Woman took DNA test and became linked to 36-year unsolved murder case
Topics: News
Emma Guinness
Featured Image Credit: TikTok/@hittheroadjackie
Topics: News
Thanks to modern technology, it's easier than ever before to find out more about your past with a DNA test.
But as one woman learned when this saw her biological link with a 36-year-old unsolved murder case, this can have serious, unexpected consequences.
Jackie Vadurro, 31, explained that it all went down after she took what she thought would be an innocuous 23andMe DNA test that resulted in the police calling her in connection to a 36-year-old murder at the end of last month.
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She told the New York Post of the initial call: "I was so taken aback. I knew I hadn't done anything wrong.
"But when the police call you about a murder, you're like, 'Oh my goodness, what am I involved in?'"
Shortly after, the 31-year-old found herself at the centre of what had been a cold case that was reopened because of her DNA test.
"I am living in my own 'Dateline' episode," she went on to tell TikTok.
Explaining how it all went down, she said that she was minding her own business when she 'got a 'No Caller ID' call on my phone'.
"It was a [cold case] homicide detective from San Diego," she said, before revealing that the detective told her that her DNA was a possible match with an unidentified woman known only as Jane Doe, who was murdered back in 1986.
"No one ever reported her missing," she said. "[The detectives] do not know who she is.
“And now they think that I might be her family member because of my DNA that I uploaded on 23andMe."
She then ended the video by explaining that she was going to help detectives in any way she could - after she did some digging to be sure they were legitimate.
Jackie said she sent her DNA to detectives, who revealed that it was a match and enabled them to make the 'biggest break' in the case in over a year.
"'You are a DNA match to the Jane Doe victim'," she remembered them saying. "'She was your 2nd or 3rd cousin'.
"[My family and I] still have no idea who she is or where she came from. They think she was an illegitimate child, which is why no one's reported her or anything."
She then explained that her mom was going to have DNA testing next in a bid to establish what side of her family the victim is from.
In a third update, which is the most recent, Jackie said that detectives established that Jane Doe - who was shot and discarded on a San Diego road - was, in fact, from her mom's side of the family.
She said detectives were now working to build her family tree and hopefully finally identify the victim.
If you would like to keep up with the case as it continues to unfold, you can follow Jackie on TikTok.