Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Aspiring Model Raped, Murdered, Body Discarded Behind Warehouse

Episode Date: March 9, 2022

Mary Jane Thompson, 21, wants to be a model. She follows her dream to Houston and Los Angles, landing in Dallas. While waiting on her big break, Thompson works at a florist’s shop and a restaurant. She disappears after catching a bus, headed to a medical clinic, not knowing the clinic was closed. Thompson is never seen alive again. Her body is found two days later behind a Dallas warehouse on February 13, 1984, but her killer goes unnamed for more than 30 years. Now, police say advanced DNA techniques led investigators to Edward Morgan, 60. He is jailed on one count of capital murder, Joining Nancy Grace Today: Matthew Mangino - Attorney, Former District Attorney (Lawrence County), Author: "The Executioner's Toll: The Crimes, Arrests, Trials, Appeals, Last Meals, Final Words and Executions of 46 Persons in the United States" Dr. Angela Arnold - Psychiatrist, (Atlanta GA) www.angelaarnoldmd.com, Expert in the Treatment of Pregnant/Postpartum Women, Former Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Obstetrics and Gynecology: Emory University, Former Medical Director of The Psychiatric Ob-Gyn Clinic at Grady Memorial Hospital Lisa M. Dadio - Former Police Lieutenant, New Haven Police Department, Senior Lecturer, Director of the "Center for Advanced Policing" at the University of New Haven's Forensic Science Department Dr. Kendall Crowns – Chief Medical Examiner Tarrant County (Ft Worth), Lecturer: University of Texas and Texas A&M, Affiliated Faculty: University of Texas Medical Branch Dave Mack - Crime Online Investigative Reporter Shera LaPoint - Genetic Genealogist, Author: "The Gene Hunter", Founder: TheGeneHunter.com, Twitter: @LapointShera  Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. A gorgeous young girl, an aspiring model, takes a bus and is never seen alive again. What happened to Mary Jane Thompson? I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us here at Fox Nation and Sirius XM 111. I hate that. Never seen alive again. And it brings to mind the stark dichotomy of us going through our regular lives. I'm sitting here at this microphone. You're somewhere on your device watching or listening. Got Jackie Medea here in the studio with me. Everything's normal. Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. And then all of a sudden, it's not. All of a sudden, it will never be the same again. I've lived through that with the death of my

fiance, his murder. I'm thinking about this young girl. She's 21. Beautiful on the inside and the outside. That's rare. Going about her life, hopping on a bus, and then she's never seen alive again. With me in all-star panel to make sense of what we know, first of all, Matthew Mangino, a renowned attorney, former prosecutor, author of The Executioner's Told, Dr. Angela Arnold, esteemed psychiatrist joining us out of the Atlanta jurisdiction, and you can find her at AngelaArnoldMD.com, Lisa Daddio, former police lieutenant, New Haven PD, and now the senior lecturer and director for Center for Advanced Policing. Dr. Kendall Crowns. We know him well. The chief medical examiner, Tarrant County.

That's Fort Worth. Again, never a lack of business there. But also, Lecture University Texas, Texas A&M, Faculty University, Texas Medical School. Dave Mack joining us on this story for the longest. Dave joining us from CrimeOnline.com and a special guest joining us, a genetic genealogist, Cheryl LaPointe, author of The Gene Hunter, and I'm not talking about the denim. I'm talking about G-E-N-E, The Gene Hunter, and founder of thegenehunter.com. As you can see, this is going to take a village, a lot of people, to make sense of what happened to Mary Jane Thompson. But first to you, Dr. Angela Arnold, psychiatrist, joining us out of the Atlanta jurisdiction. Dr. Angie, the stark dichotomy, the contrast between this girl hopping on a bus, minding her own business.

