Police in Georgia, US, say they have cracked a 33-year-old murder cold case thanks to genealogy DNA.
The body of teenager Stacey Lyn Chahorsk was found on December 16 1988 around five miles away from the Alabama State Line in Dade County, Georgia.
Now, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) say a man called Henry Fredrick Wise, who went by the name Hoss Wise, was responsible for the murder.
Wise, who would have been 34 at the time of the killing, died in 1999 after being involved in a car accident at Myrtle Beach Speedway in South Carolina, where he burnt to death, the GBI has said.
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Keri Farley, FBI Atlanta’s special agent in charge said: “This case is key because it is the first that we know of that investigative genealogy was used to identify both the victim and the killer.”
The case had been particularly troublesome for cops to solve, because when it was discovered more than 30 years ago, Chahorski’s body was beyond recognition.
A forensic artist from the (GBI) made composites and clay rendering in an attempt to recreate what the teen would have looked like, but it wasn’t until March this year that her identity was finally revealed.
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With Chahorski’s identity confirmed, GBI officers worked with the FBI using genealogy DNA testing and received positive results on the killer’s profile.
They began to interview family members and obtained DNA swabs for comparison to the profile created through genealogy DNA and identified Wise as the killer.
Wise had a criminal history in Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina, with charges including theft, assault and obstruction of a police officer.
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However, Wise’s arrests predated mandatory DNA testing after felony arrest. At the time of the murder, Wise had been working as a truck driver who had a regular route through Georgia.
Mary Beth Smith, Stacey Chahorski’s mother, thanked ‘FBI, GBI Special Agent Adam Jones for his relentless pursuit of the case, and GBI Forensic Artist Marla Lawson for her work on the composite drawing and clay rendering’, a statement from the GBI reads.
She also thanked officers working in Dade County as well as Norton Shores Police Department for ‘never giving up on finding her’.
Farley also acknowledged the hard work of those who helped close the case. She said: "Technology alone did not solve this case.
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"The determination of agents in both the FBI and GBI, along with every officer who worked this case for 33 plus years, helped bring this case to its conclusion."
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Claire Reid