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Identical twins can be hard to tell apart. They occur in 1 out of 250 births. Still, at close range, they can be told apart. The challenge has been when trying to determine a suspect using a DNA test. Until recently, twins had DNA that was impossible to tell apart using the existing technology. Sometimes, a tattoo or some other external mark has been used to identify the culprit.

Nancy Elaine Anderson was killed in 1972 while living in Hawaii. On January 7, 1972, 19-year-old Nancy Anderson was in her apartment getting a demonstration from two silverware salesmen when her roommate came home around 2:30 PM. Her roommate, 18-year-old Jody Spooner, joined as the men finished, with neither woman buying any silverware. Jody then went to her room to have a nap. Jody woke up from her nap around 5 PM; she went to the kitchen when she noticed that the water was running in Nancy’s bathroom, which she thought was odd as she thought Nancy would have left for work.

A gavel used by a judgePhoto byTingey Injury Law FirmonUnsplash. Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, has been in the news for a while now over emails on his laptop even though no criminal charges have ever been brought against him. Since 2018, the 52-year-old attorney's tax affairs have been under federal criminal investigation. Now Hunter Biden is in the news concerning a family matter.

An investigator said in unsealed court records on Thursday that the suspect's DNA was detected on a knife sheath at the scene of the crime involving the deaths of four students from the University of Idaho.

Missing personPhoto byImage by Stephan from Pixabay. "Our finding Melissa was purely because of DNA, not because of any police or FBI involvement, podcast involvement, or even our family's own private investigations or speculations," Sharon Highsmith, one of Melissa’s siblings, wrote on Facebook.

Image of Cave menPhoto byDavid S. Soriano; CC-BY-SA-4.0 Adrian Targett is in the Guinness Book of World Records because he can trace his direct ancestor to a 9000-year-old caveman nicknamed the Cheddar Man.

Nancy Bennallack was 28 years old and engaged at the time of her death. Nancy Bennallack (image courtesy of Sacramento County authorities.) On October 26, 1970, in Sacramento, California, twenty-eight-year-old Nancy Bennallack was late for work. It had been highly unusual for her, she worked for the Sacramento County as a court reporter, and she would never have missed a court date.

Killer had uploaded his DNA to an online genealogy company. Jeanie Childs (Image courtesy of Minneapolis Police department) On June 13, 1993, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Betty Eakman glanced at the TV while working as a hospice care aid. The channel was on the local news, and it was detailing the gruesome discovery of a woman murdered. Betty’s blood ran cold when she recognized the building. It was where her thirty-five-year-old daughter, Jeanie Childs, lived.

Shannon Rose Lloyd and Renee Cuevas had no connection to each other. Shannon Rose Lloyd (Left) and Renee Cuevas (Right (Image courtesy of Garden Grove Police Department) On May 21, 1987, twenty-three-year-old Shannon Rose Lloyd was discovered deceased in her bedroom by her housemate just before midnight. She shared a home with several other people in Garden Grove, California. An autopsy later concluded that she had been sexually assaulted and strangled to death.

Phillip Wilson was arrested. He had been Robin’s neighbor. Robin Brooks (Image courtesy of Sacramento County Sheriff's Department) A horrible discovery was made on April 24, 1980, in Sacramento, California. Robin Brooks had missed her shift at the donut shop she worked at. The twenty-year-old had recently moved to the area from New York and worked two jobs to afford her new apartment.

Patricia Agnes Gildawie(Photo: Fairfax County Police Department) Seventeen-year-old Patricia Agnes Gildawie vanished in Fairfax, Virginia, on February 8, 1975. For nearly five decades, her whereabouts remained unknown and the investigation into her disappearance grew cold. Now, previously unidentified skeletal remains have been confirmed as belonging to the missing teen using the latest technologies in DNA.

Police use DNA testing to solve crimes by comparing samples of DNA evidence to a database of known offenders. The benefits of DNA testing include solving crimes, exonerating the innocent, and deterring crime. However, there is controversy surrounding DNA testing due to civil liberties and false positives.

Elizabeth Ann Wilson went missing from work in 1976 and was found later in a stolen car. Elizabeth Ann Wilson (image courtesy of court tv) On March 20, 1976, Elizabeth Ann Wilson went missing from her place of work mid-shift. The forty-five-year-old mother was working an overnight night shift as a spinner at a textiles factory in Chester, South Carolina.

Kimberly Rena Jones was missing from San Bernardino, California, since 2016. Kimberly Rena Jones (Image courtesy of Mohave County Sheriff’s Office/Facebook) On September 28th, 2016, a nude girl’s body was found in a ravine near the White Hills area of Arizona, near Highway 93 and Dolan Springs, close to the Nevada border.

Last seen in 1998, Pamela Darlene Young was never reported missing. Pamela Darlene Young (Image courtesy of Gregg County Sheriff's Office) On May 21st, 2002, near highway 135 just outside of Liberty, Texas, archeologists collecting soil samples made a gruesome discovery. They found a human skull and partial skeletal remains in an open field near Swamp City Road.

After almost forty years the families can have some justice. Patricia Louise Smith (Image courtesy of Colorado Bureau of Investigation) On January 10, 1984, Patricia Louise Smith was sitting down for lunch. The fifty-one-year-old interior decorator was in Lakewood, Colorado, helping her recently divorced daughter get settled with her two young children. Originally from Nebraska, the family was settling into their new life in Colorado.

New DNA evidence identified Joseph Kappen as the perpetrator of at least three murders. Geraldine and Pauline (Image courtesy of Walesonline) It was September of 1973 in Neath, Wales, a quaint community eight miles outside the city of Swansea, when the bodies of two sixteen-year-old girls, Geraldine Hughes and Pauline Floyd, were found in the early morning hours, dumped in a wooded area near their homes.

A cigarette butt collected from the crime scene was the break in the case. Patricia Barnes (image courtesy of Kitsap county sheriff's office) Twenty-six years after Patricia Barnes, a sixty-one-year-old Seattle, Washington resident’s body, was discovered in Olalla, Washington, her case has been solved thanks to advanced DNA testing.