I did it a million times in New York, going from court TV to home, from court TV to HLN. I had a triangle. And I would never think anything about it. My mind doesn't try to read if I could. The dichotomy of that moment that's so ordinary, and then suddenly, she's never seen again. There's something very jarring about that, Dr. Angie. It's very jarring to everyone because, Nancy, none of us can live our lives in the fear of thinking that every time we go about our daily activities, something could happen like this, so unexpected and out of the ordinary, that we all pause and take a deep breath and think, oh my God, it's so horrendous. Thank God it didn't happen to me. But our minds protect us and we mourn that and then we go about our daily lives again

without being fearful every day. So I am quite sure that this young girl who was just starting off her life never got on and off of her bus with the fear that someone was going to take her life. To Matthew Mangino joining me, a high-profile lawyer, former prosecutor, you know, I disagree with a lot of what Dr. Angie just said because I don't think you always live in fear. After Keith's murder, my fiance's murder, I don't live in fear. I just assume that something really horrible can and will happen, and I'm going to do everything, move heaven and earth, to make it not happen.

And if it does happen, I will rip the throat out of whoever caused it. So I don't know that I would call that fear, Matthew Mangino. Well, I think you make a good point, Nancy. You better be glad you said that because I'm angry right now just hearing Dr. Angela Arnold go on. Yes. So I think it's important to recognize that, you know, maybe it's not necessarily fear, but but people have generally gone out of their way to protect themselves. And I think that that in some ways has had an impact on crime because people are extra careful. People take a route that they might not normally take if they have to go through a bad neighborhood. I think that people generally have given up some liberty, whether we like it or not, to protect ourselves and to provide ourselves with some security.

Now, this was back in 1984, and crime rates were certainly high in the 80s. But, you know, again, at 21 years old... Crime rates are high right now, Mangino. Go online, man. Yes, they are. Look, crime rates are skyrocketing in multiple cities across our country. And think about, again, I was talking about the dichotomy. Okay, to Dr. Angela Arnold, I didn't disagree with everything you just said, but one thing is especially poignant in that we protect ourselves, and you did say this, so I'm echoing you, because sometimes the only way you can go through life, or some people anyway, is to differentiate yourself and your children from all the crime victims. It's not

going to happen to me because fill in the blank. I don't get on the interstate. I don't go to bad areas. I don't this. I lock my car. Nobody can get in. Nothing's going to happen. I lock my windows. I turn on the alarm. You can fill in any blank you want with any explanation you want because some people can't go forward knowing that this bad thing could happen. They have to differentiate themselves from the people that do become crime victims or they just can't function. But this girl did nothing. She worked at a florist shop, for Pete's sake.

How dangerous is that? And a restaurant. I completely agree with you. And I think that I think that either I misspoke or I was misunderstood because I don't believe that people walk around in fear, even with all of the crime that we have right now in all of the different cities where we live. I think you have to suspend the fear. Can I tell you what happened the other night? The other night. You don't walk around in fear unless something actually happens to you. The other night, um, my husband, where did he have to, he had to go somewhere and, um,

trust but confirm. I went, sure. Enjoy your dinner. And then immediately looked him up on life 360 to make sure where he really was. He was there just so you know, but I thought, wow, let's go out and have dinner. I'll go out and have supper with the twins. So we go out. And of course, I had no cash. So I couldn't ask the valet guy to park the car. So I let the children off.

And at night in the dark alone, I go into a parking deck. And I guess every single thing I put in my book, don't be a victim. And I had to guess what? Park in a canyon. That's what I call parking between two tall SUVs. There was nowhere else. I could hardly get in there. So I got in there and I thought, wow, this is contrary to every single thing I have written in my book. But I did it. Why? Because of what you just said. I suspended all logic and continued on without fear, thinking, oh, it's not going to happen to me.

It did cross my mind. How long would the twins sit there in the restaurant alone before they figured out mommy's not there on time? So yes, is that what you're saying? We choose to go forward thinking it's not going to happen to us or else we can't go forward? Exactly. That is exactly what I'm saying. Dave Mack, who is Mary Jane Thompson? 21 years old. What can you tell me about her?

Mary Jane Thompson actually grew up in a suburb of Buffalo, New York called Cheektowaga. Right after she graduated high school, she took off. Her dream was to be a model. Her sister said that was her dream from being a very little girl that when she was seven, eight, nine years old, touching her clothes was a big no-no. She was a girly girl who had dreams of being a model. And you mentioned she was a beautiful young woman. Oh, gosh, yeah. Really, really pretty. She leaves the Buffalo area and ends up going to Houston, Los Angeles. And she had moved to Dallas. And she, as you mentioned, she was working at a florist shop and working at a restaurant. So you've got a 21-year-old young woman. She's got a real drive. She wants to at a restaurant. So you've got a 21-year-old young woman.

