San Luis Obispo County investigators have solved a decades-old cold case, using forensic genealogy to identify a suspect in the 1983 murder of Dorothy "Toby" Tate.
“Our job is to speak for the victims who can no longer speak for themselves,” said San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Detective Clint Cole, who took on the cold case with Detective Jeffrey Robasciotti.
It’s the first time the county has successfully used this investigative method, which ultimately identified Steven Hardy as one of the men involved in Tate’s killing.
Forensic genealogy blends DNA analysis with family tree research. CeCe Moore, chief genetic genealogist with Parabon NanoLabs, partnered with the sheriff’s office to work the case. Investigators used blood preserved from the original crime scene as their DNA source.
Moore described the breakthrough as “incredible that we could go back that far in time and identify this person.” She says they've been assisting law enforcement with this DNA analysis since 2018.
When traditional database searches failed to find a match, the team turned to publicly available DNA databases that law enforcement can access, which are limited to GEDMatch, FamilyTreeDNA, and DNA Justice.
Moore explained, “Typically, we work with second, third, fourth, fifth cousins and beyond. We reverse-engineer somebody’s DNA based on those cousins in the database.”
This method gained national attention in 2018 when it was used to identify Joseph DeAngelo, known as the Golden State Killer. Since then, Moore’s team has reportedly helped solve more than 360 cases over seven and a half years.
The investigation ultimately led to the identification of a suspect: Steven Hardy. Fingerprints on a soda can at the scene identified a second suspect, Charley Sneed.
Moore later met with Tate’s sister, Priscilla, providing long-awaited answers about what happened more than 40 years ago.
“I want to provide resolution to family members and to surviving victims of violent crime as well,” Moore said.
She encourages members of the public to upload their DNA profiles to sites such as GEDMatch, FamilyTreeDNA, and DNA Justice to help create more genetic connections in unsolved cases.
Cole says they have more active cases that are using forensic genealogy to help solve them.
