profiles. she decided to consult with a genealogy has, and upload the suspects profile into a website called a site used to track them relatives. they allow law enforcement upload kits or dna, that dna is matched with other kids who opt in who want to assist law enforcement. so jensen started looking for any people with genie similar to that of the suspect. this is not just a matter of putting code into a computer, it s the equivalent of old fashion shoe leather detective work, but for the 21st century. that s because a similar dna profiles just another lead that needs running down. so instead of knocking on doors, jensen was picking up the phone. interesting, thank you for returning michael.
you ve settled into this life where you don t know, right, it was heartbreaking. by june 2019, helene had been dead almost 40 years. the coldest of colorado cases. that s when a new detective shannon janssen was assigned to the case. but i focus on when i m working a case, what drives me the most is the victims. jensen had been a competitive rover before she enrolled in the police academy and joined law enforcement, she got to know howling through all the pictures and information in the case filed. she was hoping to get to know someone else. what do you know about your unknown suspect, you know it s a man, you know he s between the ages of we don t know his age. we know that the witness said that he was in his early 20s, but ultimately nobody else saw him. detective jensen decided the key to all of this was the dna
investigative dens in this case, he had seen plenty of them over the years. i said how do you know you do and she understood the dna, she understood the genealogy, i didn t, so she had to explain it. while then there s still a little bit of doubt, you know, do i go upstairs, don t i? so i did. both of them made their walk upstairs to face the sheriff. and they said we believe we got it, this is the guy. you had been on the business and of a few other this is the guy kind of conversations where it didn t pan out? i was. detective jensen laid out her case, two brothers, only one in colorado at the time of the murder, and there is another thing. as jensen dug through white criminal history, she discovered and old mugshot from 1998, remember that initial witness sketch drawn with the help of a hypnotist?
wanted to win for her lane. and by the fall of 2019, detective jensen seem to be making progress. after speaking with contacts to the database and building those family trees, she had found a woman whose dna was so close to that of the killer she might be a first cousin. there was just one problem. that first cousin didn t really know her family, the family wasn t close. would there be any way to fill out that possibly critical family tree? the cousin put jensen in touch with another cousin. when you talk to that woman you think this is it, we re getting close? yeah, i knew, this is it, i m on the right track, i m gonna figure out who he is real soon. coming up. she s like, i know who did it, i m like did what s? she s like, i know who the killer is for her lane. the beer mug that just might seal this case. i was convinced, very quickly, by their determination.
personal information. yes. would they be willing to share their entire family history on the chance they were related to a murderer? it s a big ask. and i would contact these matches and they would give me their family trees and any family history that they had and so we could fill and safer adoptions or unknown pregnancies. you re talking about hundreds of names here. hundreds, thousands. the people who spoke to me all said hey, if this is somebody in my family that did this, they should be arrested for the crime. there should be justice for this young victim. what s that like for you knowing your sort of pursuing this, this cipher? haven t been a competitive athlete most of my life, really it was a competition between him and i. i knew i was gonna find him, i wanted to win for her lane. and by the fall of 2019, detective jensen seem to be making progress. after speaking with contacts to