She's got a real drive. She wants to be a model. She leaves her family and friends in Buffalo, New York. She's now in Dallas working two jobs, making it happen when she hops on a bus to go to a medical clinic for a medical procedure. So she is supporting herself, working at a florist shop and a restaurant, takes a bus, and again, is never seen alive after that. Take a listen to our cut three. This is Leanne Stuck, WGRZ2. Her pictures are everywhere.

Her memory stays fresh with the family. Mary Jane Thompson grew up in Chictewaga. After graduating from Cleveland Hill High School, she moved to Dallas to pursue her dreams. Mary Jane was very, she definitely wanted to be a model. Even being young, she was always dressing up. Touching her clothes would be like a no-no. On February 13th, 21-year-old Mary Jane was going to a clinic for medical treatment. When she got there, they were closed, and then she was taken to a clinic for medical treatment. When she got there, they were closed. And then she was taken the bus back. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.

Dave Mack with us, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter. So she gets on a bus. Where is this, Houston? Actually in Dallas. I'm sorry, Dallas. And she's just going for a minor procedure at a clinic, gets there, and the clinic is closed. Where is this exactly? It's actually in an area of Dallas that has a, it's like a big warehouse district where not everything is full.

There are a lot of empty warehouses and things like that. Geographically speaking, when you get there, it it doesn't look like it's an abandoned area, Nancy. But there's a lot of inactivity in and around this Trinity Medical Center where it back when this was taking place. Understood. I wonder when she was first missed, Dave Mack. Do we know who missed her first? No, we don't. Because in reality, Nancy, as I mentioned before, she grew up outside of Buffalo. And she was in contact with her family members.

And they know when she went to the clinic. And in the time since, they found out that the clinic was closed, and she was headed back to the bus stop to get on a bus to go back home. Two days pass. No one realizes this gorgeous young girl is even missing. Take a listen to our friends WGRZ2 Buffalo. On February 13th, 21-year-old Mary Jane was going to a clinic for medical treatment. When she got there, they were closed. And then she was taken the bus back and that's where he grabbed her at the bus stop.

Two days later, Mary Jane's body was found behind a Dallas warehouse. She'd been sexually assaulted and murdered on Irving Boulevard. To Dave Mack, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter. So two days pass. Nobody really even, I guess, notices she's missing or knows she's missing. Do they just find her body? That's what police are saying. Her body was found. And as I mentioned, it was behind

an empty warehouse, Nancy. So you've got an area that at one point in time had been very active. Now, not so much. So the body was there for two days. Joining me, Dr. Kendall Crowns, Chief Medical Examiner, Tarrant County. That is in Texas. Dr. Kendall Crowns, Mary Jane goes missing, her body found in the middle of February. What's the temperature in mid-February there in Texas? Currently in the Fort Worth area, it is around 30 degrees and sleeting. 30 degrees and sleeting. 30 degrees and sleeting.

We've pulled up the year and the date of Mary Jane's murder. And most of the evidence reveals it was around 40 degrees. You're saying it's lower than that and sleeting. Her body lies there. And how was she killed, Dave Mack? She was strangled with her own leg warmers, Nancy. That reminds me of Chandra Levy, the Washington intern who goes missing. And years pass, and her remains are found at Rock Creek Park.

And she was strangled, ligature style, with her own leggings, her own tights. Same thing here. Dr. Kendall Crowns, the fact that her body would have been in the elements at that temperature, what would you expect to find? So usually with the colder weather, the decomposition rate has slowed a little bit, but she would probably still have some changes of decomposition consisting of green discoloration, some bloating and skin slippage, but she wouldn't have any of the insect activity. Okay, wait, can you, could you just repeat that slowly? Sure. So at that temperature, her rate of decomposition would be slow. She wouldn't have a lot of changes,

but she would have some green discoloration of her skin, maybe a little skin slippage, but the insect activity that you standardly see with bodies that are outside would be non-existent because the flies aren't active in the cold weather. You know, that just rolls off the tip of your tongue, talking about fly activity. I do it too, because our job, we're trained to look at evidence, mine legal and yours medical. But when you think about it, being a 21-year-old girl who works at a florist shop and we're talking about fly and insect activity on her body, it's very upsetting and disconcerting. How would we know, Dr. Kendall-Crowns, that she was sex assaulted?

