Criminology - Christy Mirack

Episode Date: November 17, 2018

In this final episode of season 4, we discuss the 1992 murder of 25-year-old school teacher Christy Mirack in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. We also examine the investigation and the genetic genealogy that, years later, would help identify her killer. We wrap up the episode by talking about a few other cases that were solved in 2018 using this incredible new technology. You can help support the show by going to patreon.com/criminology An Emash Digital production Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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I'd like to welcome everyone to episode eight, the season finale of season four of criminology. So, Morph, it's kind of hard to believe we're wrapping up season four already. And I think this has been a really enlightening season. And I think I speak for you, Morph, when we say, We hope the audience thinks that as well. I know we've gotten some really good positive feedback about kind of the deep dive, the insider information into what is really some amazing technology. Yeah, I agree with you, Mike.

It's been really cool learning about how these cases are getting solved and the technology behind it. And I think it's just a glimpse of what's going to be happening in the future. Oh, I don't think there's any doubt. I mean, this is just the tip of the iceberg. There's been some great work in 2018. I think, I don't even want to say I think. I don't think there's any doubt that there are going to be many more crime solved

probably even in the next month or so by the end of this year. But especially as you think 2019, 2020, you heard somebody say it more. if I think it was in the last episode that we did where in one of the press conferences, someone said, you know, if you're a criminal and you thought you've gotten away with something, you better think again, right? DNA, paraben, jed match, genetic genealogy, all these things that they're using, there have to be people out there in the world, not just the United States, in the world that have committed crimes. that are literally shaking in their boots.

Yeah, I think it'll be cool to see which cases are the ones that get solved. If there are some big cases that we've been waiting for, like maybe Zodiac that turns 50 years old this year, or a lot of smaller ones that we haven't heard about in a while. I'd be really looking forward to see which ones get solved. Oh, Zodiac would be, I mean, that would be Golden State Killer-esque, I think. You know, in the terms of how well known the case is. So in this final episode, we have some more cases solved in 2018 using these methods that we've been talking about.

But before we get into those, let's take a quick minute to give some shoutouts to our newest Patreon supporters. We had Christine Anson, Starless Sims, Jennifer Autry jumped out at our highest level. Michelle Harriage and Kimberly Wright. So amazing big time shoutouts to all of those folks. And more if we say it all the time, but we appreciate the support that we get, you know, from our Patreon folks, both the new and and those that continue to support us month after month. But on top of that, right, there are a lot of people supporting us in other ways on social media, telling their friends, all of that stuff is amazing. I can't reiterate enough what Mike just said. The support that you give us really allows us to keep bringing you this content that we do. And if you'd like to help support the show through

Patreon and get early commercial free access to new episodes, you can do so by visiting patreon.com slash criminology. And another reminder about the books. We've had a lot of people on social media asking questions about our books based on the first couple seasons of the podcast. And they're both out right now in e-book, form, and paperback. And of course, those books are Criminology True Crime Podcasts presents the case of the Zodiac Killer. And Criminology True Crime Podcast presents the case of the Golden State Killer. You can find those books on Amazon or other online booksellers. We're going to be at CrimeCon this summer in New Orleans in 2019.

And we hope to see you there. If you have copies of your book, feel free to bring them along with you, and we'll be happy to sign them. We just want to say thanks and give a big shout out to our listeners and fans who voted for us to put us in the finals for best true crime podcast of 2018 on the big list compiled by Discoverpodge.com. We're alongside some really great true crime podcast. If you'd like to see criminology advance to the finals, we hope you'll vote one more time in the finals by visiting Discoverpods.com. We'll also post a link to their voting page on our social website. media. And big thanks to discoverpods.com for compiling such a great list and including criminology on it. And congratulations to all of the finalists. All right, Morf, now that we've gotten all that out of the way, let's jump right into this episode.

And we're going to start it off with an East Coast murder that was solved in 2018. And that's the 1992 murder of 25-year-old school teacher Christy Ann Meera. This murder occurred in Lancaster County. P. Christy Mirak grew up alongside a brother and a sister in the coal town of Shemokin, Pennsylvania, which had a population of about 10,000. As kids, Christy would oftentimes make her siblings play school. And she always got to be the teacher.

And as Christy grew up, that was her dream. Her dream was to become a real teacher. Along the way, she attended college. at Millersville University. Christy worked odd jobs. She waitressed at a country club. She was a cashier at a pharmacy. But Christy worked those jobs to support herself until she could become a teacher and fulfill her dream.

She was very focused on only that, the dream of becoming a school teacher. By age 25, Christy's dream came true. In September of 1992, she became. she became a full-time sixth-grade teacher at Rorstown Elementary School, about 80 miles west of Philadelphia. Christy, being young and single and trying to budget, along with a female roommate, moved into a townhome in the Greenfield Estate's complex on Patriot Drive in Lancaster. The townhome was perfect for Christy, and the complex was nice and safe. It was located only eight miles from Christie's school, which meant Christy would have a 15-minute drive to work. and Christy was really excited about her future because everything was falling into place for.

