Kristen and David Mittelman, a married couple and founders of Othram, are using their proprietary DNA technology to help police and prosecutors solve murders, rapes, and disappearances. Their work has led to hundreds of cases being cracked, providing justice to families who have waited years for answers.
Kristen and David Mittelman are working with Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, to advocate for passage of the Carla Walker Act that would provide police with more resources to pursue forensic genetic genealogy.David Mittelman and Kristen Sykoudis crossed paths at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston as students in the 2000s. She was working toward a doctorate in biochemistry, and he in molecular biophysics. They were a lab-grown match.
Kristen grew up in Thassos, a picturesque Greek island where being a scientist was a far-fetched dream for a girl. She barely spoke English when she moved to Katy as a teenager, but she gravitated toward STEM classes. David, as a high schooler in Richardson, had talked UT Southwestern Medical Center into giving him an internship to work in the Human Genome Project, an effort to map the complete set of human DNA instructions.
Moreover, a CODIS search relies on 20 genetic markers. The Mittelmans’ technology identifies hundreds of thousands of these markers, which enables investigators to identify the perpetrator’s distant relations and build complex family trees. Investigators compare the DNA profiles obtained by Othram to samples uploaded to public genealogy databases.“We now can test evidence that was previously considered unusable,” David Mittelman said.
In 2020, Othram was able to extract a profile from the last DNA sample in a piece of clothing that belonged to Carla Walker, a Fort Worth teen who was raped and murdered in 1974. Her case had been dormant for decades, haunting her brother, who would go back to the culvert where Carla was found hoping to catch the killer. Police arrested Carla’s attacker, then 77-year-old Glen McCurley, who was convicted in 2021 after confessing.
This year, the Mittelmans have been working with Sen. John Cornyn on the Carla Walker Act, which he introduced in December. The legislation would bring funding and resources for law enforcement agencies to use forensic genetic genealogy to investigate crimes. Kristen Mittelman said the bill would also introduce guardrails to ensure the technology is used responsibly.
DNA Technology Forensic Science Criminal Justice Investigative Techniques Othram
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