thanks everyone for joining us our speakers today will be cold-case homicide detective Meredith hopper and assistant Chief Jamie rush at the end of the presentation we will have some time for questions first I want to introduce the primary cold-case detective Meredith hopper good morning my name is Meredith hopper and I'm a detective at the portal Police Bureau's cold case homicide unit and I'm here today to talk about the resolution of the homicide case of anna marie laughs qey anna was murdered on July 24th 1979 anna lived in Northwest Portland in the area of 18 in couch Anna actually worked at the McDonald's that was located about 19 in Burnside and returned from work after her shift at McDonald's about 4 o'clock in the afternoon she was alone in the apartment and her sister Roseanne unfortunately had to discover her disty deceased several hours later the original detectives one of which is with us today detective Carey Taylor worked this case for many months and years trying to develop leads initially there were quite a few leads that they developed they collected fingerprints blood evidence they did polygraph tests and so forth trying to discover her killer ultimately though the case went cold in 2009 one of our retired detective volunteers retired detective Dennis Baker submitted a bunch of physical evidence to be analyzed by the Oregon State Police Crime Lab luckily for us doctor Janelle Moore discovered an unknown DNA profile which we believed to be the suspect in 2012 I was assigned to investigate this case I investigated for approximately 6 years I aggressively pursued suspects we submitted about eight different DNA profiles all of which I was certain I was going to be the suspect and every time dr. Moore would tell me nope that's not the one so actually detective Maguire my partner on this case and I talked with the Lava family in 2016 it's something unusual that we did and I wanted to assure them that we weren't gonna forget Annamarie up to that point we had no one else to develop any DNA evidence from but I assured her that we would continue to pursue a different technology that was hopefully going to come available in the future in the spring of 2018 California law enforcement arrested the Golden State killer my colleagues and I are always interested in cold case homicides that are solved so we were researching the way they did it and the way they did it was through forensic genetic geneology essentially the DNA profile that they have from crime scenes they were given to para Bond nano labs they did the analysis and their forensic genetic genealogist made the connection through family trees of who the killer was that cold case we were very excited by this but like all things old evidence tends to degrade so we weren't sure if our evidence would be eligible for that type of testing I contacted dr. Moore she put her in touch with the parable and lab staff and they determined that it would be a good fit for this type of testing we waited for about three months they returned some information to us that there was potentially a solvability rate using this technique about maybe from from one to ten this one was about a four we told him to proceed because really at this point we didn't have much else to go on and this was the best technology we had at the time in October of this year we received information from the paraben staff and we spoke with the actual forensic genealogists that did the work she talked to us for about an hour briefed us on the intimate details of forensic genealogy and how she made this connection the pair about nano Labs people and the forensic genealogist group identified the suspect in this murder as Jerry Walter McFadden and I believe he was born 328 of 48 McFadden was a multiple convicted killer and rapist of the state of Texas McFadden was ultimately executed by the state of Texas in October of 1999 detective Maguire and I our first question was if he's such a bad guy why was his DNA in CODIS we researched that and we discovered that approximately 1995 in Texas is when they started taking the mandatory convicted felon DNA samples to introduce into CODIS well McFadden was already on death row and he was executed about four years later so essentially they didn't get to him his DNA wasn't in CODIS and honestly without this technology we never would have solved this case upon researching McFadden we did not find any connection with Oregon detective Maguire and I traveled to Texas we met with many of his family members and were able to obtain DNA samples that were led to the confirmation of McFadden as our killer one thing I want to point out about McAdams family they had nothing to do with his criminal activity they respect we respect their right to privacy in this case and we hope that you do too they're very hard-working law-abiding people and they had nothing to do with his criminal activity and they submitted the DNA results in an effort to try to provide some type of resolution to the victim's family and they're very saddened by these results so detective Maguire and I did receive the confirmation I don't want to talk too much about McFadden I'm sure he's interesting to all of you but we want today to be about Emory and I also want to recognize and appreciate the efforts of dr. Jenelle more because honestly without her discovering that profile none of us would be here today and I also want to acknowledge the original investigators who worked tirelessly on this investigation and without their good product we wouldn't be here today either I'd like to now introduce AC rush [Music] good morning thank you all for coming today I'm assistant chief Jimmy rush and I oversee the investigations branch of the Portland Police Bureau first of the Lava family I would like to extend my sympathies for your grave loss this was a horrific crime for your family as well as our community Thank You detective Kerry for your initial investigative work into this case and thank you to Detective hopper and tected McGuire your diligence in this case your tenacity and desire to bring resolution to Anna Marie's family is to be commended detectives in the cold-case squad continue to work homicide cases where the trail may have gone cold their motto is we don't give up we never give up the Portland Police Bureau currently has 275 cases that are deemed cold the oldest cases from 1970 and the youngest victim was just four years old so it as a reminder today that these cases exist and they can be solved many times there remains someone who knows something witnesses may contact the cold-case homicide detail directly at 5:03 eight to three zero four zero zero and if you wish to remain anonymous you witnesses may provide information through Crimestoppers of Oregon information on any unsolved felony may be eligible for cash rewards of up to $2,500 to learn more about Crimestoppers please visit Crime Stoppers of Oregon calm and please speak up for those who can't thank you we have put