On the morning of December 21st, Christy's roommate left for work, and Christy planned to leave at 7.45. After 8 a.m., Christy hadn't shown up for work. Her students began to pile into the classroom, and 10 minutes after the class was supposed to begin, there was no sign of Christy. And this wasn't like her, not to show up for work without calling. School staff tried to call Christy at home, but she didn't answer. Concerned, school principal Harry Newman decided to personally drive to Christy's apartment to see if she was there and if she was okay.

Principal Newman pulled up outside of Christy's townhome and walked to her door. As he reached the door, he saw that it was slightly ajar. He nudged it open and called Christy's name but didn't get a reply. principal goodman called out again as he stepped inside as he walked a few steps in he saw christie's body lying on the living-room floor nude from the waist down the shocked principal stood there for a second trying to comprehend what he had seen after a moment he raced out of the townhouse to a neighbors to call police closing the door behind him police arrived a few minutes later and met the distraught principal outside of christie's home and when they tried to enter it they found it locked and had to kick the door and to get in apparently the principal locked the door when he pulled it shut behind him, or it was already locked when he found it a jar. Police entered Christie's town home cautiously.

They didn't know whether or not Christy's killer was in the home. They quickly secured it and checked to see if Christy was alive, but it was quickly obvious. She was not. The house was a mess. And it was easy to see that Christy had put up a fight with her killer. Detectives arrived and started the official investigating. into Christy's murder.

When they examined her body, they found that although she was nude from the waist down, she was wearing gloves. It appeared as if her shirt had been pushed up. Christy's body showed signs of trauma to the head and neck. There was a cutting board lying close to her head and scattered around the living room were the gifts that Christy had been wrapping and planned to give to her students. On one of the walls, there were scuffed marks. from Christie's feet that led investigators to think that Christy, while being choked or grabbed from behind,

had kicked her feet out during the struggle in an effort to free herself from her attacker. Police theorized that Christy was leaving for work when someone she knew, or a stranger, came through her front door. A struggle immediately ensued, and trying to fight off her attacker, Christy grabbed the cutting board to use as a weapon, but the killer had taken it from Christy and used it on her. Christy had literally fought to her death. Police found semen from Christy's killer and collected it into evidence. An autopsy would later reveal that Christy was beaten and strangled to death, as well as being raped. During the strangulation, the killer used both his hands and an article of Christy's clothing.

Police wouldn't reveal what article of clothing was used to strangle Christy. Christie's jaw was also broken, and her elbows and knees had been bruised and scuffed. Police reached out to Christy's roommate, but she told them that everything was fine when she left for work and she couldn't provide any helpful information. Police knew that the killer struck during a 45-minute window between 7 a.m. when Christy's roommate left for work and 7.45 when Christy was due to leave for work. Neighbors were shocked. This kind of thing just didn't happen there. Lancaster County was a peaceful and safe community. As police questioned residents, they found that most people hadn't seen or heard anything unusual that morning. However, a few clues did surface.

One witness reported that they saw a medium-sized white or maybe faded silver sports car, and they said that the car had very distinct black louvers covering the back window. possibly a Dodge Daytona or Dodge Shadow or possibly a Toyota park across the street from Christie's home. They saw a muscular white male step out of the parked car and this person began walking towards Christie's town hall. But the witness didn't see exactly where the man went. The car was gone by the time police arrived at the scene. Another witness told police about a suspicious man walking on Pitney Road. a short distance from Christie's home. He was in his late 20s, 225 to 250 pounds, stocky with a muscular

build and stringy long, medium brown hair that hung to his chest. He was clean-shaven and had deep-set eyes. He was wearing a blue, white and black faded shirt and blue jeans. Police later released a composite sketch of the man, but he was never identified. Christy's family was devastated and heartbroken by the news of her murder. They couldn't understand how or why. Someone would do something so horrible to Christy. The principal informed the staff at Roerstown Elementary School of what happened. And Christy's coworkers were shocked as well.

Then came the challenge of breaking the news to Christy students that this teacher that they had come to appreciate so much was dead. The school called in extra staff. counselors, and even clergy to help the students cope with and try to make sense of what happened to their beloved teacher, Ms. Mirak. Police soon realized that they didn't know much at all about Christy's friends or any potential boyfriend she had. They reached out to the Merrick family to see what they knew, but they too knew very little. Christy was a very private person that didn't talk much about her personal life or who

she dated. As detectives dug deeper into Christy's life, They discovered there was more than met the eye regarding her personal and dating life. On the day of Christy's murder, a man showed up at Worsetown Elementary asking to speak with Christy. At the time this man arrived, the entire staff was busy dealing with grief counseling for students. The man told school personnel that he had been out of town and he really needed to talk to Christy. When the staff told the man that Christy had been killed, the man said he hadn't heard this, and he began to ask for details of her murder.

