Project 525: Missing and Murdered Children

Summary

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America's Crime Lab

Episode: "Project 525: Missing and Murdered Children"

Original Air Date: November 5, 2025

Podcast by iHeartPodcasts and Kaleidoscope

Host: Alin Lance Lesser

Guest: Kristin Mittleman, Chief Business Development Officer at Othram

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Episode Overview

This episode delves into Othram’s Project 525, a mission to identify 525 missing and murdered children in the United States and "give them their name back." Host Alin Lance Lesser and Othram's Kristin Mittleman walk listeners through gut-wrenching cases, remarkable scientific advances, and the transformative promise of advanced forensic DNA testing to break through even the coldest of cases. The episode highlights the painful reality that many child victims are never even reported missing, discusses the hurdles faced by investigators, and celebrates the victories when family members finally learn the fate of a loved one—sometimes decades later.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Grim Reality: Unidentified & Forgotten Children

• Prevalence of Unidentified Child Victims

  • Kristin Mittleman opens with a sobering truth: many unidentified remains cases handled by Othram are children, often never reported missing because those responsible for their harm are also supposed to report them.
  • “Many of them were children. And unfortunately with children, the people that harm them are usually the people that would report them missing. So they were never reported missing.” — Kristin Mittleman [02:48]

• Project 525’s Mission

  • The initiative aims to tackle 525 such cold cases, named for May 25th (National Missing Children’s Day in the US).
  • “Some of these victims, especially these young children, they're not even on a backlog...The case is just lost in time.” — Kristin Mittleman [04:38]

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Case Studies: From DNA Dead Ends to Names Restored

• Opelika Baby Jane Doe / Amor Wiggins

  • In 2012, the remains of a young girl were found in Opelika, Alabama. Years passed with no identification until Othram extracted DNA from her scalp, solving the case after a decade.
  • The mother was still paying child support to her daughter’s murderer, believing her child was alive. The identification brought closure and justice.
  • “Her name was Amor Wiggins...she's no longer paying child support to the monster that did this. He's confessed to the crime...” — Kristin Mittleman [06:23]

• Beth Doe / Evelyn Colon

  • In 1976, the body of a pregnant 15-year-old was found in a Pennsylvania lake. Decades later, Othram used degraded DNA from her bones to build a profile, leading to the identification via genealogical reconnection by a nephew.
  • A key twist: the family had long received a letter allegedly from Evelyn, but it was written by her killer. The boyfriend was ultimately charged.
  • “It turns out the boyfriend had written the letter after her murder. Evelyn was dead. It wasn't the news the family was expecting, but now they had the truth.” — Alin Lance Lesser [07:59]

• Walker County Jane Doe / Sherri Ann Jarvis

  • In 1980, the body of a teenager was found in Texas with only scant tissue preserved on a microscope slide.
  • Othram pioneered a method using paraffin-embedded tissue (FFPE block), replicating decades-old preservation conditions to extract DNA.
  • “We started to create FFPE blocks in our research lab...and within about six months, we were able to reproducibly get sequencing results from this type of DNA.” — Kristin Mittleman [16:03]
  • Result: After 40 years, Sherri Ann Jarvis was identified and her family finally learned her fate.

• Andrea Michelle Reyes: A Rare Happy Ending

  • A 23-month-old abducted in 1999 and presumed gone forever was found alive at age 27, thanks to renewed investigation and rapid kinship DNA matching.
  • “She's not the first, she's actually the second child to be found alive.” — Kristin Mittleman [20:32]

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The Technology: Pushing Forensic Science Forward

• Mock Casework and Innovative DNA Processing

  • Othram often runs mock experiments with control DNA to refine methods before consuming scant, irreplaceable evidence in real cases.
  • This process is the reason for multiple breakthroughs, including the Walker County case.

• Reluctance and Hurdles from Law Enforcement

  • Despite demonstrated, courtroom-validated results, many police departments hesitate to allocate evidence or budget for advanced DNA analysis.
  • “Sometimes people out there tell law enforcement they can do things they can't do. And law enforcement has tried and they've been burned...unfortunately that's a big hurdle.” — Kristin Mittleman [18:31]

• Cost of Justice

  • Full casework is estimated at $8,000–$12,000 per case—no more than a couple months’ detective salary, yet still a barrier in many jurisdictions.

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Building Databases & Partnerships

• The Role of NAMUS
  • The federal National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NAMUS) database holds around 24,000 unresolved cases, 24% of which are children.
  • Othram partners with NAMUS but always needs local police buy-in for evidence submission and casework.

