Finding Grace

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary

4.3 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 14 July 2021

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In November 1990 a body of a woman was discovered - near an abandoned farm house in Missouri. The victim had been restrained with six types of rope. Police had no idea who she was, let alone who had killed her. With no clues to go on, and no leads, the police dubbed her ‘Grace’ after one officer said ‘only by the grace of god will she be identified’. For three decades there wasn’t a single lead in the case. However earlier this year, the young woman was identified using a revolutionary technique. It combines advanced DNA genome processing with genealogy websites which people use to trace ancestors and build their family trees. The BBC’s North American technology reporter, James Clayton, discovers Grace’s true identity and meets the victim’s siblings who are grateful to finally get some sense of closure after years of uncertainty. The new method has already solved hundreds of cold cases across America. Yet some worry that uploading DNA onto police databases violates privacy and could be open to abuse. Radio producer in London - Lucy Ash (Image: Shawna Beth Garber aged two, who was later known to police as "Grace." Picture courtesy of Danielle Pixler)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Thanks for downloading this podcast from the BBC World Service.
0:04.1	Our North America technology correspondent James Clayton
0:08.1	has a remarkable and I think very touching story
0:11.5	at the cutting edge of crime detection.
0:16.0	Welcome to the BBC World Service.
0:19.0	I'm James Clayson in the depths of Missouri.
0:24.0	We've just come off the freeway, about two miles down a dirt track,
0:28.0	almost to the top of a crest of a hill.
0:31.0	I have to say it's a really beautiful spot. It kind of
0:35.4	opens up into a sort of meadow. The birds are chirping, the sun's out. It's a kind of
0:41.4	place you'd want to come and have a picnic. But it's also the place where something horrific happened.
0:52.1	Well back in December of 1990, December 2nd, a couple were walking along the roadway here
0:57.5	on Oscar County looking for cans to pick up when they saw a skull about 10 feet or so off the roadway.
1:05.0	Lieutenant Hall is the Deputy Sheriff of McDonald County.
1:10.0	The couple he mentions were neighbors on a walk picking up any litter they found when they
1:14.8	made a gruesome discovery.
1:17.6	They contacted the sheriff at the time.
1:20.1	Sheriff Keeling came out and found the remains of a decomposed body.
1:24.0	I lived right up the road here.
1:26.0	You live here?
1:27.0	Yeah, I lived right up for every the way of the road.
1:29.0	I smelled it for a long time, didn't know what it was.
	...

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