At that point, the school staff became suspicious of this man. They asked him to leave, but later on, the same man called the school and asked if he himself could speak with a grief counselor. Due to the man's suspicious behavior, the school alerted the police, and they identified him as a local man in his mid-40s. Once investigators had the man's name, they asked him to come in for questioning in Christie's murder. He agreed and willingly talked to police. The man who was married reluctantly told detectives that he and

Christie had been having an affair for almost four years. He also added that he had met her at a local bar and that they soon began dating afterwards. Despite the secret affair which Christy and the man kept to themselves, he insisted that he had not killed Christy. Police investigated him and using polygraph test and other means ruled him out. The investigators wanted to rule out everyone that they possibly could, and they even considered whether Principal Harry Newman, who reported finding Christy's body,

might somehow be involved in her murder. The principal was shocked and saddened to learn that police thought he could have had anything to do with her murder. but he agreed to cooperate and was soon ruled out. Police were stymie. By the following year, they had conducted over 500 interviews. They had done exhaustive background checks on at least 40 persons of interest in Christie's murder. Blood and hair samples were taken from a 31-year-old local man that was considered a top suspect by police. But the samples cleared him.

In April of 1993, about four months. months after Christie's murder, her family still desperate for answers announced that they were offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Christy's killer. But the reward went unclaimed as Christy's killer managed to escape detection. As the years dragged on, police continued searching for Christy's killer and in total conducted more than 1,500 interviews and eliminated more than 60 men as suspects using forensic testing to compare blood types and body fluids. On or about May 23, 2002, a Sunday Lancaster news staff writer got a call from a man asking about Merrick and suggested that a story should be done

about her. The caller refused to identify himself, but he sounded to the reporter like he might be in his mid-30s and talked hurriedly, like he wanted to get something off of his chest quickly. The unknown caller said that he and some buddies had been sitting around drinking the night before and got to talking about Chandra Levy, the intern of former Congressman Gary Condit, whose skeletal remains had been found in a Washington park on May 22nd. The caller said the newspaper should do a story on women like her, who slept around with a lot of different men, and who lived the life that a lot of people didn't know about. The caller then connected the case of Christy Merrick and noted that the 10-year anniversary of Merrick's murder was coming up in seven months.

The caller said that he knew Merrick and had been friends with her brother, Vince. He claimed the Nova Barne on property owned by the Merrick family, where Christy would take men. The caller kept saying the newspaper should do a story on women like her. The reporter asked him what he meant by that, and he responded by calling Christy a derogatory name, suggesting she was promiscuous. women like that did not deserve to die, the caller said. Then the caller added, but what did they expect? The man abruptly hung up the call and there was no way to trace it. The caller was never identified.

The FBI stated that the caller may have been Christie's murder and that the call was possibly due to his remorse coming out and that he was trying to rationalize the homicide. Along the way, the FBI aided in Christie's case by providing behavioral analysis and a profile of Christie's killer. They felt that the killer knew Christy and her routine and that the killer was a quiet person that lived a lifestyle that wouldn't call attention to him. In the fall of 2002, as the 10-year anniversary of Christy's murder approached, Christy's mom, Jerry, reached out to local newspapers to get Christy's story back in the news.

Jerry was very sick and she was battling cancer and she feared that she would die without ever knowing who killed Christy. The newspapers took notice of Jerry's efforts and they ran an article titled A Mother's Dying Wish to coincide with the 10-year anniversary of the murder. But Christy's mom wouldn't make it to the 10-year anniversary. She died in November of 2002, never knowing who killed her daughter. Christy's brother Vince took up the fight for justice in Christie's case. He teamed up with the brother of another murdered Lancaster County girl, Lindy Sue Beakler, and together they started a website. They also rented a billboard on a busy highway to handle and encourage tips and information

that the public might have. While Vince's efforts did generate some buzz and a few tips, no solid information came in, and Christy's case continued to linger. The killer's DNA profile was entered in a codis with no hits, but the DNA would still be of use to investigators. In 2017, after hearing about the revolutionary work Parabon was doing, creating composite sketches based on DNA profiles of killers, Lancaster County detectives thought that they may be able to help in Christie's case,

and they hired Parabon to create a snapshot composite of Christy's killer. With the Lancaster County District Attorney's Office heading the case and no arrests made in the 1992 murder of Christy Merrick, prosecutors now turn to new methods of DNA testing. We just weren't getting anywhere, and we continued to look at potential persons of interests and continue to eliminate them. Back to the drawing board, DA Stedman and investigators turn to Parabon Labs,

a company specializing in DNA phenotyping. The process takes DNA and predicts physical appearance and ancestry from unidentified evidence. Based on the genetic code, which dictates your physical appearance, they're able to essentially put themselves back in the position as if they were a witness. It's a genetic witness to the crime. What you see are three scientific approximations of what Mirix killer may have looked like at ages 25, 45, and 55 respectively. The DA asks that you keep in mind these are not exact replicas as various environmental factors come into play.

