Cece Moore
Appearances
20/20
True Crime Vault: The DNA Detective
Aha. Now we're getting close. When I first identified him, I couldn't believe it was him. I said, it can't be him. It can't be this guy.
20/20
True Crime Vault: The DNA Detective
This was a different way of applying the science. It's not taught in schools. There's no degree you can get in genetic genealogy. There's no certification. You had to think outside the box, and perhaps you needed some creativity, and I came from a creative background.
20/20
True Crime Vault: The DNA Detective
There were some bioethicists and legal experts that I expected to be against this. And I was very surprised after the Golden State Killer arrest that they were completely supportive.
20/20
True Crime Vault: The DNA Detective
I feel a real affinity to her. And so I'm thinking about her a lot and really keeping her right where I can see her. So I'm always inspired to work hard on these, but I think it'll make me work even harder if that's possible.
20/20
True Crime Vault: The DNA Detective
We just need a second cousin, third cousin, or closer to do so.
20/20
True Crime Vault: The DNA Detective
I built back to great-grandparents for each of those second cousins, and then I started building forward. I flipped that tree upside down, do what I call reverse genealogy. I'm building forward in time, trying to find the right person in the right place with the right ancestral mix to be the subject.
20/20
True Crime Vault: The DNA Detective
Those top few matches I was working with led to a specific family in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. So I knew that the suspect was closely related to that family, but I didn't know how. I had to find the right person in that family.
20/20
True Crime Vault: The DNA Detective
We've seen a lot of people that shared DNA with this suspect that had poor Puerto Rican grandparents or eight Puerto Rican great-grandparents. I started digging into newspaper archives and I came across an engagement announcement for the son of that target family that listed his father who had a Latin American name. And I thought, aha, now we're getting close.
20/20
True Crime Vault: The DNA Detective
There was an online magazine that had an interview with him, and it talked about how he loved to cook Puerto Rican food because he was half Puerto Rican. And then I knew this was the guy. And when I first identified him, I couldn't believe it was him. I was saying, it can't be him. It can't be this guy. I went back and rechecked my work over and over again.
20/20
True Crime Vault: The DNA Detective
Genetic genealogy is incredibly powerful, and I've known that for a long time.
20/20
True Crime Vault: The DNA Detective
I was shocked because he seemed like such a normal person, a successful, talented family man.
20/20
True Crime Vault: The DNA Detective
It's just really interesting to see how close Parabon gets. I mean, this is a younger picture, which is closer to the age he was at the time of the murder. I mean, look at the shaped face. I think that's right on.
20/20
True Crime Vault: The DNA Detective
My greatest hope is that we'll start to work as a deterrent. If you're going to commit a violent crime like a rape or murder, you're going to leave DNA behind. And if you leave DNA behind, we can find you.
20/20
True Crime Vault: The DNA Detective
Let me say, the investigators on this case were incredible. I was so impressed with them. They jumped through hoops. They care so much about this case, about you, your father, your sister, Christy.
20/20
True Crime Vault: The DNA Detective
I felt really drawn to Christy's case. She seemed like somebody that I would have liked.
20/20
True Crime Vault: The DNA Detective
not get very much sleep because it's hard to put aside these cases. I have dozens of cases waiting for me and it's hard to do anything else.
The Megyn Kelly Show
What To Expect From Bryan Kohberger's Defense at Trial in 2025 - A "True Crime Christmas" Special | Ep. 973
Right, so GEDmatch was started by two friends of mine, Curtis Rogers and John Olson back in 2010, 11. And of course, when it started, there was no one in there. So we had to convince people to download their raw data from one of the other sites which at the time was just 23andMe and FamilyTreeDNA, and upload to GEDmatch.
The Megyn Kelly Show
What To Expect From Bryan Kohberger's Defense at Trial in 2025 - A "True Crime Christmas" Special | Ep. 973
And so it was just a small site, kind of a playground for more advanced genetic genealogists. It was where we could try out new tools. We could do cross-company comparisons. So if you tested at 23andMe and I tested at FamilyTreeDNA or later Ancestry, we could both upload there for free and then compare our data looking for those long identical shared segments.