A nearly 50-year-old cold case in Colorado Springs has been solved, thanks to innovations in DNA testing and genealogy research. Authorities were looking into the killing of 14-year-old Maria Loraine Honzell, who was stabbed to death in 1977. Despite an investigation, the Colorado Springs Police Department could not identify a person of interest.

According to an account from CSPD, the department received a call for a possible suicide. Officers arrived to find Honzell dead from multiple stab wounds. An autopsy concluded the death was instead a murder. In their investigation, CSPD found that the victim was babysitting for a neighbor.

A suspect was identified only after extensive research, including DNA analysis and traditional genealogy means, according to CSPD. This, after the Colorado Bureau of Investigation was able to eventually determine that the suspect was male.

A lab used a public genetic genealogy database to identify potential relatives. The genetic matches then were used in traditional research, including utilizing public family trees, newspaper archives and public records.

You can read more in an article by Andrea Chalfin published in the cpr.org web site at: https://www.cpr.org/2024/05/09/47-year-old-cold-case-in-colorado-springs-solved/.