What the analysis concluded is that, the killer has light skin, brown eyes, and brown hair. You know, it has solved murder cases and horrible cases across the country, and we're hoping it doesn't hear. That snapshot provided by Parabon was useful to investigators in Christie's case. But as we've mentioned before, it's just a tool. It couldn't point directly to a suspect. But in 2018, Parabon reached back out to Lancaster County investigators and offered their brand

new genetic genealogy services to them. And luckily, investigators took Parabon up on their offer, because in a matter of weeks, that genealogy would point to a specific person. After learning the identity of the man suspected by Parabon to be Christie's killer, police placed him under surveillance. While at a public event, he disposed of gum and a water bottle, and police quickly snatched it up. DNA testing would reveal that his DNA was a 100% match to Christy's killer. Good afternoon. Thanks for coming. Again, apologize for holding you up a little bit. This is a fluid situation, and we just wanted to have things organized before we came in and spoke to you. So he said, I'm Craig Stedman. I'm the district attorney in Lancaster County. There could be a lot more people standing up here.

So many people have worked on this case. But today, we are announcing the arrest of Raymond Charles Rowe for the murder of Christy Murak from December 21st, 1992. He is being charged with one count of criminal homicide by Detective Christopher Herb from my office, Lancaster County Detective from the DA's office. He was arrested today at his home and will be taken to Lancaster County Prison. He will not be eligible for bail in this offense for this offense. I will go through some of the facts of the case. I'm going to allow and ask Steve Armatrout as the CEO of Paraport. Barbine, Labs to talk a little bit about his critical role in this case and getting us here

to this point, as well as CC Moore, she'll be coming in through Skype from Parabon as well. State police may, we'll offer them to make some comments, and then I'll have some final comments and open things up for questioning. Before I begin, I want to emphasize that Mr. Rowe is presumed innocent until he's been convicted in a court of law. absolutely enjoys the cloak of innocence, and that will remain until such time as we change that and we get a conviction in this case. The history of this case, it goes back a long ways.

It was shortly after I started here. It started with the East Lampeter Township Police Department, Ron Savage, Renee Schuller, and Joe Agil, who's present today. The state police have done and continue to do a tremendous amount of work on this. Chad Roberts had it. FBI has assisted with us over the years, and we took this case from the Eastland Peter Township Police Department in my office in 2016, and that was assigned to Detective's Erb and Martin and ADA Wilson. Worked closely with them over the past couple years on this. Christy Murak was 25 years old. She was a sixth grade teacher at Worcestown Elementary.

She was residing at Greenfield Estates at 20171 William Penn Way, and her roommate was named Mary Lesko. The two of them lived there and shared the place by all, you know, she was a teacher. That's what she was. In the morning of 12, 21, 1992, her roommate left at approximately 7th of the morning to go to work. Christine Murak was getting ready for her to go to work. She had some packages, some Christmas, it was Christmas time. she didn't appear. Her principal, Harry Goodman, became concerned

because she had not shown up for work and couldn't reach her with numerous efforts. He had tried to communicate with her and was unable to reach her. Around 9.15 in the morning, he actually went to her residence, concerned for her well-being, and he received no answer. He did see that the door was ajar a little bit. He announced his presence in when, in and saw a shocking scene of Kristi Murak unresponsive on the floor in our living room.

Went to a neighbor's residence and immediately called 911, at which time the police responded to the scene. They actually had to kick the door in because the door had been, was now, had been locked, been pulled behind him. It became obvious looking at the scene that a struggle had taken place inside the doorway. There were scuff marks on the floor. And on the inside back of the door, the packages were strewn about. It appeared as well that she had been sexually assaulted.

Her underwear and her pants had been removed. Her shoes were removed. The clothes on our torso had been pushed up. In addition, they located a cutting board, a wooden cutting board close to her head. There was blood. her face was distorted and she had suffered a brutal beating as well. There's a couple things that stand out. It should be noted.

She had her jacket on. She had her gloves on. And combined with the scuff marks and the indications of the struggle that we have at the scene, we're confident that she was assaulted almost instantly at the doorway, either surprised or instantly. and it also would appear from the scene that she fought for her life. Next day, Dr. Wayne Ross, the forensic pathologist for Lancaster County at that time, and still there today, did an autopsy of Christy. He noted, among many other things, blunt trauma to her neck, to her back, to her upper chest,

to her face, her jaw had been fractured, and the cause of death was strangulation. There was evidence consistent with a sexual assault consistent with what I had described before, And he swabbed a number of areas from her body to include her vagina, her anal region, her back, on the inside of her legs, and her oral cavity. And these areas showed evidence of sexual assault as well to Dr. Ross. Processing the scene, the Pennsylvania State Police, one of the things they collected was a section of the carpet, which was directly under where her body was found, located in the law. living room. These swabs and things they collected were sent to the

Pennsylvania State Police Crime Lab where eventually they were able to create a profile of the suspect and they found actually spermatozoa, a male suspect and a DNA profile was created. I also entered this into CODIS which is a national database that has DNA profiles for convicted criminals for certain offenses as well as unknown offenders of unsolved crimes. And to date, no matches have been found. As I said, in 2016, my office took this case, Detective Erb's, Urban Martin, and eventually became aware through actually

a seminar of Parabon, Nanolabs, and what services they could provide. In late 2016, we discussed with them what many of you came before in the fall. We had a press conference trying to generate information on this case on the phenotyping, which goes into the makeup of an individual suspect. What we're looking for is there is the ancestry, characteristics for hair, skin tone, eye color, and amount of freckles.

