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A
Girl, it's 70 degrees and sunny out. I wanted to check in with you.
B
Happy fake spring.
A
Happy fake spring. Full spring. I know, I know. It's going to be 40 on Friday.
B
It's a very nice reprieve. But like. Well, also this is. We're recording this in early March. Yeah, this is coming out months after because high bonus episodes.
A
Oh, right. It'll be like a solid 95 the day this episode comes out.
B
But yeah, by the time this comes out, it'll be the actual season that you're hoping.
A
Yes, I think I like, I biked to the studio today.
B
It's a gorgeous day outside.
A
It's so beautiful. Okay. Just making sure you're okay.
B
I'm not like the witch under the fire.
A
I know. Hi. Jillian Bezavalli.
B
Hello. Patrick Hines. But check back in August when I'm fucking over.
A
I know. It's like me, like, you know, we had Daisy's birthday party this weekend and all the parents were like, sorry, we haven't seen you in two months. We haven't been able to get off the couch.
B
And I don't want to hear a single one of you, like, team you who don't even come to me about how hot it is in the summer.
A
I will never for this. I know, I know, I know, I know. I will not. I'm the king of like, it's 110and humid and I am so happy.
B
Well, enjoy it.
A
I wanted to congratulate you on something.
B
What?
A
Congratulations to you. I was heave sobbing at my computer at 7:30 this morning watching that.
B
No problem. This is so welcome to the bonus episodes. This is the series naming the dead. It is, I think probably my favorite series that we cover.
A
It started to play the next episode. When this one ended, I'm like, no, I can't. I've got other work to do.
B
We're doing the next episode eventually. It is so, so good.
A
Yeah.
B
I love the series so much. This is season one, episode three, the Body in the Sand. It's on Hulu. I don't know if there's more of this series coming. I think it is excellent.
A
It's all about these amazing women. They're all women so far at least, who are finding like dead bodies and giving them their names back through genetic genealogy.
B
The DNA Doe project specifically is working on these cases.
A
It's incredible.
B
Their website is amazing. Like, they have updates on the case. The show is. I cry every time we cover it.
A
I. Me too. But this one especially got me. I was like, head down See that, to come in and check on me.
B
I know, like, what's happening?
A
It's crazy.
B
This is where Jane Doe was located. It's very, very desolate.
A
You could clandestinely get in here, drop a body off, and then leave and nobody would ever know.
B
Someone walking their dog came across human remains. The body was found in the Arizona desert near Apache Junction, 30 miles east of Phoenix. There are still questions as to she ended up away from her home. This was a young girl. She had her whole life ahead of her. I just want her family to know that she hasn't been forgotten.
A
So we're in a place called Apache junction, Arizona. It's 30 miles east of Phoenix. We learned that a Jane Doe was found in this area. They're saying that she was about 16 to 17 when she was found. And then in 2008, the Jane Doe had been sitting there for six months. Seventeen years.
B
Enter Stephanie Burjeau. She's a crime scene technician. She's the one who's like, I am determined to find the identity of this girl.
A
Great job with the pronunciation of the last name. I was like, stephanie, how do we say this?
B
Didn't she say it herself?
A
Did she?
B
She must have.
A
I was too busy, like, because I watch it on half my screen, and then my notes are on the other half. So all the notes are all, like. The type is very small. So I'm, like, leaned all the way. So I probably missed her saying it.
B
Well, she's awesome.
A
She is.
B
She is showing us this episode starts. We dive right in. She's showing us everything that Jane Doe had on her when she was found in 1990. This is a bus token, and valid for one student fare is what it says on the back. This other item is a gold nugget ring. It's just a gold band. There has to be family out there that wants to know where their daughter, their sister is. So Stephanie's like, okay, this is a young girl. I want to identify who she is, but also contact her family, who must be devastated.
A
Yeah.
B
Not knowing what happened to her.
A
Literally, like, there's got to be a family out there wondering where this little girl is.
B
So Stephanie exhumes Jane Doe's body.
A
Yes.
B
Which is, as we know, very hard to do.
A
Yeah.
B
So she gets. Stephanie gets the DNA so she can start her research. And there's nothing.
A
They do a facial reconstruction. And when we finally, like, obviously, this always ends with us finding out who the victim is. The facial reconstruction and the picture of the victim are, like, identical.
B
It's really Amazing.
A
It's one of the best I've ever seen in. Because sometimes you're like, that doesn't look anything like the person.
B
Yeah.
A
But this one, they nailed it.
B
And so we learned that Jane doe is between 16 and 18 years old, between five' 11 and five' one. And she has brown hair. And that's kind of all we know right now.
A
Yeah. And they plaster the face on billboards all over the Phoenix area and they get no luck with that either.
B
Eventually she was reburied. Now it's just unidentified. That's when I saw the magazine article with the DNA Doe project doing genetic testing. I just felt we need to try and do this. But her gravestone says unidentified, which is just like, we can't let that stand.
A
It's funny, I was, said I was gonna. I almost said this to you before we started. I'm like, I'm save this until we start. I know that, like over the last couple years you've been thinking, like, what can you do? Like what?
B
How can I work for them?