Usually when someone has been sexually assaulted, there is evidence of injury around the genital regions, usually abrasions and lacerations because of the forced penetration. Wow, the way you said that, I don't even know you're talking about rape. So you look for tissue tearing in the vaginal and anal area and you look for semen sperm can I make it any more plain that would be very accurate and very plain Nancy um and the reason I break it down is because having dealt with jurors for so many years and myself a lot of times what doctors say, I don't know what

they said. They finish and it sounds really smart, but it's sometimes hard to interpret. No offense, Dr. Kendall Grounds, you're just smarter than all of us, simply put. So you're saying they would have known she was raped or sex assaulted because you would expect to find vaginal or anal tearing or bruising or laceration coupled with the presence of semen sperm. Correct? Is that what you just said? That's correct. Lisa Daddio, former police lieutenant, director of Center for Advanced Policing.

Let's just pretend, let's hypothesize the perp was wearing a rubber. Okay, then we wouldn't find sperm. We wouldn't find semen. What if there's any number of ways to sex assault somebody? So if that evidence didn't exist because of possible use of a condom, what about she's undressed from the waist down? What about that? So, you know, you have all these other things to look at that would be indicative of a sexual assault. If you wore a condom, you're still going to look for DNA that may be left on her.

Whether or not there was any fingernail scrapings from her that contained the suspect's DNA from scratching, from defending herself from the attack. You're going to look at maybe saliva. I'm looking at evidence that there was a sex attack. If I don't have, if I don't have semen, how do I know? You're going to look to see if there's any other damage to her vaginal area. You're going to look at her clothing. You're going to look at whether or not, you know, where are her underwear? Where are, you know, her pants? Well, she had leggings on. So, you know, you're going to look at all that part of it and you're to see if there's any ripped clothing or anything on the victim that's

going to be indicative of a possible sexual assault. You would look at the position of the body. Does it look like she had been raped? We know she was declothed because her leg warmers were tied around her neck. So somewhere along the way, she lost her leggings. In my mind, that's enough circumstantial evidence to prove that she was assaulted in some way, for Pete's sake. We heard Dr. Kendall Crown state it's 30 degrees and sleeting right now in Texas, mid-February. So in that year, we also know it was very cold. Why else would she take off her leg warmers on the way to the bus for Pete's sake? No reason. I don't need to have somebody tell me two and two equals four. I can figure that out. My only hope is that there could be DNA of some sort. And I want to go back to you, Lisa Daddio, the director of Center for Advanced Policing. Even if there's not semen, you mentioned

looking under her nails because I guarantee you she did not have her leggings taken off her body voluntarily on a day that cold on the way to a bus. That didn't happen. I think she fought. How else could we find evidence, Lisa Daddio? You're going to look at her fingernail scrapings. You're going to look at parts of her body where there may be hair, fibers, something that connects the suspect to her and her body. There's other types of evidence that can be present on her body or around the area that directly link him to the scene if we don't have seminal fluid. Like? Saliva, hair from him, whether it's pubic hair, chest hair, arm hair, leg hair, head hair. If it contains a follicle, you can get DNA from that.

Now you can. Back then, you were not able to. You mean if it has a nucleus, you can extract DNA. If you don't have a nucleus, you'll have to stick with mitochondrial DNA that can be extracted from the hair without a nucleus, yes? Yes. Matthew Mangino, high-profile lawyer joining us and author of The Executioner's Toll. Matthew, you ever had a perp that actually shaved his body so he would not leave behind hair?

I haven't dealt with that directly, but certainly I'm aware of situations where that was done. Yeah. It's happened, especially with serial rapists. They don't want to get caught, and they want to keep on raping and killing. They will remove all the hair from their body, from the neck down. They, especially in the pubic area, they will wear a condom, and very often even wear rubber gloves, the sensitive type. They're very thin. Yes, that's right. And so you cannot always expect to find DNA from a crime

scene. Would you agree with that, Matthew Mangino? Yes, I would agree. You're talking, Nancy, about a serial rapist. This is someone who's gone to great lengths to keep his identity from being unveiled either by terror or by DNA or some other substance. I think that most rapists are acting on impulse and that they're not going through this strategy of how they can hide their identity. Certainly, they may be aware that they don't want to be caught. But but often it's it's an opportunity here. Here's an attractive young woman walking in a neighborhood by herself and somebody comes along and grabs her off the street and sexually assaults her and then figures, well, my only way of not getting caught here is to kill her so she can't identify me. And I think that's more likely the circumstance in this case. Matthew Mangino, I think you're absolutely correct.

