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Advances in DNA technology that have helped solve murders on both sides of the border could be revolutionary for historic cold cases, a cop-turned-criminalist says.

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Michael Arntfield, a Western University professor who founded the Cold Case Society, said genetic genealogy has proven to be an effective tool for law enforcement agencies that has led to identifying killers like Calvin Hoover, who raped and murdered nine-year-old Ontario girl Christine Jessop in 1984.

“Familial DNA presents the possibility that every cold case where there is biological evidence or DNA recoverable is solvable now,” said Arntfield, author of the How to Solve a Cold Case, which will be published in April.

Because the technology involves uploading suspect DNA into public genealogy databases, police have access to “a new solar system of hundreds of millions, in theory billions, of other samples to compare to that would have never been actioned into the forensic system.”

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And he said the testing costs only a few thousand dollars — much cheaper than traditional investigative techniques.

“There’s a lot of work on the back end for them through the process of elimination once a common genetic line is identified to see what the most viable suspect is within that blood line. So it’s not a quick fix. But it certainly presents really a panacea for cold case investigators.”

A year ago, Toronto police announced that DNA from Jessop’s killer had been submitted to a lab that identified potential familial lineage. That led investigators to Hoover, a friend of the family who killed himself in 2015.

The same technique was used to catch Golden State killer Joseph James DeAngelo Jr. in 2018, who later pleaded guilty to raping and murdering dozens across California between 1974 and 1986.

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Elizabeth Withey, the great-granddaughter of Albina LeQuiea, recently asked North Vancouver RCMP if there was any possibility of using genetic genealogy in the unsolved 1973 rape and murder of the 96-year-old. But police refused to say whether there was any DNA to test.

Sgt. Peter DeVries would only say that “the file remains open, unsolved, and with no new investigational leads” and that “further details are not available.”

Arntfield said that LeQuiea’s brutal slaying inside a convent is the type of murder that “the public finds most disturbing and compelling. And there may be absolutely no biological evidence, but the MO is so specific and the case so grisly that naturally these are the ones that most investigators want to dig into because these are the ones that you sign up to be a cop to solve.”

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He said families of cold case murder victims sometimes feel frustrated by their interaction with police, especially in older unsolved cases.

“So frequently, like you said, these aren’t the immediate next of kin when a case first occurred. We’re talking children, grandchildren, new family members who have taken an interest and taken up the mantle of being the contact person,” he said.

Lead investigators change or retire and “family members have to keep re-explaining their situation,” Arntfield said. “And it’s exhausting. They go through this every two, three years, rather than have a designated long-term investigator.”

He said some policing agencies do a better job than others with cold cases. He cited the Toronto Police Service’s unit as top notch and staffed by veteran homicide detectives.

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In B.C., some cold cases are referred to the Unsolved Homicide Unit, which was started in 1996 and has 20 officers — 16 Mounties and four from the Vancouver Police Department.

“It had the distinction of being the first cold case unit created in Canada and one of the largest in North America,” RCMP Sgt. Chris Manseau said in a statement.

“Investigators are tasked with reviewing historical investigations and developing comprehensive investigative strategies in order to gather sufficient evidence to support criminal charges and prosecution,” he said. “The unit takes files from other major crime units that have stalled or do not have operational capacity to continue with the investigation.”

The specialized team has “had success solving these challenging cases by utilizing investigative options not available or considered by previous investigators and by harnessing advancing forensic techniques and DNA technology where aged, degraded, limited, or otherwise compromised biological evidence was previously not able to be examined.”

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Manseau cited a number of cases investigated by the unit over the last decade that led to charges and convictions.

One of the most recent convictions came in 2019 in one of the oldest cold case investigations.

Garry Taylor Handlen, 72, was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of killing 12-year-old Monica Jack in 1978. The girl was last seen alive riding her bike north of Merritt on May 6, 1978. Her remains were not found until 17 years later.

Handlen was charged in late 2014 after confessing to an undercover police officer in a “Mr. Big” operation.

kbolan@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/kbolan