A 1993 Killing, No Database Match, and a Fresh Approach Three Decades On
Randy Gail Sperino was last seen alive on the evening of 9 November 1993 in Granite City, Illinois, getting into a pickup truck. Her body was found hours later in a field nearby; she was 34 and had died of blunt force trauma.
DNA evidence recovered from the crime scene was tested against standard law enforcement databases, and no matches came back. Investigators from the Madison County Sheriff's Office chased leads and interviewed hundreds of people across three decades. Last year, detectives tried a fresh approach.
AI-generated discussion · Different perspectives
The company's chief executive, David Mittelman, likens investigative genetic genealogy to a GPS system: the DNA profile is the signal saying you belong here, but knowing where 'here' is takes a map.
Notice how much work the GPS comparison does for the pitch. Mittelman also says DNA technology can only go so far before a cascade of investigative steps are needed, and the map behind the signal is built from public records, obituaries and census data.
Then there's the reading itself: officers used a platform called Centerline AI, from the Florida software company CentralSquare, to analyse more than 2,000 pages of records and identify the evidence for the DNA testing that helped break the case. Lawrence says that beats having a detective read through 2,000 pages, which is about as concrete as an AI use case gets.