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The Psychological & Societal Impact

• Restoring Names Restores Stories
  • Each identification allows law enforcement to reconstruct last days, find witnesses, and pursue justice.
  • “You can't ever solve a crime when you don't know who your victim is...That's why I think this project is necessary, to show that there is hope.” — Kristin Mittleman [23:59]
  • Kristin argues publicly that routine success with these cases will deter future crimes by making it clear the identities of child victims will not stay hidden.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On why so many victims remain unidentified:

  • "[With children,] the people that harm them are usually the people that would report them missing. So they were never reported missing." — Kristin Mittleman [02:48]

• About unsolved cases as policy choices, given current technology:

  • "At this point, most unsolved crimes are a choice. We've got the technology, it's been validated...It's just a matter of prioritizing the cases, the effort...and the funding." — David Mittleman [25:55]

• On the transformation DNA technology offers:

  • "This technology helps unstick those cases from DNA dead ends to actual answers. And it's just the beginning. But it's a necessary beginning." — Kristin Mittleman [26:50]

---

Important Timestamps

• [02:48] — Nature of child victim cold cases; Project 525’s rationale
• [04:38] — Children not even appearing on missing children backlogs
• [06:23] — The tragic and ultimately resolved case of Amor Wiggins
• [07:59] — The ‘Beth Doe’ / Evelyn Colon case and the truth discovered
• [12:36] — Details of Walker County Jane Doe revealed
• [15:42] — Othram’s innovation with FFPE (paraffin-embedded) tissue processing
• [16:33] — Breakthrough in the Walker County case: Sherri Ann Jarvis is named
• [19:08] — Andrea Michelle Reyes: A child abducted, found alive 27 years later
• [23:59] — Project 525’s wider impact and vision: hope, deterrence, and systematic answers for families
• [25:55] — The economics and policy of solving unsolved crimes in the 21st century
• [26:50] — The core challenge: not lack of will, but lack of a person to investigate until DNA gives them a name

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Summary & Takeaways

"Project 525: Missing and Murdered Children" is a harrowing but hopeful look into the transformation forensic DNA science is bringing to cases society has long abandoned. Othram’s work is powered by both technological innovation and a deep sense of justice for the nameless and voiceless. For the families and communities, the act of finally learning what happened—sometimes decades after the wound was inflicted—provides a form of closure and a path to justice.

Kristin Mittleman leaves listeners with a poignant challenge: “It's not that the detectives aren't investigating. They have no one to investigate. They're stuck. And this technology helps unstick those cases from DNA dead ends to actual answers. And it's just the beginning. But it's a necessary beginning.” [26:50]

The episode is a powerful call for support, awareness, and ongoing funding for forensic breakthroughs—so every missing child can eventually be returned to their name, their story, and their loved ones.

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Transcript

[Alin Lance Lesser]

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[Alin Lance Lesser]

Kaleidoscope.

[Kristin Mittleman]

I think many of us started to realize as we worked these unidentified remains cases that many of them were children. And unfortunately with children, the people that harm them are usually the people that would report them missing. So they were never reported missing.

[Alin Lance Lesser]

For 10 years, the world did not know her name. For 10 years, she was known as Opelika Baby Jane Doe. On January 28, 2012, police responded to a call from a trailer park in Opelika, Alabama. A child's pink shirt, a small bundle of hair. The bones let them know she was probably between four and seven years old. There wasn't enough left to build a DNA profile. Law enforcement was stuck. This is the kind of case Kristin Mittleman says Othram's Project 525 was designed for cases involving children that have reached a dead end where traditional DNA testing methods come up short, where the remains have been sitting in an evidence locker somewhere for years. Today we talk about Othram's Quest to solve 525 cases of missing or murdered children, the cases they've solved and the names that have been given back. This is America's Crime Lab. I'm Alin Lance Lesser. Kristin Mittleman is the chief Business development officer at Othram. She is a soft spot for Project 525, maybe because she has five children of her own.

[Kristin Mittleman]

Project 525 is a mission to identify 525 missing and murdered children in the United States and give them their name back. We picked 525 because May 25th is missing children's Day in the United States. Every time we found one of these skeletons of an abused child, a murdered child, once we identified them, we realized that they weren't even a case on someone's desk. And we all sit here and we talk about the backlog of cases getting bigger and bigger. It's even worse than that. Some of these victims, especially these young children, they're not even on a backlog. The case is just lost in time. They have been taken out of reality and harmed in the most terrible way by the people they trusted the most. To me, that was a devastating concept.

