Yet another genealogy DNA investigation solves a cold case murder

In 1981, a newborn was left in the snow in Sioux Falls, SD, and froze to death.

For 38 years, the city has wondered who did it, and if the killer (presumably a young mother who couldn't afford the child) would be found.

Within the last few weeks, that has happened.

https://www.wsbtv.com/news/trending-...go-1/931415382

Theresa Bentaas, who was only 19 at the time of the murder, and found through DNA, was arrested. She admitted to having done it.

https://am24.akamaized.net/lc/cnt/up...uth-Dakota.jpg

Amazingly, she is still married to the father of the murdered child. However, apparently she hid the pregnancy from the man, and he supposedly had no idea about the murder.

Great work by law enforcement. Keep grabbing murderers before they die. Cameras were not common back then. She couldn't have left her baby outside an emergency room, in an open store, or outside a church followed by a phone call to the cops from a pay phone? Not your fault, but this one really is painful to read.

When this 1st started happening, I was thinking, IF MY DNA WAS AT A CRIME SCENE, how would you get family members not to do this?

but I did ancestry.com & I get hits ALL the time, from close blood relations, that we lost contact with.
I.E. 1st cousin my mom grew up with,
a 2nd cousin (who knew my grandma) I've never even heard of.

So these criminals probably don't even know the relatives submitting the DNA that ends up catching them..

If my DNA was at a crime scene, I'd be shitting my pants, tick tock.

I don’t know if police are just running good, because when I first saw this, it felt big brotherish, but every case they’re bringing to court is just the most unsympathetic murderers. Like it makes me wonder if prosecutors are sitting on a bunch of typical drug deal gone wrong murders with no sympathetic victims cases and just kind of waiting for this to become more mainstream and trotting out cases where even the most ardent privacy advocates are going to struggle to feel bad for the criminals. I’d give 5 years to someone who left a puppy in the cold to die ffs. How do you leave a newborn?

https://www.yahoo.com/news/dna-coffe...opstories.html

Another elderly murderer (77) won't get to die a free man for a rape/murder in 1972 because of genetic genealogy. I love the fact that he was following articles in the newspapers about this crime solving method and must have suspected that his day was coming soon. You would think that he had exposed himself to a girl in 1968 and lived in the are at the time would have made him more of a suspect back then.

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Originally Posted by JohnCommode

https://www.yahoo.com/news/dna-coffe...opstories.html

Another elderly murderer (77) won't get to die a free man for a rape/murder in 1972 because of genetic genealogy. I love the fact that he was following articles in the newspapers about this crime solving method and must have suspected that his day was coming soon. You would think that he had exposed himself to a girl in 1968 and lived in the are at the time would have made him more of a suspect back then.

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The ability to tie someone to a murder before DNA testing was much harder. And cold cases can become a very low priority after a couple decades. So, yeah, it’s great that this asshole is going get some taste of justice due to this new tech.

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Originally Posted by JohnCommode

https://www.yahoo.com/news/dna-coffe...opstories.html

Another elderly murderer (77) won't get to die a free man for a rape/murder in 1972 because of genetic genealogy. I love the fact that he was following articles in the newspapers about this crime solving method and must have suspected that his day was coming soon. You would think that he had exposed himself to a girl in 1968 and lived in the are at the time would have made him more of a suspect back then.

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Sadly, many real life detectives are not as thorough or intelligent as the ones we see on TV.

There are some astounding failures to catch or identify obvious suspects by certain inept and/or lazy detectives.

It is pretty amazing that he wasn't a suspect given his recent sex offenses and living in the area. At the very least, all recent sex offenders in the area should have been investigated.

Very interesting about the newspaper he had lying around. I wonder how many rapist/murderers are in a panic right now that the hammer is about to come down on them.

It's a shame they got to live free for the vast majority of their lives, but it's at least satisfying to know that they will be spending their final years in prison.

BUMP

Female privilege in the justice system at work.

She got 10 years in prison, which was already lenient enough, but 9 years were suspended, and it was assumed that the 60 days in county jail might be the only time she actually serves.

I realize she was only 19, and this was 40 years ago, but she still left a helpless infant out in the cold to freeze to death. Looks like she will see less time behind bars than people caught dealing a small amount of pot.

Sad!

https://www.blackhillsfox.com/2021/1...rew-cold-case/

To update the other murder mentioned in this thread, Terrence Miller, who killed that woman pictured a few posts above back in 1972, killed himself during jury deliberations in 2020.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/10/us/19...rnd/index.html

He knew he was fucked, so while at home on $1 million bond, he helsed himself. Indeed, he was convicted.

Stupid that they didn't see this coming. Any sentence he would have gotten would have been equivalent to a life sentence, since he was 78. He probably figured he'd rather die than serve his remaining elderly years in jail.

