They were! Everyone thought I bought them at a bakery :)

GEDmatch and FamilyTreeDNA are open to anyone, but LE has to upload through GEDMatchPro & the FTDNA forensic portal and those kits aren’t visible to the public.

Most of the people doing this work are volunteers, but since these are law enforcement cases, LE can’t really be taken out of the process. Also, the databases aren’t owned by law enforcement but used with permission.

IGG practitioners like myself also have access, but I do understand your perspective and concerns.

If access were open to the general public, it could put the integrity of investigations at risk, especially in criminal cases, which is why it is limited to professionals in this field.

And I forgot to mention that she currently lives at Flat Rock Brook nature preserve in Englewood, NJ so others can visit her as well!

www.flatrockbrook.org

Seeing someone’s reaction to discovering a match to a Jane or John Doe is such a profound experience but beyond that, every new upload to #GEDmatch is potentially one step closer to finding out who they are and to giving their families the answers they’ve been waiting for. 💛

Additional thoughts:
1) I cried at least once during every episode. Hearing from the families was heart-wrenching (and heart warming in some cases)
2) They mentioned public databases, but never specified GEDmatch and FTDNA....I'm curious as to why?

Thank you!

Oh and they updated the site with a bit of an explanation as to what happened and guidance for next steps as well: www.birls.org/updates

I plan to appeal.

The first one I received was for my great grandfather, so I’m a direct descendant.

Plus, there numerous others who have received the full files so I’ll be mentioning that as well.

Thanks, Stephen!!

Thanks! Sounds like we got started with DNA around the same time. 🙂

I shifted into working on unidentified human remains cases in 2018, and IGG has been a big part of my work ever since. I still take on genealogy and genetic genealogy client work too though!