Two cold-case murders solved in California using 'genetic genealogy' technology

Authorities this week announced the resolution of two California cold-case murders, using the relatively new technology of genetic genealogy to link the killer to a third attempted murder years later. 

The City of Garden Grove Police Department said in a press release that the murders of Shannon Rose Lloyd and Renee Cuevas, killed in 1987 and 1989, respectively, were both committed by Las Vegas resident Reuben Smith.

Smith, who committed suicide in 1999, had been arrested in 1998 for sexual assault and attempted murder. The suspect's DNA from that investigation was positively matched to those of Lloyd and Cuevas. 

“The loved ones of Renee Cuevas and Shannon Lloyd have the answers to the question they have been asking for more than three decades,” Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in the press release.

“The justice that every victim deserves was hidden away in DNA," he added, "but with advances in [Investigative Genetic Genealogy] technology combined with the relentless dedication of generations of detectives and the talented prosecutors and forensic scientists at the District Attorney’s Office, we now know who killed Renee and Shannon."