a number of materials on our website and release photos as well one thing that we would ask from the public is to please take a look at the photos of McFadden the detectives could still use any sort of tips or leads on his whereabouts and when he was in Portland we're going to open this up for questions and so if you give me just one minute we're going to invite dr. Jenelle more to come up here with us detective hopper and dr. Moore will be available for questions in a group setting and then afterwards they'll be available for one-on-one interviews for a short time [Music] any questions dr. Bohr explaining how you were able to find the unidentified DNA years later that I can say where it was found or we were lucky in this case that the evidence was preserved so it was pristine when I received it to do the initial analysis the sample that we eventually matched to came from underneath Anna's fingernails so it it was surprising when we got the initial results and it continues to be a landmark cold case for me as I'm a scientific perspective that we can get viable profiles from evidence that is so so old [Music] can you explain the reason I wouldn't have been able to get in earlier the reason that the profile wasn't developed earlier yeah like why it wasn't developed sooner oh lucky for us it actually the fingernails weren't examined when the DNA technology was not available so it is it's the the samples themselves were in with other victim samples that had been analyzed previously but when the DNA technology came on and we are able to do everything we can now with the technology it was a perfect timing to look at those fingernail scrapings and the DNA technology together allowed us to develop this profile that led to the resolution of the case typically in cold cases we all know but I think it's worth saying the original detectives particularly from 1979 they had no idea the DNA was available and DNA even in my time and cold case has advanced it's just continuing to get more sensitive and it's a smaller amount of sample and even more degraded sample is able to be compared and I would say when I came on in 2006 to the DNA lab if I were to have analyzed this at that point we probably wouldn't have gotten the results that we got just three years later so you think the girls were already scraped back in the seventies or did you have to no they it was part of the standard kind of operating procedure is to scrape the fingernails and do various other things during the autopsy yes they didn't know they they kept them for different types of testing that was utilized back then but obviously DNA testing was not available until much later any other questions so this is the first time we've used the lab when this initially came out we did a lot of research into a pair of on nano labs and what their services were to offer we comb through a lot of our cases I of course was banging on the desk trying to get this case analyzed this one as I said before in my remarks it's very unusual to get a full profile a lot of times we get mixtures of profile and we get the verbage back from the lab is a direct comparison may be necessary in order to identify the suspect which means it's not able to be uploaded into CODIS so it's in this case we were lucky with this one because it was a full profile we're continuing to look for other cold cases that have that type of criteria so we could utilize this service the steps once you've got the full profile and you're using this laughs you needed to get DNA from his relatives or yes so we got the report back from the forensic genealogist you guys got a handout about this and I'm not even gonna begin to try to understand and explain how they do what they do but they gave us this name and and I even said I'm like that's great but we need actual evidence to put with that name and our suspect DNA profile we contacted the family which obviously shares DNA with the suspect because he's clearly deceased and they voluntarily gave their sample for comparison and I submitted that sample to dr. Moore know what's interesting about him and I like I said I don't want to give a ton of time to him but he all of his criminal history and police contacts and even address information is all from about three counties in Texas there was never any link to him coming up here detective Maguire and I did discover how he came up here and the way he came up here so to speak but as far as any this case never would have been solved he never would have risen to the level of a suspect he has no record here in Oregon so you guys did track him here yeah we did yes we know outside of the DNA results we know that he was here in 1979 there's a I guess a three month window approximately 20 second crime in Texas that was arrested again in October of that year the correct did you have an idea how long is the city lovely specifically the metro area we don't we know that he was here at you know the end of February beginning of March he spent some time here we don't know how long he was obviously accused and eventually convicted of the assault and kidnap in June of 79 so clearly he was in Texas in June and he obviously returned here to the Pacific Northwest in July and then how long he spent here we don't know that's one thing we're interested in is if anybody recognizes these photos he obviously had some type of association here with the Northwest made friends contacts whatever we're interested in finding out more about him - hopefully link him to other homicides in the area I don't think so I'm a personal note I know you probably work in cold places spend day after day without without much and this is a pretty old one I mean it's kind of obvious that that's what make you feel good I was just wondering in your words you know this case in particular I'm really glad we solved for a lot of reasons I worked this case for a long time I mean it's an old case obviously but I worked it for the majority of my time here at cold case I'm very very happy that we were able to give some kind of resolution to the family I don't think it ever goes away from them I think the word closure is overused but just having some answers to give them it's a good thing yes how expensive the process going through the private lab yeah except that calm well we were fortunate that my bosses our boss's assistant chief fresh gave us approved us for funds the city of Portland paid for this cost it's not uncommon for us to go through private labs in cold case because to be honest the Oregon State Police Crime Lab is fantastic to work with but they have a finite amount of resources and personnel and time and they work cases all over the state I would like it if they were my personal lab they're not so we reach out to private labs pretty often in my opinion I don't think the cost was great I don't know if paramon really wants me to go into the nominal costs of what their services are but it was I think definitely worth it [Music] [Music] you you