And I'm not going to go through all that. We did that before we have that. But the idea there, of course, was to generate some publicity, consistent with the fact that we were going to stay on this case. Having done that, in March of 2016, we submitted an extract from the carpet that I had described before that the state police had collected from the crime scene underneath the body. They were able to work up the phenotyping, and we received a report from them that we subsequently made public. We only made it public after, you know, be quite frank, we didn't have any more leads. We didn't have any more suspects that we could go to.

We had cleared. We had one more person that we wanted to eliminate or clear or see what it was. And we had done that in the fall of last year. And quite honestly, at that point in time, we didn't feel like we had any more arrows in the quiver. And it was Parabon was really our last shot. And little did we know at the time that it's turned out to be our best. and led us to today. Because in May of 2018, Tom Shaw, from the genetic section of Parabon, contacted us and said new services they could offer about the genetic genealogy. You've seen some of those cases recently. As far as I know, none of them have taken place in Pennsylvania.

There's only been a few across the country, but they were talking about offering that service, and we contracted with them to do that. We were interested in do it, and we pursued that. And I think rather than me talking about what they can do and what they did, I'm going to turn this to be appropriate time for me to turn it over to Steve Armantrout and let him talk about what they did. And then I'm going to put it in perspective about what they've actually done in this case

and you can turn it over to CC at your convenience. So I'm going to turn it over to Steve. My heart goes out to the Mirac family. I'm sure this must be an emotional day. We all owe a debt to the Lancaster DA's office, the Lancaster Police Department, the detectives, assistant VA that had worked so hard on this case for their tenacity, it's easy for us to forget how impossibly challenging their jobs can be at times

and just how much they give us in their service. I appreciate the trust they placed in Parabond, inviting us to be part of the investigative team that worked on this. Together we worked efficiently and effectively. It's a model I hope we can replicate across the country. Geniology is a relatively new technique. It was thrust into the public spotlight after the Golden State Killer suspect arrest because it was the same technology used there.

Since May, we've been offering this to our customers, and Lancaster was among the first to employ it. Most people will applaud the use of genetic genealogy for bringing cases like this to closure, but some will not. have raised privacy concerns over the use of genetic genealogy, mostly founded on misunderstandings about how the process works and the data involved. We've created a fact sheet that's available to all of the media here, and Brett can provide that for you.

We used a database called Jedmatch. Deadmatch is a publicly available database, a database for genetic genealogy purposes. proactively upload their DNA files to this. This is not something that happens accidentally. These people are proactively doing it and accepting those terms of service. It's a site specifically designed to find genetic relatives. I'd like to take a minute and thank the owners of Jedmatch for continuing to allow law enforcement usage of the site. It's really made possible some of the closures that we've seen recently. So we must make our own decisions about privacy

matters. Speaking for myself, I've chosen to upload my DNA to Jedmatch and I've made it publicly available for searching. This is something that I'll do, don't do lightly. But I have no misgivings whatsoever if my DNA is ultimately used by law enforcement to implicate even my closest relatives if, in fact, their DNA is found at a crime scene. I do that because I have confidence in the methods that we employ. I have confidence in the DNA matching technology that's been used for years now. I have confidence in the criminal justice system that if my relative is in fact innocent, they will be clear in due course, and if they're guilty, justice will be served. I hope others who think to criticize this technology will ponder that before doing so. So in this case,

we created a genotype file from DNA found at the crime scene. That database, that file was uploaded to Jedmatch. The file was set to private. At no time did anyone have access to that genetic file, nor could they see it, nor did it show up on any JetMatch searches. A common misconception is that the raw genetic information is available on Jedmatch, and that's just not true. So it's important to know that of where they let us to do that

of where they led us to a suspect with the entire country, it came back to somebody that lived within a few miles of where our victim lived back at that time. And it is also important to note that we had no connection to the defendant from our files. That although Parabon, we'd not use it, and to say that, their role was crucial is an understatement. We would not be here doing this and making this

announcement without Parabon. It's as simple as that. And all the work that we've done and Parabon has absolutely made the difference. As I said, you know, given that they're pointing us in the direction of this defendant, we needed to do more. We can't arrest based on what we've gotten from Parabon, we need to confirm some way through DNA. And in this particular case, as they do in the other cases, many other cases, we had to collect surreptitious sample from him from DNA. And the way we were able to do that was through the great work of the Pennsylvania State Police.

Drug Task Force officers helped some, and the FBI provided assistance as well. but we had undercover officers from the Pennsylvania State Police who attended a school function with Mr. Roe. Mr. Roe is also known as DJ Freeze. He was actually providing DJ services at that function. And at that function on May 31st of this year, they were able to observe him with a water bottle and connected into some gum that had been chewed. And they collected that. They collected those samples and sent them to the Pennsylvania State Police Crime Labs. And the lab started to come back with some numbers for us.

