“A lot of things have gone towards automation, the technology has allowed us really to move the field further,” says Cleveland Miles, director of the GBI’s Division of Forensic Sciences. “It allows us to do things efficiently and reliably. And so that s really what is happening for the field across the board, but especially in DNA.”
The authorities employed genetic genealogy to solve a mystery: A 19-year-old “free spirit” traveling the country was killed by a truck driver, who left her body on an interstate in Georgia.