Candy Rogers, Part 2: DNA Solves Spokane’s 62-Year Mystery
America's Crime Lab
iHeartPodcasts and Kaleidoscope
4.8 • 3.5K Ratings
🗓️ 20 August 2025
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The search for nine-year-old Candy Rogers haunted Spokane for generations. Could the killer’s family hold the final clue to solving the case? And just how far would detectives need to dig for the truth?
After decades with no answers, forensic DNA revealed her killer and solved one of America’s most enduring missing persons cases. In part two, we follow how modern science cracked a 62-year unsolved case, delivering justice and closure to one of the nation’s most haunting cold cases.
America’s Crime Lab is a true crime podcast about how science solves cold cases, missing persons, and other unsolved cases. Hosted by journalist and clinical psychologist Elin Lantz Lesser, and powered by Othram’s forensic DNA lab, the show connects the science to the story, revealing what really happens in the lab and why it matters.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 0:16.4 | There's going to be a moment in time or you as the cold case detective are the only person in the world that knows who killed that person. |
| 0:23.6 | When police discovered the body of nine-year-old Candy Rogers in the woods outside of Spokane, Washington, she'd been raped and strangled. |
| 0:36.6 | The attack was so brutal that it shook veteran officers. |
| 0:42.6 | Many had a hard time speaking about what they'd seen at the crime scene. |
| 0:49.6 | For 62 years, all leads turned up cold. |
| 0:54.8 | And Candy's murder became the largest case file in Spokane's history. |
| 1:02.9 | But in 2021, detectives had their first big break. |
| 1:08.9 | This is America's Crime Lab. I'm Alyn Lance Lesser. This is America's Crime Lab. |
| 1:11.2 | I'm Alyn Lance Lesser. |
| 1:13.0 | This is part two of the Candy Rogers case. |
| 1:15.8 | If you've missed the previous episode, you'll want to go back and listen. |
| 1:20.2 | Producer Catherine Fenalosa is here. |
| 1:23.0 | So when we left the story, |
| 1:24.8 | semen from Candy's underwear had been tested, |
| 1:29.4 | and once they had a DNA profile, |
| 1:35.6 | Othrum did forensic genetic genealogy. And that led them to three brothers. Yeah, the three Hoff brothers. And all three did live in Spokane, but unfortunately they've all since died. So |
| 1:41.9 | investigators look to see if any of them had children, and two of the brothers |
| 1:47.1 | did not, but one did. John Rehaugh actually had four kids, and Sergeant Zach Stormett decides to |
| 1:54.5 | reach out to Kathy, a daughter. And Kathy actually agrees to meet with Sergeant Stormont at the |
| 2:00.6 | police station, along with her own daughter. |
| 2:03.4 | So what do we know about Kathy's dad? |
... |
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