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ghosttruck

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It had been 45 years since the day 11-year-old Linda O’Keefe left school bound for home -- and never made it.

She was found strangled, her body tossed in a ditch, the next day.

Now, cops in Newport Beach, California have announced what they've long been waiting for: the arrest of Linda’s suspected killer. Police have not officially identified the accused murderer, but they plan to at a press conference Wednesday.

 
James Alan Neal, 72, was picked up in Colorado on Tuesday and charged with the murder of 11-year-old Linda O'Keefe in 1973, Newport Beach police and Orange County prosecutors said.

Neal was found through "genealogical DNA," leading police to suspect Neal, Orange County DA Todd Spitzer told reporters.

Investigators followed Neal and eventually recovered a DNA sample that matched him to DNA found on O'Keefe.
[....]
 
‘Are you sitting down?’ Linda O’Keefe’s sister learns of arrest in 11-year-old’s 1973 killing

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Cindy Borgeson was eating a cheeseburger at In-N-Out when she got a call from Newport Beach police that she thought would never come.

It had been more than four decades since her 11-year-old sister, Linda Ann O’Keefe, had been sexually assaulted and strangled. The killer had vanished after dumping the girl’s body among the cattails in the city’s scenic Back Bay.

Borgeson, who was 18 when Linda was killed, was resigned that detectives might never find the man responsible. Her Christian faith gave her the strength to forgive the faceless perpetrator and move forward, she said.

The phone call jolted her back, to that painful time when her sister’s body was found in 1973. The detective on the other end asked if she was sitting down. They had arrested a suspect — James Alan Neal, 72 — just before sunrise in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Borgeson had been in touch regularly with investigators over the last several months after authorities launched a renewed effort to solve the cold case, but the news was still unexpected.

“I really in my wildest dreams never thought this would be the outcome,” she said.
The break in the case came from technology that would have baffled most in the 1970s, an era better known for Watergate and the Vietnam War than cutting-edge investigative tools.

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An undated photo shows Linda Ann O'Keefe, right, sitting with her family at sister Cindy Borgeson's graduation. (Cindy Borgeson)

“I really in my wildest dreams never thought this would be the outcome,” she said.

The break in the case came from technology that would have baffled most in the 1970s, an era better known for Watergate and the Vietnam War than cutting-edge investigative tools.

Back then, DNA testing wasn’t available. Instead, investigators tested bodily fluids and blood left at crime scenes for proteins that helped provide clues or narrow a list of suspects.

… article continues

LA Times https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-linda-okeefe-cold-case-20190221-story.html

I can't even begin to imagine. To at long last have answers to some of the questions that roiled inside heart and mind.
 
GEDmatch is awesome.
It began simply as a tool for genealogical researchers as an inexpensive platform to allow them to compare their personal DNA without the restrictions of the "big" companies. For example: if you send in your saliva kit to Ancestry to be tested, they only compare it to other Ancestry users. If someone who you are related to purchases a kit from 23 and Me (or any other DNA testing company), you will not know about them and visa versa. Ancestry does not link to outside DNA tests and neither does 23 and Me. This sucks when trying to discover a "missing link" from many generations ago in your family history.
The person who began GEDmatch did so with the idea of letting users upload their raw DNA test data (which you have a legal right to, because its YOU) from any company and compare it to other users from other companies. It's really caught on among genealogists and most of GedMatch is FREE. The big-box companies like Ancestry absolutely hate it because it means you can purchase a test from a cheaper, smaller company and compare it to the ever-growing number of users at GEDmatch. (Which I think is hilarious because Ancestry is like the big, bad bully on the block who buys up free genealogical databases, uploads all the information on them to Ancestry (not free) and then deletes the database.; i.e. GenForum.com...some of us haven't forgotten. :mad:)
Sorry, I'll step off my soapbox here. Anyway, GEDmatch is awesome and them helping to catch criminals and solve cold cases is amazing in my book.
 
GEDmatch is awesome.
It began simply as a tool for genealogical researchers as an inexpensive platform to allow them to compare their personal DNA without the restrictions of the "big" companies. For example: if you send in your saliva kit to Ancestry to be tested, they only compare it to other Ancestry users. If someone who you are related to purchases a kit from 23 and Me (or any other DNA testing company), you will not know about them and visa versa. Ancestry does not link to outside DNA tests and neither does 23 and Me. This sucks when trying to discover a "missing link" from many generations ago in your family history.
The person who began GEDmatch did so with the idea of letting users upload their raw DNA test data (which you have a legal right to, because its YOU) from any company and compare it to other users from other companies. It's really caught on among genealogists and most of GedMatch is FREE. The big-box companies like Ancestry absolutely hate it because it means you can purchase a test from a cheaper, smaller company and compare it to the ever-growing number of users at GEDmatch. (Which I think is hilarious because Ancestry is like the big, bad bully on the block who buys up free genealogical databases, uploads all the information on them to Ancestry (not free) and then deletes the database.; i.e. GenForum.com...some of us haven't forgotten. :mad:)
Sorry, I'll step off my soapbox here. Anyway, GEDmatch is awesome and them helping to catch criminals and solve cold cases is amazing in my book.

Interesting info - thank you!
 
Update:

“While that evidence will be presented in court, there are now allegations of multiple sexual assault victims,” Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said, according to KTLA. “And so, we do believe that Mr. Neal was involved in creating more victims beyond the murder of Linda O’Keefe.”

Neal, of Monument, Colorado, was charged last month with the sexual assault and killing of the Newport Beach girl in July 1973. O’Keefe’s body was found in a Back Bay ditch the next day. Advanced DNA technology helped link Neal to the murder, police said.

 
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