"More than four decades after a teenager was murdered in California, DNA found on a discarded cigarette has helped authorities catch her killer," [1]reports CNN :

> Sarah Geer, 13, was last seen leaving her friend's houseï in Cloverdale, California, on the evening of May 23, 1982. The next morning, a firefighter walking home from work found her body, the Sonoma County District Attorney's Office [2]said in a news release ... Her death was ruled a homicide, but due to the "limited forensic science of the day," no suspect was identified and the case went cold for decades, prosecutors said.

>

> Nearly 44 years after Sarah's murder, a jury found James Unick, 64, guilty of killing her on February 13. It would have been the victim's 57th birthday, the Sonoma County District Attorney's Office told CNN. [3]Genetic genealogy , which combines DNA evidence and traditional genealogy, helped match Unick's DNA from a cigarette butt to DNA found on Sarah's clothing, according to prosecutors... [The Cloverdale Police Department] [4]said it had been in communication with a private investigation firm in late 2019 and had partnered with them in hopes the firm could revisit the case's evidence "with the latest technological advancements in cold case work...."

>

> "The FBI, with its access to familial genealogical databases, concluded that the source of the DNA evidence collected from Sarah belonged to one of four brothers, including James Unick," prosecutors said. Once investigators narrowed down the list of suspects to the four Unick brothers, the FBI "conducted surveillance of the defendant and collected a discarded cigarette that he had been smoking," prosecutors said. A DNA analysis of the cigarette confirmed James Unick's DNA matched the 2003 profile, along with other DNA samples collected from Sarah's clothing the day she was killed.

In a statement, the county's district attorney "While 44 years is too long to wait, justice has finally been served..."

And the article points out that "In 2018, genetic genealogy led to the arrest of the [5]Golden State Killer , and it has recently helped solve several other cold cases, including a [6]1974 murder in Wisconsin and a [7]1988 murder in Washington ."



[1] https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/21/us/california-cold-case-cigarette-dna

[2] https://da.sonomacounty.ca.gov/sonoma-county-jury-returns-guilty-verdict-on-1982-cloverdale-murder

[3] https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/03/health/dna-genealogy-cold-cases-trnd/index.html

[4] https://www.facebook.com/CloverdalePoliceDepartment/posts/pfbid02H2Z9LEwj2XXS5EvcT4KSk7zHwgLZsK2Bwvyd3z225LE8wTE12zanYw8VZizksD3kl

[5] https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/12/us/cold-case-genetic-genealogy-washington/index.html

[6] https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/08/us/mary-schlais-wisconsin-cold-case-killer-arrested/index.html

[7] https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/08/us/tracy-whitney-cold-case-dna-evidence/index.html