[Alin Lance Lesser]

Kristen knew Othram could make a dent in solving these cases because Othram's discovered many ways of cracking these cold cases open. In January 2012, a child's remains were found near a trailer park in Opelika, Alabama. She became known as Opelika baby Jane Doe because no one could find out who she was.

[Kristin Mittleman]

She was found in a riverbed in Opelika, Alabama, and her bones were beaten so many times that she had hundreds of breaks that had healed over and over and over again. At different times, knocked out teeth. It's one of those cases you see and you get sick.

[Alin Lance Lesser]

Ten years after her body was found, Othram scientists took a look. They extracted DNA from the girl's scalp.

[Kristin Mittleman]

We were able to build a profile for her that led to the identification of her parents. And the mother was still under the impression that she was fine and living with a father that had gained custody and was paying child support. Eleven years after this child was murdered every two weeks to the person that actually murdered her and left her under that riverbed. Nopelika. These crimes don't stop, they continue until someone has an answer, until that victim gets their name back, their story back. Her name was Amor Wiggins, and she has been buried. Now her mom got to go to her gravestone and at least pay respects and know where her child is. She's no longer paying child support to the monster that did this. He's confessed to the crime, and his wife at the time is undergoing trial for accessory to murder. But this story is one that happens all too often.

[Alin Lance Lesser]

This is what motivates Kristin. Giving victims their identity back and giving families answers, seeing justice served.

[Kristin Mittleman]

Some of the cases are older and they're murdered by a boyfriend. And even in those cases, sometimes they're not reported missing. I have one I can tell you about.

[Alin Lance Lesser]

December 20, 1976.

[Kristin Mittleman]

She was known as Beth Doe. Her body was found in the bottom of a lake. She was pregnant. 15 years old and pregnant.

[Alin Lance Lesser]

Over 40 years later, a DNA extract from Beth Doe's bone was sent to Othram. There was a lot there to work with, but there was also a lot of damage from degradation and bacterial contamination. But by then, Othram had special tools and equipment to analyze the sample. Soon after, local law enforcement found a close match with a relative, a nephew. It turns out that side of the family had been missing an aunt and a sister since the mid-1970s. Her name was Evelyn Colon. The nephew had uploaded his DNA profile to many genealogical sites, hoping to reconnect with his aunt Evelyn. The family had lost touch with her, but assumed she was alive because they had received a letter from Evelyn around the time they last saw her. It said that she and her boyfriend had welcomed a new son. It turns out the boyfriend had written the letter after her murder. Evelyn was dead. It wasn't the news the family was expecting, but now they had the truth. Evelyn's boyfriend was arrested and charged with her homicide.

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[Alin Lance Lesser]

Walker County Jane Doe was found on November 1, 1980.

[Kristin Mittleman]

She was 1314 years old when she was found on the side of the road on Halloween day. That file is one of the most horrendous files I have ever read in my entire life.

[Alin Lance Lesser]

There were so many details at the crime scene. A rectangular brown pendant with a smoky glass stone that hung on a thin gold chain around her neck. Red leather heels with light brown straps. Pierced ears. Pink painted toenails. Light brown hair with a reddish tint. Multiple witnesses claimed to have seen a young girl carrying strappy red high heeled sandals. One witness said the girl had asked for directions to a nearby prison. Her naked body was discovered by a truck driver in a grassy area off a highway in Huntsville, Texas. She'd been brutally sexually assaulted and strangled. There are so many specific details that it's hard to imagine how she remained unrecognized and unclaimed for so long. Her tombstone read Unknown White female.

[Kristin Mittleman]

That child was tortured and left disfigured at the side of the road. No one was able to identify her and somehow the evidence in this case went missing. So all that was left was an autopsy slide.

[Alin Lance Lesser]

An autopsy slide. A sliver of tissue preserved on a glass slide designed for viewing under a microscope. That's all there was. And when there is such scarce DNA evidence, Othram is sometimes hesitant to run the technology. Anytime DNA is tested, it is destroyed in the process. So Kristin says unless Othram is confident they can build her profile, they have to wait. She says. They pause about 25% of cases. They decided to pause the Walker county case. But when they pause a case, that doesn't mean they give up. They have other methods.

[Kristin Mittleman]

We actually do mock case work in the research lab with DNA that doesn't belong to a victim.

