Why Murder Investigations Can Be Complicated By Ashkenazi Jewish DNA

There are currently 15,000 open cases of unidentified persons in the United States.

Bodies are unable to be identified for a variety of reasons including severe mutilation, significant decomposition, no history of medical care or a lack of resources. 

In the vast majority of situations, DNA testing can do a great deal of heavy lifting, but sometimes even this can be unsuccessful

On November 24, 1989 in Mohave County, Arizona, a woman was found dead on the side of the interstate. Over 30 years later and the woman is yet to be identified. She is known only as the Mohave Jane Doe.

Her DNA test results revealed that she was 96% Ashkenazi Jew. But, they told investigators little else.

Mohave is not the only instance of Ashkenazi Jews struggling to understand their ancestry through genetic testing—nor is it the only time this unique genetic makeup has interfered with what appears to be a murder case.


But why? Why does someone’s heritage make them harder to understand biologically? To find out, I spoke with Hannah Feuer, a reporter at Forward. Feuer recently covered the Mohave Jane Doe case and new efforts to find her identity once and for all in an article entitled: Her body has been unidentified for decades. Her Ashkenazi DNA may explain why.

As our conversation continued, Feuer and I also discussed another recent piece of hers which explored the strange and solemn innovation of using Artificial Intelligence to keep the stories of Holocaust Survivors alive in the wake of their inevitable dying out.