They should have not given him bail.

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Originally Posted by JimmyG_415

When this 1st started happening, I was thinking, IF MY DNA WAS AT A CRIME SCENE, how would you get family members not to do this?

but I did ancestry.com & I get hits ALL the time, from close blood relations, that we lost contact with.
I.E. 1st cousin my mom grew up with,
a 2nd cousin (who knew my grandma) I've never even heard of.

So these criminals probably don't even know the relatives submitting the DNA that ends up catching them..

If my DNA was at a crime scene, I'd be shitting my pants, tick tock.

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Genealogy is my hobby and DNA testing goes right along with it. I've been DNA tested twice by Ancestry and once by Family Tree. I've met distant cousins online where the most recent common ancestors between us were a man and woman six generations back, our 4th great-grandparents.

And the numbers involved are surprising. I'm a descendent of Robert Deprosse, a 6X great-grandfather. He immigrated from France to Virginia in 1687 as a single man then took a wife. His children took the name Depriest. There were no Depriests in France so the name is uniquely American and came from one man in the late 1600's.

If you check White Pages today you will finding listings for over 5,000 Depriests in the United States. Not included in that number is all the women thru the generations that married and had kids with different surnames.

The number of us who descend from this one man is easily way up in five figures.

I don't really have an interest in submitting my info to one of these sites.

I wouldn't feel too close to distant cousins I'd find. Like, I know of some distant cousins already and make no effort to talk to them. Just doesn't feel like real family, even though there's a minor blood relation.

I have no first cousins. It's not that I had some and they died -- I just never had any. So I grew up with no cousins, and therefore the whole concept of cousins is something I never really got to experience, and don't miss it.

The only reason I'd do such a thing would be to find out if somehow I have kids I don't know about. I don't think it's likely, because almost all the girls I had sex with would have had an easy way to contact me if they got pregnant. Still, seeing the picture of that one Santa Cruz EMT guy in his late 20s who looked just like young me was a weird feeling. I almost went and submitted my DNA to one of those services, and then thought better of it.

So both of your parents are only children….or your aunts and uncles are kid less? Probably gay.

My dad did one those things and the only interesting info was that he was part Botswanan….so my kids are African American, schlolarships galore in their future.

i did a DNA test and i'm full white, nothing scandalous except 3 percent irish

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Originally Posted by Texter

So both of your parents are only children….or your aunts and uncles are kid less? Probably gay.

My dad did one those things and the only interesting info was that he was part Botswanan….so my kids are African American, schlolarships galore in their future.

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Neither my aunt nor uncle are/were gay.

Aunt had various boyfriends over the years and almost got married twice, but it just didn't work out, and she ended up getting past her childbearing years. She died the same way Chad Brown did (sarcoma), also at an early age. Seemed to have been bad luck. It is not known what causes sarcoma, but there is a theory that blunt force trauma can sometimes bring it on. Indeed, she had a very ugly fall on a sheet of ice on the stairs of her building, and the location of the really bad and large bruise was also the sarcoma origination point. I'm sure that's not a coincidence. It is incurable and you're fucked, just as Chad Brown was. It was very sad, and I visited her in the hospital every few days and watched her deteriorate badly at the end. I was in my mid 20s at the time.

My uncle is still alive, and is in fact a mild fan of poker. He follows my WSOP updates each year. He never wanted to get married, and never wanted kids. He isn't gay, either. Despite a lifetime of living on the east coast, he is a Dodgers fan because he grew up in 1940s/1950s Brooklyn.

Don’t feel bad, one of my Aunts is gay. I am not sure if she came by it naturally or because she is exceptionally unattractive to males.

Whatever, she seems happy the way she is although her partner died many years ago.

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Originally Posted by Texter

Don’t feel bad, one of my Aunts is gay. I am not sure if she came by it naturally or because she is exceptionally unattractive to males.

Whatever, she seems happy the way she is although her partner died many years ago.

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Once you're very old, nobody in your age group is attractive, so looks don't matter much anymore.

Nobody in my family is gay, though, and I can say that with certainty. If anyone was, I wouldn't cover that up. People are what they are.

I don't understand the appeal of those genealogy sites either, unless you are adopted and want info on genetic shit to look out for.

It falls in the same category as tattoos for me, if it was free....sure why not? But im not spending money on it.

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Originally Posted by Dan Druff

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Originally Posted by Texter

Don’t feel bad, one of my Aunts is gay. I am not sure if she came by it naturally or because she is exceptionally unattractive to males.

Whatever, she seems happy the way she is although her partner died many years ago.

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Once you're very old, nobody in your age group is attractive, so looks don't matter much anymore.

Nobody in my family is gay, though, and I can say that with certainty. If anyone was, I wouldn't cover that up. People are what they are.

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She has never been attractive at any age