We watch a lot of crime stories and movies and streaming. I don't think most criminals are as smart as the way they are portrayed in the media. I think you're right, although those, I don't know if I would call them smart, Dr. Ann's journal, are just evil. They do exist and they do strike and they're never caught. What kind of a mind does that take? I mean, Nancy, I don't believe that we can necessarily distinguish between if they're

smart and or evil. I don't think those two things negate each other. They're horribly evil. I didn't know psychiatrists like you even believed in evil. Oh, heck yeah, I believed in evil. I thought everybody just had a bad childhood. No, Nancy. There are people believed in evil. Oh, heck yeah, I believed in evil. I thought everybody just had a bad childhood. No, Nancy.

There are people that are evil. Yeah, it could be from their childhood, but there are evil people that cannot be treated. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Now joining us, a so-called genetic genealogist and author of The Gene Hunter, founder of thegenehunter.com, Shira LaPointe, high-profile geneticist. Shara, thank you for being with us. Thanks for having me, Nancy. Shara, this case languishes for 38 years. What was missing? Why couldn't they solve the case? Nancy, when she was raped and murdered, the autopsy that was done preserved evidence. In 1984, we didn't have the tools and the information that we have now. There was no such thing as CODIS, which is the Combined DNA Indexing System, that came to be in 1994. And in that system, we now have access to DNA that has been taken from known perpetrators.

But in 1984, they had nothing to compare it, nor did they have the tools to even know that they could do that. You're hearing Cheryl appoint genetic genealogist and author. So Dr. Kendall Crowns, we could only hope that the correct DNA swabbing was done at the time of Mary Jane Thompson's autopsy. Describe what that would have been had it been done. Okay. So standardly when a sexual activity kit is taken at the time of autopsy. Why did you say sex activity? It's a rape kit.

You think Mary Jane Thompson wanted to have sex with a stranger in the snow behind a warehouse? No, Nancy, I don't think that she desired to have sex with a stranger in a blind warehouse. That's rape. But in our vernacular, sexual activity kit is what we're calling them because rape implies something that lawyers don't like. So that's what I've always been told to refer to them as. But if you would prefer me to call it a rape kit, I can. Well, why don't you just call it what it is? If you think that you're even doing an autopsy where you have to swab somebody's rear end with a Q-tip, and you think that was, what did you say, sex activity?

That's certainly putting perfume on the pig, don't you think? Well, your friends in the defense attorney world preferred us not to use inflammatory terms. Well, luckily, we're not in that world. You're in Nancy land now. So how do you do the swab? So how I do the swabs, usually with a sexual activity kit, aka a rape kit, we do oral, anal, and vaginal swabs. There's two Q-tips that have wooden, long wooden handles on them. They're placed in each of those cavities and then moved around and then they're taken out and placed into a sterile paper box that has been

sealed initialed and handed to a law enforcement officer or a crime scene individual to take to the crime lab we'll also scrape the fingernails. We'll cut all the fingernails off and remove them as well. And then we'll swab any areas that are potential DNA aspects like bruises on the neck or bite marks. Can I ask you your preference regarding bagging of the hands? The Lord please help, that they did bag her hands at the scene before she was moved. That means you put a bag over the hands and then a rubber band or secure it at the wrist so that her hands won't touch the sheets or the medical examiner investigators or the gurney or the bag they put her in,

you don't want to destroy what may be under her nails. And you don't want to add fiber from somebody's scrubs. So do you prefer a paper or a plastic bag? Because I've only ever seen paper bags. The paper bag is what's preferred because if you put a plastic bag on there, it can cause condensation, which can result in mold growth, and it can also cause disruption of the DNA evidence. So really, plastic should never be used. Have you ever seen it used? I have, and it's unfortunate when it is used. Why do people still do that? I think because it's what's convenient or what someone has at the scene. Sometimes it's unfortunate when it is used. Why do people still do that? I think because it's what's convenient or what someone has at the scene.