The first numbers for the DNA results came back on June the 8th of this year from the carpet sample. We're talking about the chances of it being, well, you know what, let me breathe the exact language, so I get it and I have the right. There are some specific numbers. I want to make sure I give you the right ones. We have a randomly selected individual, unrelated individual exhibiting the same combination of the DNA is the DNA that we got from the school function from this defendant for the carpet sample

was one in 1.3 quadrillion from the Caucasian population, one in 2.2 quadrillion from the African American population, and one in 290 trillion from the Hispanic population. Those are obviously significantly high numbers, but we want to do that. wanted to do more. As I had mentioned to you before, we had collected the swabs from inside and on her body from the autopsy. And we submitted this month the swabs from the vaginal reason, the anal reason, oral, from her back and from her legs. And on June 22nd, we received results from the Pennsylvania State Police DNA lab who expedited this and done an absolutely outstanding job, saying that all five of those samples and the carpet are all consistent, and they all matched this defendant in the bottle, the water bottle,

and the gum that they have been taken from the school function. To a level of statistics, which I'll share with you now, the numbers are significantly higher than the numbers that we have for the carpet. These are the ones, again, inside of her. And the numbers are some numbers that I've never even heard of. The first one would be the vaginal swab, the probability of randomly selecting an unrelated individual exhibiting this combination of DNA.

So from the water bottle from Raymond Rowe, from the school function is approximately 1 in 200 octillion from the Caucasian population. And just so you know, octilian is 1,000 trillion trillion. It is, that's a number with 27 zeros behind it. One in 15 non-nillion from the African-American population and non-nillion is even bigger. That's a number with 30 zeros behind it. And one in 74 octillion from the Hispanic population.

We have similar results for the anal swabs, the leg swabs, both sides of her legs. and the lower back, the sample that was taken from her lower back came back to the probability of one in 1.1 septillion from the Caucasian population, and septillion has 24 zeros behind it. One in 59 septillion from the African American population, which is, yeah, 24 zeros, and one in 230 sextillion from the Hispanic population, which has 21. zero is in it. The oral swab, a little bit different numbers, one in 2.4, oh, I'm sorry, let me correct this. For the oral swab, it was a little bit different. The profile was obtained from the oral swab. Raymond Roe and the victim cannot be excluded from potential contributors to this mixture,

of course, it's her body. Based on the results, this combination of DNA types is 1. It's 2.4 septillion times more likely in the Caucasian population, 250 septillion times more likely in the African American population, in 720 sextillion times, which is 21 zeros, more likely in the Hispanic population to have originated from Raymond C. Rowe and the victim, then if it originated from the victim and another unknown unrelated individual. We'll give you a copy of the affidavit so you'll have this information. I can't remember it. I had to read it, but again, you know, I just wanted to emphasize with you. We have what 7.6 billion people on the planet you're talking about numbers a thousand trillion trillion these are astronomical numbers that we've gotten from the

Pennsylvania state police again he wasn't arrested because of what parabond did but they were absolutely crucial and i cannot thank them enough for what they've done here in identifying him as a suspect. This killer was at liberty from this crime, this brutal crime for longer than Christy Meereck was on this earth alive. And they steered us in the path of holding him finally accountable. And as I said, we believe this to be the first in Pennsylvania. I will say that it's a combination with Parabon, the hard work, the dedication, the determination, the termination of the police who have worked on this for decades. This case means a lot to us.

It's meant a lot to the people, many of who have retired and moved on in law enforcement. I know it is stuck with me, and I know it is stuck with so many and so many that are here today. Because of the nature of this, and just so you know, the same DNA that has led, process that has led to today has cleared many, many, suspects in this case beforehand. What I want you to remember and what I definitely need to be remiss not saying is we never let this case go. The DAs before me, Joe Madsbocker, Don Tataro, and myself as well as all the police in Lancaster County have come together. This has not been easy. But one of the reasons that we've stuck with it and never forgotten is it's so disturbing. You have a truly

innocent victim her entire life. life was ahead of her. She had her dreams. She was a positive member of the community. She was a teacher teaching kids. And her life was taken from her brutally. She was not only killed, but she was sexually assaulted. And as you heard, where she was, her death was absolutely horrible. His apprehension has been long overdue. But no one knows this more than the family. And my heart goes out to them. We obviously have a job to do. But they've been working with us. It is sad that her mother has passed away. But her brother, Vince, asked me to pass along.

That is a bittersweet day for me and my family. family, nothing can change the loss of my sister, Christy, but we can move forward in the right direction. One thing he has asked me to convey to you is that he would respectfully request that he would not be making any statement and no one in his family will be making any statement until the process has seen his course until we've come to conclusion and would appreciate respect for his privacy and would not like to take any questions for him, his father or his family, and I hope I hope that you respect that. I know that you will. I want to thank the public for responding.

