the need for justice has never gone away, and never will until the cases are closed,” he said. “With this funding, we can bring answers to the families who have been waiting too long, far too long, for justice.”