Tavares, FL — On October 22, 2007, a 65-year-old woman was assaulted in her home in Tavares. Despite collecting the suspect’s DNA at the scene and entering it into CODIS, no matches were identified for years.
In 2018, the Lake County Sheriff’s Office partnered with Parabon NanoLabs to generate a Snapshot Phenotyping report from the DNA, predicting the suspect’s physical traits and ancestry to aid in the investigation. Parabon also developed a DNA profile suitable for upload into genetic genealogy databases, allowing law enforcement to pursue investigative leads through genetic genealogy.
Since January 2022, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement Genetic Genealogy Investigations team and Parabon NanoLabs conducted extensive genealogy research. In October 2025, the investigation produced a lead pointing to a suspect in Ohio…