Las Vegas investigators identified a suspect in the murder of a 14-year-old girl in 1989 by using the smallest set of DNA samples ever used to solve a cold case, reports the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Stephanie Isaacson went missing in Las Vegas after leaving home to go to school. Her body was found on the evening of her disappearance; she had been sexually abused and strangled. Justin Woo, a local philanthropist, made a donation that used new genome sequencing technology to analyze just 15 DNA cells that led to the identification of Darren Roy Marchand as the suspected killer. Marchand had strangled a woman three years before Isaacson’s death. He died of suicide in 1995.
Although it took decades to clear the case, Isaacson’s mother said she was relieved. “I never believed the case would be resolved,” she said in a statement.
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