As investigators in Orange County, CA, Lauren Felix and Robert Taft have applied what they’ve learned as part of the University of New Haven’s Forensic Investigative Genetic Genealogy online graduate certificate program, solving two cold cases and providing the families of the victims with answers after more than four decades.
When Lauren Felix learned about the arrest of Joseph James DeAngelo – better known as the Golden State Killer – in 2018, it sparked her interest in forensic investigative genetic genealogy (FIGG). The case was especially relevant to Felix, a deputy for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department in southern California, since the killer’s victims included individuals from within the department’s jurisdiction.
Felix says she was “blown away” when she learned how investigators had used FIGG to identify DeAngelo as the Golden State Killer. Inspired to learn how to use FIGG in her work, she began researching programs that could teach her. That’s how she found the FIGG online graduate certificate program at the University of New Haven.
Felix, who earned her graduate certificate as part of the program’s 2022 cohort, and her partner Robert Taft, a member of the 2023 cohort, have already applied what they’ve learned in the program. They recently solved two of their department’s cold cases, identifying victims who had been known as “John Does” for more than four decades.
“I’d done my own family tree, but I’d never done genealogy beyond that,” explained Felix, who has been a deputy for 12 years and who previously served as a crime analyst with the department. “The highlight of the University’s program for me was my internship with the DNA Doe project. It took everything I learned through the courses and put it together. I feel like that’s really where I began to grasp all the concepts we learned.”
‘They’re always thankful’
Drawing on their training in the program, Felix and Taft identified the remains of Lonnie Raymond Thomas, who was found in the spring of 1980 near an oil well in an unincorporated area in north Orange County. The case is now a homicide investigation.
Felix and Taft were grateful to be able to provide Thomas’s mother and half-sisters with answers regarding what had happened to Thomas more than four decades earlier.
“I can’t imagine being in the position of having a loved one or a family member simply disappear and never know what happened to them,” said Taft, who has been with the department for more than 30 years. “They’re always thankful for at least giving them some resolution for what happened to their loved ones.”
You can read more on an article by Renee Chmiel published in the University of New Haven web site at: https://www.newhaven.edu/news/blog/2024/figg-cold-case.php.