[Alin Lance Lesser]

Basically, when the DNA evidence is scarce, they start with a different DNA sample, and they put it through the same conditions that affected the limited DNA evidence. Maybe they expose it to extreme temperatures or certain chemicals to mimic the original DNA properties that they can test their technology on first. And that's led to some breakthroughs. But on the Walker county case, they attempted something they'd never done before.

[Kristin Mittleman]

So it was a paraffin embedded formaldehyde fixed block. FFPE block they'll call it.

[Alin Lance Lesser]

Kristin says, in this new technique, human tissue is immersed in a solution of formaldehyde. This stabilizes the cells and allows the sample to be preserved and tested at a later date.

[Kristin Mittleman]

And we started to create FFPE blocks in our research lab with fresh DNA and try to figure out, can we actually ever do this? Can we reproduce it? And within about six months, we were able to reproducibly get sequencing results from this type of DNA.

[Alin Lance Lesser]

All of this testing happened over months in Othram's research labs. Once they'd perfected their new method, Kristen says they were ready to call detectives in Texas.

[Kristin Mittleman]

Within a year, we had brought it into our forensic protocol in the lab, and we took the case back, and we actually were able to give Sherri Ann Jarvis her identity back.

[Alin Lance Lesser]

40 years after her murder, Sherri Ann Jarvis's family finally knew the truth.

[Kristin Mittleman]

She was a girl that was reported missing in Minnesota. She was found here in Texas. No one would have connected the two cases.

[Alin Lance Lesser]

Sherry Ann Jarvis, Evelyn Colon, Amor Wiggins. These are just a few cases Othram has helped solve over the years of the youngest victims. Now, bear with me. I'm about to tell you about a database, but it's a key component of Project 525. It's called the National Missing and Unidentified person system, or NAMUS. It's a federal database that houses 24,000 missing or unidentified person cases. And about 24% are children. CRSON has raised money that allows Othram to partner with NAMUS to work on these cases. But for it to work, they need buy in from local police departments.

[Kristin Mittleman]

The case might be in NamUs, but the evidence is still with local law enforcement. And they are the ones that help us collect the sample for confirmation. And if there's an investigative lead, for example, when we're able to help identify what family this person belonged to, we give that information back to law enforcement.

[Alin Lance Lesser]

Kristin estimates that it costs 8 to $12,000 to solve these cases from start to finish, no more than a detective's salary to work a case for a month or two. Detectives who have already dedicated years and years to these cases with the funding in place, it's hard to imagine why a police department would turn them down, but they do.

[Kristin Mittleman]

I don't know. Fear of new technology, fear of failure. Sometimes people out there tell law enforcement they can do things they can't do. And law enforcement has tried and they've been burned. And so when someone else comes and says, look, I have a predictable way of testing DNA, let us help you, they don't think that we're any different. And unfortunately that's a big hurdle in DNA testing. And so it's not even necessarily that the detective doesn't want to work the case. They just don't trust the technology to work the case.

[Alin Lance Lesser]

October 1999. 23 month old Andrea Michelle Reyes was abducted. The investigation began in New Haven, Connecticut where she was last seen. Her father suspected that Andrea was taken to Mexico by her mother who did not have custody of her.

[Kristin Mittleman]

When he went to law enforcement, he provided that theory and they looked and they tried to figure out if they could find where the non custodial parent was living or where she could be in Mexico. But they couldn't find her and they ended up closing the case. And then years later, recently one of the detectives at New Haven actually reopened the case and started looking in Mexico to try to figure out if he could find any information about the non custodial parent. And in doing so, he actually made contact with the child. She was 27 years old at the time.

[Alin Lance Lesser]

That's when Othram was looped in. The 27 year old woman provided a DNA sample which was compared to Andrea's father's DNA profile with kin Sniper rapid relationship testing. This allowed them to link them as father and daughter. This young woman was indeed Andrea Michelle Reyes.

[Kristin Mittleman]

She's not the first, she's actually the second child to be found alive.

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[Alin Lance Lesser]

Since initiating Project 525 about a year ago, Othram has helped solve five cases of missing or murdered children.

