ALBANY, N.Y. (WRGB) — Once considered impossible to solve, decades-old crimes are now being cracked open thanks to a powerful new investigative tool: forensic genealogy.
By transforming even the smallest traces of DNA into genetic roadmaps, labs like Othram are helping law enforcement agencies across the country close cases that have gone cold for generations — including one of Albany’s oldest and most haunting murder mysteries.
Catherine Blackburn was murdered inside her Albany apartment in 1964. For more than 60 years, detectives had little more than crime scene evidence and unanswered questions. But a single piece of clothing collected from that scene– and new advancements in DNA technology– led them to her killer…