DNA Detectives: Solving decades-old mysteries with forensic genealogy

(InvestigateTV) — Russ Marty was in his 30s the last time he saw his uncle, Jack Langeneckert, who went missing in 1982.

“At the time we thought that he probably ran away somewhere,” Marty, now in his 70s, said. “We never did hear from him.”

But what Marty remembers most about the day his uncle disappeared was the reaction his mother and grandmother had when they discovered thousands of dollars in stocks and bonds had vanished with him.

“I remember my mom and my grandma going absolutely bonkers,” Marty recalled. “I mean they were really upset. They were more upset the second day when they found out he had emptied out my grandma’s bank account.”

Investigators were able to find Langeneckert’s car, which had been abandoned at the St. Louis Lambert International Airport, but couldn’t find any trace of the 50-year-old real estate agent.

As the years went on, Marty’s family spoke of Langeneckert less and less.

“The family was very mad at him at first,” Marty said. “I guess my mother died being mad.”

New technology breathes life into old cases

The Langeneckert case is emblematic of a larger problem — hundreds of thousands of unsolved missing person cases across the country.

However, new technology is making solving yesterday’s mysteries — as well as today’s crimes — more attainable.

In 2023, more than 40 years after his uncle went missing, Marty received a call from detectives who wanted to test his DNA against some unidentified human remains.

The Lincoln County Missouri Sheriff’s Office had sent the remains to Southeast Missouri State University anthropology professor Jennifer Bengston, with the hopes she and her students would be able to extract viable DNA for testing.

“My students’ testing indicated that we had some really good candidate bone samples to send off to the lab that we love to work with, Othram in Texas,” Bengston said.

Othram is a leader in what’s known as Forensic Investigative Genetic Genealogy, or FIGG. Bengtson said Othram’s technology can look at tens of thousands of markers on a genome — far beyond the capabilities of traditional DNA testing. Othram has used FIGG to solve dozens of cases, giving names to previously-unidentified remains of men and women — even children — across the country.

How it works:

• People submit their DNA to websites like DNASolves, GEDmatch and FamilyTreeDNA for investigative research
• Labs then upload the unknown data and try to find the closet match

Typically, the closest match is a third cousin, which experts estimate the average person has out 190 of.

So, the companies and labs will map out the family trees of all those relationships to see who the most likely match is for the deceased’s DNA. They then find a closer relative within those trees — like a sibling or a parent — and ask to collect their DNA to see if it’s a match.

More to the story

Marty said he wasn’t surprised when the DNA results confirmed the remains were those of Langeneckert.

“I knew, I knew it was him. I was totally convinced that that was my uncle that they found,” he said.

Ultimately, it was determined Langeneckert never got on a plane — or even left the state.

In 1984, two years after his disappearance, his body was found in an old farm building in rural Missouri just one hour from home. His body was so badly decomposed detectives couldn’t determine an identity — something that likely would have remained a mystery if not for cutting-edge technology.

Marty said he and his surviving relatives felt a sense of closure knowing Langeneckert didn’t abandon his family.

But there’s more to the story that remains unsolved.

Police determined Langeneckert was murdered, killed by a shot to the back of the head.

“[My grandmother] would have been very sad,” Marty said. “But it would have given her some closure to the whole situation.”

As for who killed Langeneckert, the answer could once again be found with FIGG.

“The introduction of FIGG has really rocked the industry and created, not a new tool to replace traditional forensic DNA analysis, but a new tool to enhance traditional forensic DNA analysis,” Claire Glynn, a professor of forensic science at the University of New Haven said.

Dr. Glynn, who consults with law enforcement agencies across the U.S. to help them utilize FIGG, said the technology is having success beyond identifying remains.

“It’s a tool that’s still pretty much in its infancy, yet it’s helped resolve over nearly 600 cases in just a five-year period,” she said.

One case being the rape and murder of 16-year-old Sarah Yarborough in 1991.

“When we got there, that’s when they told us that her body had been found,” Sarah’s mother, Laura Yarborough, said through tears.

Genetic genealogy helped lead to the arrest and first-degree murder conviction of her killer, Patrick Nicholas, in 2023.

The hope is FIGG will help solve many more cold and open cases.

“We don’t really ever think of FIGG cases as being unsolvable,” Glynn said.

Including the case of who murdered Jack Langeneckert.

“They found me, who knows maybe they’ll be able to find him,” Marty said.

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