With all the tips we got from the phenotyping that we did, there's a lot more to do. As I said, he's presumed innocent. We've got to look back to a case from 1992, look for connections, and there are a lot of people working in this case right now from all over different agencies in Lancaster County. And certainly, you know, one of the biggest events. in the criminal justice system in Lancaster County history. I just want to emphasize, and the words aren't going to do justice to it, the absolute collaboration, outstanding collaboration we've had from the Pennsylvania State Police, from my office, from the labs, from the FBI, from the undercovers,

from the Lancaster City Police Department who helped with the arrest and did many, many other things working up to this, to Chris Larson, Christy Wilson, East Lampeter Police Department, Sean Kofunk from the Pennsylvania State Police, Corporal McCarty, Kent Schweitzer, and Doug Bureg, Major Doug Bureg, and Captain James Fisher from the State Police. And at this time, I'll give them an opportunity to just say a few words if they like, Kevin. My name's Captain Jim Fisher. I'm the commanding officer of Troop Jay. I'd like to start out by thanking all the law enforcement personnel who are instrumental in apprehending this individual.

The state police did have numerous people involved in this, including lab personnel or Bureau of criminal investigation and troop personnel. But I'd be remissed not to specifically mention three individuals that have involved with this investigation and key to it for numerous years. That's Trooper Roberts, Quibble Koflack, and Corporal McCurdy. I'd also like to mention we appreciate the diligence of the district attorney and his team for seeking justice for this victim, Christy. She was not forgotten and the team never gave up on her. In closing, I'd like to express my I saw for your loss of the family. Thank you.

Thank you, Captain. There's others, and I'm sure I'll probably forget somebody, but former Chief County Detective Mike Landis, Joe Gese, other labs assisted with us as well, National Medical Services, County Radio is helping us right now, the training center. This doesn't happen because of any one person.

This is a truly combined arms effort, and I appreciate all the work each and every one of those individuals done and everybody that I can't name. I'll turn it over for questions in a minute. I just want to again be everyone to remember all the countless hours, all the resources that have been devoted

to this case for so long, all the sacrifices, all the absolute draining on law enforcement is this has been a marathon. There's just no question about it, but this is also just the beginning today. We are facing, you know, we've known about the brutal death of Christy Murak, but the arrest is when it starts. And we've got a long road ahead of us, but we're going to do it together because I can tell you the law enforcement in Lancaster County, we know we have the obligation to do all we can to make sure that her murderer is brought to justice.

Christy's killer was identified as 49-year-old Raymond Charles Rowe, who went by DJ Freeze and was a popular DJ in the Lancaster County area. At the time of Christy's murder, he was a house DJ at the Chameleon Club in Lancaster, about four miles from Christy's home. He also used several addresses that were within three to four miles of Christy's home. But it remains to be seen how or if Christy Merrick and Roe knew each other. He was arrested on June 25th and subsequently charged with criminal homicide. About a month later, three charges of rape, two charges of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, and one counter-burglary were also filed against Roe. So this guy Roe, aka DJ Freeze, was a little bit of a local celebrity.

He was a very popular wedding DJ. He was on TV. He made videos. He had a website. And he even hosted events for the likes of people like Paris Hilton. He had an extremely flashy appearance. So if you think about it, he was really the exact opposite of what the FBI profile suggested. That profile stated that

Christie's killer would avoid attention and Roe sought it out and reveled in it. At the time of his arrest, Roe was married and had at least one child. He had been divorced multiple times. So it will be interesting to hear what his former wives have to say, Morph, if they choose to speak out. Raymond Rowe is scheduled to go on trial on May 6th, 2019, according to court records. He's charged with criminal homicide, rape, and related charges. Roe is, of course, considered innocent until proven guilty, but good luck to him trying to explain his DNA being at the murder scene. The Lancaster County DA said that they will seek the death penalty if Rose found guilty. The murder of Christy Mirac was another case, solved into.

2018 through the use of genetic genealogy. We've tried to cover a bunch of them in season four, but as we predicted after the arrest of the Golden State Killer using that method, the dominoes are beginning to fall, and they are falling fast. We can't even keep up with the cases that are being solved using this technology. And as we've mentioned, the cases we've discussed this season, they're just the tip of the iceberg. There are so many more that have been solved. There's really no way for us to cover them all on this season of criminology. But we want to briefly talk about a handful of other cases that

were solved in 2018 using this same type of technology. 39-year-old Jodine Serran was a mentally challenged but highly functioning woman who lived on her own in a ground-level condo on Swallow Lane in Carlsbad, California. Sarin's parents, Arthur and Lois Cyran, checked on her frequently. On February 14, 2007, after being unable to reach her by phone, Seren's parents went to her condo to make sure she was all right. It was about 10 p.m. and Jodine didn't answer the door. Her parents used their key to let themselves in, and once they were inside, Jodine's father walked into his daughter's bedroom to find a man engaged in sexual activity with his daughter. fearing he had walked into an awkward situation,

Arthur Sharon went back out into the living room to give the two some privacy. He told the man to get dressed and get out. He and Lois waited for the duo to exit the bedroom, but they never did. When Arthur Seren entered the room again, he discovered his daughter had been sexually assaulted, beaten, and strangled to death. According to investigators, the suspect may have escaped through the front door while the Sirens were out of view. There was no signs of forced entry, so Jodian's killer may have been someone she knew,

and he may have known that she lived alone. Investigators in Jodine's case teamed up with Parabon to do genetic genealogy, and they were successful in finding the killer. And just the day before we recorded this episode, police announced that genetic genealogy linked David Mabrito to Jodian's murder. Mabrido was a transient who died in 2011. Another case that was solved recently using genetic genealogy was that of Pam Falcons. Pam Falcons was abducted from a video store where she worked in Greenbrier, Arkansas, in February 1990.

