In April 1968, witnesses reported seeing a small fire in a field in what was then rural North Carolina. The next day, some passersby made a brutal discovery-the charred body of a woman who had been murdered. Immediately, investigators started trying to figure out who the woman was and who had killed her. But with no DNA technology available at the time, they had little to go on. Still, detectives with the Wake County Sheriff's Office continued to work the case. In 2004, after 36 years of investigation, they were able to identify a suspect only to discover the man had died in the 1990's. But the identity of the victim was still unknown. In 2024, the WCSO teamed up with the State Bureau of Investigation to try and get new traction on the case. Amazingly, the woman's hair had been preserved from the crime scene. Investigators sent it to a lab that specialized in creating a DNA profile from older cases with small or degraded samples. Not only did Astrea Forensics come up with a strong profile, but it was enough for forensic genealogist Leslie Kaufman to create a family tree. Eventually, after months of work, Leslie identified the victim and investigators were able to provide closure for her family.

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