Sometimes it's a smaller police agency. They don't carry a little kid in their car and they just use what they have. I've seen individuals come in with sonic bags wrapped around their hands. You know what? God bless them for wrapping the hands. God bless them. Even though they used a fast food burger bag. To Cheryl LaPointe, our genetic genealogist, why is it so important the hands be wrapped?

Look, power to them for wrapping them with a sonic bag or a plastic bag or any bag. Because if you don't wrap the hands and secure them, bad things happen. Cheryl, explain. Nancy, I have never been attacked. But if I was to be attacked, the first thing that I think I would do would be use my hand to grab at the person who's attacking me. I would want to scratch their eyeballs out. And I know now I want to get DNA under my fingernails.

I think that's just a human response. When you're attacked, you want to attack back. And the hands are a wonderful place for us to be able to find DNA to be able to solve these crimes. You know, Matthew Mangino, I remember I had been prosecuting maybe, oh gosh, maybe five years when I got a call from the elected DA, who's like a grandfather to me, a very stern grandfather. And I actually picked an office, it was very small, by the stairs in the DA's office, because the DA's office had so many, you know, 80 lawyers, investigators, appellate crew, just the works. And I did not like waiting on an elevator. So I remember hearing Mr. Slayton, 37 years, the elected DA, say, Nancy, report to my office.

I'm like, I shot out of that little office, and the reason I liked it is by the stairs, the emergency exit, and would run in heels down to the third floor to get to his office immediately. And he gave me a case that had been tried, I think when I was still in college. Conviction went all the way up on appeal, Georgia Supreme Court, then the, I guess the Fifth or maybe the Eleventh Circuit by that time, then all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. It was about interlocking statements. The defendants each gave a statement and then they were tried together, which means, you know, I don't want to go too far down the rabbit hole, but you can't bring in this guy's statement against this guy because you can't cross-examine him. You can't cross-examine a

defendant that never takes a stand. So this guy doesn't get the right to cross examine a witness, which is unconstitutional under the Sixth Amendment, simply put. So my point is, when I tried to try that case again, this was 16 years later, I had one x-ray of the dead victim and a hat that said, kiss my bass. That was my evidence. I had to start at the beginning and do the whole case all over again. Here, you've got a 38-year-old case. You've got to pray for a miracle, Mangino, a miracle. Well, yes.

I mean, you know, 38 years have passed. You don't have any witnesses, so to speak, eyewitnesses, people who who saw anybody around her or actually saw the sexual assault. So so all that you're going to have in this case is physical evidence. Now, this case may have some more physical evidence than you had, you know, kiss my bass hat. And there's more to work with. And technology has evolved over time that puts us in a position where we can better evaluate and analyze physical evidence. So while you certainly have a long passage of time and you don't have these witnesses, you do have, it appears, physical evidence that in time, technology is going to unseal for us. Lisa Daddio joining me, former police lieutenant. What was the training like in 84 versus today?

Can you shed light on that for us? I mean, the techniques have evolved immensely. Yeah. I mean, back in 84 and honestly, prior to the mid-90s, it was pretty basic. You know, you protect the crime scene, you package all your evidence, the same, that hasn't changed. So paper bags, nine times out of 10, if you don't have them, you go get them, even if you have to hit McDonald's or Sonic or whichever. You take your pictures, you do your video, and you package everything separately so you don't cross contaminate. That hasn't changed. The preserving of the fingers and the hands hasn't changed. We've always done it.

What has now changed as we're here in 2022 is we now can do so much with DNA and swab surfaces looking for touch DNA, trace amounts of DNA were before when DNA was first discovered. We needed a lot of it. And it had to be in the form of blood initially. Yeah. Yeah. It's advanced incredibly. As the years pass and no resolution to Mary Jane Thompson's case, suddenly a glimmer of hope. Take a listen to our cut one CBS.

Does anybody remember the Golden State Killer? Joseph D'Angelo, listen. Handcuffed to a wheelchair, Joseph D'Angelo was arraigned on charges for two murders in 1978. He was barely audible answering the judge. Investigators found D'Angelo using DNA from crime scenes decades ago, which they submitted to a publicly shared genealogy website called GEDmatch.