She was brutally murdered and her body was found the next day at a dump site. But investigators did find DNA on her body and they preserved it. And finally, years later, in October. 2018, genetic genealogy found her killer, Edward Keith Renegger. Reniger died from natural causes September 5th, 2002 in Salt Lake City. But he had been a regular customer at that video store. Before his death, Renegger spent time in prison for attacking a woman. And as we've already discussed this season, just because these killers die, it doesn't mean that they go on an identified because their DNA makes a trail that leads to them one way or another.

That's right, Mike, because a man named James Otto Earhart was just linked through genetic genealogy to the 1981 rape and murder of a 40-year-old Texas real estate agent named Virginia Freeman. Like Renegger, Earhart was dead. He died in 1999 after being put to death for the murder of 9-year-old Candy Curtin on May 12th, 9th. 1987, and investigators dug him up to verify the match. Earhart is also suspected of killing 51-year-old Ruth Richardson Green in 1986. And just earlier this month, the 2001 murder of a 25-year-old University of Central Florida student, Christine Frank, was salt. Christine Frank was shot and killed in her Orlando home. And then fast forward 17 years, almost to the exact date, 38-year-old Benjamin

and Holmes was arrested for her murder. And another Florida Cold Case was just solved with the help of Parabon and Jedmatch. Sheriff's deputies were sent to 47-year-old Deborah Dalzell's home on March 29, 1999, after concerned co-workers contacted them. It was past 8 a.m. and she hadn't shown up for work. When they arrived at her home, they found Delzo's body. She had been gagged, beaten, raped, and strangled. Luke Fleming, age 39, was arrested this past September after DNA left of the crime scene was linked to him through genetic genealogy. And as we mentioned, this is far from a complete list. We can't keep up with the rate at which these cases are being solved.

There have also been several rape cases solved using genetic genealogy. And again, it will be interesting to see which cases are solved next. This season was all about DNA and how Parabon, Jedmatch, genetic genealogy, and people like Colleen Fitzpatrick help solve some of these long-standing mysteries. We hope that we were able to really help listeners understand the entire process used in solving these crimes. And thanks again to our guest this season, Steve Armand Trout from Parabon, Paul Holes, Curtis Rogers of Jedmatch, and genealogist Colleen Fitzpatrick. So Morph, this wraps up season four. We're going to take a brief hiatus to work on season five. But it won't be that long.

We will be back with some new episodes. In the meantime, we're going to be working on some really good stuff. And we hope to have some big news for you around the first of the year. We also want to let you know that we'll be releasing material on our Patreon feed. So keep an eye on that for you Patreon supporters. or for those of you that have been thinking about signing up for Patreon. If you like the show, please take a minute. If you haven't already, go out, give us a five-star rating.

That goes a long way towards helping new people find the podcast. You can also find us on social media, on Twitter with the handle, at Criminology Pod, or by searching for us on Facebook, by searching for Criminology Podcast. You can also join the discussion group on Facebook called Criminology Discussion and Fans. And as we leave, we hope you'll listen to these previews of Generation Y in the Minds of Madness. These are two of our favorite true crime podcast and two of the best in the business. How you doing tonight, Aaron?

I'm doing fine, Justin. How are you? I'm doing great. We are the Generation Y, and we've been around quite a while. Since 2012. We've been doing true crime, murder mysteries, conspiracies, controversies, wrongful convictions, missing persons cases. Anything and everything under the sun.

Here's what you can expect. They didn't know it, but they were 1,000 feet or so from where these three girls were being held captive. When he brings these young ladies back to his house, they would have this chain wrapped around their neck and their stomachs. And they're beaten under the control of a psycho. I mean, he lied about everything. Now you can't trust anything he's done. I think this is anyone's worst nightmare. These women were killed in one place and then take.

and dumped somewhere else. That chaos, that unpredictability made him so terrorizing. The strongest evidence they have is the eyewitness testimony of a six-year-old boy. He placed his body underneath the house. I think this is less of a story about a monster and more of a story about survival. Word Generation Y. Look us up on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app, and hit the subscribe button. And what's your emergency? Every 60 seconds, a person is murdered somewhere in the world. What causes ordinary people to do unthinkable things?

He stabbed me in my neck. And he says, look how easily I could kill you. The Minds of Madness is a true crime podcast that examines the most disturbing criminal minds. we shed a light on the devastating impact these violent crimes have on the victims and their families. When you get calls in the night, you know they're not good or they're wrong numbers. You'll hear about the incredible strength of the survivors and what they did to fight back.

I was studying his face because I was thinking, if I get out of it, I'm going to get you someday. Subscribe to the Minds of Madness podcast today. on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, and Google Play.