Wisconsin is one of the handful of states that allows the use of familial DNA searching.

This is the process whereby a search of the CODIS database is done for first-degree relatives of the unknown suspect,

based on shared DNA markers.

I was told that familial searches were conducted more than once in this case,

and the investigators were provided with lists of names of men

who needed to be checked out to see if their close male relatives could be the killer.

This was a lot of work and effort, but in the end, led nowhere.

In 2018, Detective Baldwin was approached by Lieutenant Barry Degnitz about a company he had

heard about called

Parabon Nanolaps, which offered phenotypes based on suspect DNA evidence. After researching the

company and what its program had to offer, the investigators and Sheriff Jerry Soyve decided to proceed

with Parabon. On March 28, 2018, Detective Baldwin contracted with Parabon to analyze a SNIP profile of the suspect,

taken from seminal fluid, still preserved in Ellen's shorts, to create a computer-generated image

and phenotype report of the killer. Parabon's report was ready on June 12th.

Sheriff Soyvee released the image to the public in a press conference requesting information.

He credited the original investigators for maintaining the evidence properly, saying,

quote, they did good work back then, allowing us to be where we're at with it today.

The snapshot image, one at age 25 and one aged progress to depict the suspect as he would appear in 2018, showed a white man with very fair, lightly

freckled skin, reddish brown hair, and blue or green eyes of primarily Northern European ancestry.

After the images were released, the Sheriff's Office received more than 60 tips.

Investigators interviewed many of the men who were named in the tips and took DNA samples,

but none matched.

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