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How Did a Patent Lawyer Help Solve Murder Cases?? #truecrime #crimejunkie

September 10, 2025 / 00:54

This episode covers the role of genealogy in solving cold cases, featuring Barbara Ray Venttor, a retired patent lawyer who assists law enforcement.

Lieutenant Co discusses the challenges faced by investigators in the GSK case, emphasizing their struggle to find leads despite extensive efforts.

Barbara Ray Venttor shares her journey from mapping her own heritage to becoming a volunteer search angel, helping adoptees find biological parents.

Her expertise in creating family trees from DNA has led to collaborations with police departments seeking solutions to unsolved cases.

The episode highlights the intersection of genealogy and criminal investigations, showcasing how non-traditional methods can aid in solving crimes.

TLDR

Barbara Ray Venttor explains how genealogy aids cold case investigations, particularly in the GSK case.

Episode

0:54
00:00:00
Basically, investigators get all the way to the end of the list of all these last
00:00:04
names and people that the lab really thought it could be, and they still have nothing to show for it. But Lieutenant
00:00:10
Co is not willing to give up just yet. If you want to get something solved, like the GSK case, why not go to the
00:00:18
exact person who helped solve it? And that is Barbara Ray Venttor. Barbara isn't a cop. She's not a detective.
00:00:26
She's a retired 70-year-old patent lawyer who just happens to be really, really good at genealogy, which she only
00:00:33
discovered after retiring, by the way, when she started mapping her own heritage as a hobby. And that hobby
00:00:39
quickly turned into volunteering as a search angel. That's someone who helps adopes find their biological parents by
00:00:46
creating family trees from DNA. And when she got really good at that, police department started calling.

Episode Highlights

  • Barbara Ray Venttor: The Genealogy Expert
    A retired patent lawyer turned genealogy expert, Barbara helps solve cold cases using DNA.
    “She's a retired 70-year-old patent lawyer who just happens to be really good at genealogy.”
    @ 00m 26s
    September 10, 2025

Episode Quotes

  • She's a retired 70-year-old patent lawyer who just happens to be really good at genealogy.
    How Did a Patent Lawyer Help Solve Murder Cases?? #truecrime #crimejunkie

Key Moments

  • Persistence00:10
  • Unexpected Hero00:26
  • Genealogy Volunteer00:42