[Kristin Mittleman]

And I don't think it's going to take that long to get through 525 cases. I think that as we start to solve these cases that were previously completely unsolvable in a routine way and show that, you know, we can take in 525 cases and give 525 answers and the only thing that's missing is funding, then I think that people will think twice before they commit those types of crimes in the future. I think it becomes a deterrent to people murdering their own children. If you have a child's remains sitting at an evidence locker and no one saw the child be placed, wherever you found that child, it could be in a field, under a riverbed, like we spoke, at the bottom of a lake, at a house, inside of a tv. I've seen it all. When that's all the information you have, there's no other test to be done. What are you waiting for to solve that case? You're waiting for someone to knock at the police station on the door and say, I saw something that day or I saw someone bury this person. But unfortunately, decades and decades go by and no one's come by with any eyewitness information. You can't ever solve a crime when you don't know who your victim is. You can't piece together the last few days of their lives. That's why I think this project is necessary, to show that there is hope. The evidence right there can give you the answer. It can give you the lead to the identity of this person. And once you know the name of the person that was in the TV or at the bottom of the lake, you can figure out who saw them last, where they were. You can figure out who to question to actually start that investigation.

[Alin Lance Lesser]

Othram's David Mittleman also says arriving at an answer doesn't cost as much as you'd think.

[David Mittleman]

At this point. Most unsolved crimes are a choice. We've got the technology, it's been validated in the scientific literature. It's stood up in court. These tools have been used to solve thousands of cases. It's just a matter of prioritizing the cases, the effort necessary to solve them and the funding. And we've had a really great support from the community. DNA solves the project. 525 community. And this has allowed us to get many of these cases that otherwise would remain unsolved. Now to the finish line. Victims identified, crimes solved. But to really scale this for everyone and for every jurisdiction. We will need support from the local, state and federal government to prioritize, fund and un otherwise resource this kind of work. And when we get to that point, we won't have these backlogs of unsolved cases.

[Kristin Mittleman]

It's not that the detectives aren't investigating. They have no one to investigate. They're stuck. And this technology helps unstick those cases from DNA dead ends to actual answers. And it's just the beginning. But it's a necessary beginning.

[Alin Lance Lesser]

America's Crime Lab is produced by Rococo Punch for Kaleidoscope. Erica Lance is our story editor and sound design is by David Woje. Our producing team is Catherine Fenollosa, Emily Forman and Jessica Alpert. Our executive producers are Kate Osborne, Mangesh Hadi Gadour and David and Kristin Mittleman. And from iHeart, Katrina Norville and Ally Perry. Special thanks to Connell Byrne, Will Pearson, Kerry Lieberman, Nikki Etor, Nathan Etosky, John Burbank and the entire team at othram. I'm Aylin Lance Lesser. Thanks for listening.

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We know no one's journey is the same.

[Allie, Certified Health Coach]

That's why Delta SkyMiles moves with you from earning miles on reloads for coffee runs, shopping and things you do every day to connecting you to new experiences. A SkyMiles membership fits into your lifestyle.

[Annabe Sofas Announcer]

Letting you do more of what makes you you.

[Allie, Certified Health Coach]

It's more than travel. It's the membership that flies dines so streams, rides, and arrives with you.

[Annabe Sofas Announcer]

Because when you have a membership that's.

[Allie, Certified Health Coach]

As unique as you are, there's no telling where your journey will take you next.

[Cleanomic Announcer]

Learn [e-mail] Skymiles living sustainably can feel overwhelming. Most people don't have time to overhaul their whole life, but that's where cleanomic comes in. Cleanomic isn't about perfection, it's about progress. It's about those small switches that add up, like trading plastic bags for compostable ones or ditching toxic detergent jugs for a slim sleeve of laundry sheets. If you're ready to make small switches with a big impact, go to cleanomic.com and check out their curated bundles. You can even take 20% off with code SWITCH20Cleaner, safer, smarter Cleanomic.com tis the.

[Lowe's Announcer]

Season for identity theft. This time of year, most of us are checking off our holiday gift lists. But guess what? Identity thieves have lists too, and your personal information might be on them. Protect Your identity with LifeLock LifeLock monitors hundreds of millions of data points every second and alerts you to threats you could miss by yourself, even if you keep an eye on your bank and credit card statements. If your identity is stolen, your own US based restoration specialist will fix it, guaranteed or your money back. And all plans are backed by the million dollar protection package. The last thing you want to do this holiday season is face drained accounts who fraudulent loans or other financial losses from identity theft all alone. Make this season about joy, not Identity theft. With LifeLock, save up to 40% your first year. Call 1-800-LIFELOCK and use promo code IHEART or go to lifelock.com iheart for 40% off. Terms apply.

[Alin Lance Lesser]

This is an iHEART podcast.