July 2010 Consultant, Elmer Crawford Murder Case, Melbourne, Victoria Police Department - Assisted Melbourne law enforcement in locating a mitochondrial DNA reference in Ireland and Australia for fugitive killer Elmer Crawford who murdered his wife and three children in 1970 in Australia, to establish whether or not a look-alike drifter in Texas was Crawford. (He was not.) See Identifinders Blog entries August 29- [...]
I just spent the evening reviewing the male and female haplogroups of Benjaman's 23 and Me matches that are predicted to be at the 3rd and 4th cousins levels. I was hoping to find a geographical pattern that might indicate his origins. Unfortunately, the haplogroups of his matches do not reveal too much information because of their variety. His male haplogroups are mostly R1b1b2a and its downstream subclades, with one I1* [European], one Q1a3a [Native American], one E1b1a8a [African America], and one G2a [Turkey and the Mediterranean]. His female haplogroups are quite varied. These include HV0 and various subclades of H1, H5, and H7, also subclade U2, various subclades of U5, one T1, two [...]
In February 2009, Jim Barrett, Group Administrator of the Powell Surname DNA Project, contacted me regarding 34/37 marker matches Benjaman Kyle had with members of the study. For about a year, I researched how these Powells might be related to Benjaman. In the Spring of 2010, however, while I was reviewing Benjaman's matches in the Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation Y-database, I noticed a 27/28 marker match with a Davidson that I had not taken too seriously. This match did not appear to be competitive with the matches with the Powells. But on closer examination I discovered the Davison match was just as important because of the way Sorenson scores its markers. Whereas DNA Heritage [...]
We are on our way to the Western Hospitality Expo at the Los Angeles Convention Center on August 12-14 to speak with representatives of the restaurant industry about Benjaman. Since he worked in this industry, we hope we will find someone among the attendees who recognizes him. To read more about Benjaman, see his Wikipedia article.
The BBC World Service interviewed Benjaman Kyle in August 2010. You can listen to the interview by clicking here. For the full story, please see his Wikipedia page.