On the last episode of Solvable, investigators

following a promising lead about baby Jane's family tree took a trip from Mississippi to Missouri,

but what they encountered wasn't quite what they expected.

Officers spoke with a woman named Teresa, a woman who they believed

genetic genealogy research indicated was baby Jane's mother, but Teresa was not the baby girl's

mother. She was her aunt. By the time investigators walked out of Teresa's house, they learned that

baby Jane's name was Alicia and Heinrich and her mother was Gwendolyn May Clemens.

Teresa was Gwyn's sister.

Teresa had amazing memory like dates and times and just recalled it. Like from 1982, she was

just spouting off the dates. She knew when Alicia was born. She knew her birthday. Once birthday,

the time that Gwyn had disappeared, she was really good with providing details that helped us

out later on. Genealogy research on baby Jane's DNA had narrowed down a family group,

but before meeting Teresa, investigators were working off of the assumption that Teresa was the

missing mother they'd been looking for for all of these decades. When authorities spoke with Teresa

in August of 2020, she explained that she hadn't seen her sister Gwyn or Gwyn's daughter,

Alicia, in 38 years. Detectives took DNA samples from Teresa to make sure what she told police

was true. And from there, the case made massive strides.

I think as we're taking a minute here, to explain the science behind how all of this came to play out,

just so it's clear for everyone listening. One of the limitations of genetic genealogy and

researching using public or law enforcement databases is if there's no trace of the individual.

In other words, no record saying this person is the daughter of this couple, then no one knows for

sure. As a genealogist, you can spend weeks, even months or years scouring over the same family

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