On April 23, 2021 the Kern County Sheriff-Coroner (KCSCO) and the DNA Doe Project (DDP) announced the identification of Kern County Jane Doe 1980 as Shirley Ann Soosay, a member of the Cree Nation. She is one of the first Indigenous Peoples Does to be identified using genetic genealogy.
Soosay was found in an almond orchard near Bakersfield, California in 1980. She was an unidentified victim of suspected serial killer Wilson Chouest.
In July of 2018, Chief Dawn Ratliff of the Kern County Sheriff-Coroner Division contacted DDP hoping to resolve the woman’s identity using genetic genealogy. Because the DNA was so highly degraded, it took nearly a year to obtain data which could be uploaded to GEDmatch. Genealogical work on the case did not begin until May 2019.
Based on the genealogy research, it was determined that the deceased woman descended from Indigenous First Nations People from Canada, a population which is under-represented in most DNA databases.
“This case was particularly challenging because Indigenous family histories are usually relayed orally, so there is little written genealogical documentation available," said team leader Gina Wrather.
The identity was solved when a close family member recognized an artist’s rendering of Kern County Jane Doe and saw the information about her likely origins, both of which were posted as part of a DDP Facebook outreach campaign. When the relative uploaded their DNA profile to the GEDmatch database, the identification was confirmed.
Republished courtesy of DDP. Photo and video credit: KCSCO.