Cold case investigator, Paul Holes. We were able to do this without seeking the legal authority in terms of getting the federal grand jury subpoena or the search warrant that we would need if we wanted to search the other types of genealogy sites. GEDmatch users submit DNA profiles they buy from sites like Ancestry.com and 23andMe. They plug their data for free into GEDmatch, searching for distant relatives. Within days, investigators found distant cousins of the suspected Golden

State killer. We literally went back to the great, great, great grandfather with individuals that were born in the early part of the 1800s. I've had Paul Hull, the detective on that case, one of them, explain it to me. It's very, very involved. But how did they get D'Angelo's DNA? Let's now cut to CBS News. It took four months to identify D'Angelo as a likely suspect, but to prove it, investigators followed him to collect his DNA from something he threw away. District Attorney Anne-Marie Schubert. It could be he left a tissue. It could be that he, you know, put his hands on a door handle. But it was what I call abandoned DNA.

That abandoned DNA solved a 44-year-old mystery in four months, but also raises concerns about the privacy of DNA collection. Isn't it almost certain that a defense attorney is going to call this an illegal search? We would expect that. We anticipate it. We're fully prepared to deal with that through the court process. GEDmatch says law enforcement never approached them. In a statement, GEDmatch tells users, if you are concerned about non-genealogical uses of your DNA,

you should not upload your DNA to the database. Under the inspiration of the Golden State Killer case movement in the case of Mary Jane Thompson, listen to our friends WGRZ. In 2020, forensic genetic genealogy analysis was done. 60-year-old Edward Morgan's DNA matched the unidentified profile from the swab taken in the 1984 autopsy. And on Friday, Morgan was arrested and charged with capital murder. A person the family says is unfamiliar to them, but he lived right near the crime scene. In fact, as I sit and look out my office window right now, I can not only see the area where the crime scene was, it's only about a mile from my office.

But, you know, our suspect lived about just a mile further past that. And to think all this time working on the case, he was just right under our nose. Right under their nose, this guy. Take a listen to Steve Pickett, CBS 11. Nearly 38 years, an unsolved murder, a Dallas woman killed, her body found behind a warehouse. Tonight, decades later, an arrest. The Dallas County District Attorney's Office has this man, Edward Morgan, now in custody. He is charged with capital murder for the death of Mary Jane Thompson.

She was killed back in 1984. Thompson's body was actually found on Irving Boulevard. Investigators say she was also sexually assaulted. So back in 2009, Dallas police reopened the unsolved case with DNA testing from swabs taken during the victim's autopsy. They identified male DNA, but never had a match until new technology led to the arrest of this man, Mr. Morgan. He is now 60 years of age. He is also now in the Dallas County Jail on one count of capital murder. Capital murder. That means there is a chance to seek the death penalty. To Cheryl Laointe joining

us genetic genealogists what happened shara we didn't have an eyewitness in this case nancy but we had something much more important than that we had genetic witnesses that dna that was taken at that autopsy can now be put in the sites that we use for genealogy purposes. And we can find relatives of the perpetrator. We can work on finding the common ancestors and build a family tree, just like you would do for an adoptee. And find the person who may have been responsible for this crime, someone who lived in the area, someone who may have been the right age, a male, of course.

It takes a lot of work. It takes a lot of manpower. It takes collaboration between law enforcement, labs, genealogists. But the tool is amazing. 38 years later, they found who did this crime. Without this tool, I doubt that it could have been found. You're referring to, quote, this tool. What are you talking about, Shira? I'm talking about genetic genealogy. I'm talking about using autosomal DNA testing from direct-to-consumer tests like Ancestry, 23andMe, Family Tree DNA. Using that along with traditional genealogy tools like birth certificates, census records. You put it all together. Once you find these common ancestors amongst the DNA matches of the perpetrator, you build a tree

and you find who's responsible. And now he, Edward Morgan, is sitting behind bars awaiting trial. And now Mary Jane's sister speaks out. 38 years went by without an arrest. 38 years Mary Jane's sister will never forget. Yeah, for her life to be ended so fast and so, like, long, before she had a chance to become a model. I mean, he took that away from her. We wait as justice unfolds.

Nancy Grace Crumstory signing off. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.