A
I really saw you. I could see you with your hair in a messy top knot, totally at the computer. Because all of these women get up at 4 in the morning because they have to check and see if any more matches have been put into the database because that's how they like solve these things. And I was like, I could 100% see you doing.
B
I think I'd be really good at it.
A
No question.
B
I think about it every time we cover this. I think about it randomly. It'll pop in and be like, I want to. I don't know where to start, but I. Maybe I'll just email them. Well, I want to do this.
A
Genetic genealogy is like doing a puzzle from people that we've talked to who have done it. And just seeing it in these documentaries, it can be incredibly frustrating because somebody says at one point you can spend 100 hours on one of these cases and get nothing.
B
Yeah.
A
In terms of like, you can like trace a family line all the way back and. But like it doesn't result in any answers for your case.
B
Yeah, but like there's a part of that as you're talking about it. I'm like, but it's not great. You can like hyper focus on one thing until you.
A
Yes, but here's my question to you. Solving these cases requires like everybody to submit their DNA to these, to these online databases.
B
So Jennifer Randolph, who is in all of these episodes, she's the director of cases. She has said, because a lot of these cases are people of color. And a lot of people of color are like, I'm not doing this.
A
Yeah.
B
And for totally understandable reasons. But she has also said, like, that's not what we do for the DNA DOE project because they've definitely put calls out and we'll cover this in the next episode of this series that we do. Like, asking people of color, specifically black people. Like, we want to help you find your people, especially with slavery. Like, there was a lot. Like, we need a lot of help there. So she has explained why this is a safe place for people to submit their DNA. The DNA DOE project split specifically. But I hear the. Yeah, the hesitation and the fear. Like, I get it,
A
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A
Oh, tell me everything, party girl.
B
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B
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A
But.
B
So Stephanie, our technician here, she learns about the DNA Doe project. And in, like, a magazine article. Yeah, like, oh, oh, oh, this is who I need to contact.
A
Well, because I'm shocked that cases like this aren't, like, profiled all the time. Not because not only, like, do they often have an ending with. With, like, an ending.
B
Yeah.
A
But, like, it's doing the good work. It's like, they're interesting stories. Like the. The stories of these cases being like, I'm surprised they're not on magazines every week.
B
I can't believe this isn't one of those series that has 12 seasons and.
A
I know.
B
Episodes.
A
I know, I know.
B
Why is there only. I mean, we're doing every last episode of this.
A
Do you know what the answer to that might be? It might just be that there aren't a lot of solved cases, because, like, when we see how the lengths to which these women have to go to solve these and, like, the participation from the public that is required, there just might. They might not get a lot of solves.
B
But you know what, though? Put the stories on the episodes and we'll talk about it and we'll help.
A
That's a great idea.
B
Who cares? At least let's get several steps into the process and leave it to the public, leave it to the podcasters. We'll do it.
A
We will save the day.
B
We'll try anyway. But Jennifer, who is in all of these episodes, she's the director of cases for the DNA Doe project. She says, at the DNA Doe Project, we believe that every person deserves to be laid to rest with their name and have the dignity of their identity.
A
We are the last resort for the
B
toughest cases, and we'll do everything we can to help them.
A
We are the last resort for the toughest cases, and we will do everything we can to help them. And these people are all mostly volunteers.
B
They're volunteers.
A
Yeah.
B
So she tells us about the DNA results in this case. So our Jane Doe is Hispanic on her mother's side and German and African American on her father's side. And she says that is an unusual and challenging mix to work with. Yeah, but they find an African American man named Patrick Smith.
A
Yes. Patrick shares enough. It's so weird to do an episode with your own name in it. Sure, it's bizarre, but this guy Patrick shares enough DNA with the Jane Doe that he could be her uncle.
B
Right.
A
Meaning that this guy, Patrick's sibling would be this Jane Doe's parents.
B
Right. So let's go to North Carolina because Patrick is here with us.
A
Yeah. And he's outside now. I don't know about this. He says he's outside doing yard work. Like, an unmarked police car is just, like, parked in front of his house
B
to a black man in North Carolina.
A
Yeah. And, like, says to the guy, are you Patrick Smith? I have a lady in Arizona who's been looking for you that could go a million directions.
B
And I'm sure Patrick was like, I'm sorry, what?
A
Yeah, what does she want?
B
So. But it's Stephanie, our crime scene technician. And Patrick calls Stephanie, and Stephanie's like, hey, how are you? I have a really important question for you. Do you have a brother? Now, this makes Patrick super emotional.
A
I was adopted. I had no idea about my birth family, so this was a shock. I've got a niece who's deceased, and I've got a brother that I never
B
knew, and he had no idea he had a brother. And now Stephanie is calling him and telling him that he does.
A
And not only do you have a brother, but you have a niece who's dead.
B
Right.
A
All of this is a shock to
B
Patrick, and we don't have any answers. And can you help us?
A
Yeah. The twists and turns in this story are so fascinating, and it makes Stephanie
B
emotional, too, because this is a lead. And she goes. It's just. It's just been such a long time.
A
Yeah. Yeah. And, like, Stephanie is literally sobbing as she's saying this. And, like, you know, they're going to tell us. We meet Karen.
B
She brings us all down to earth real quick. She's like, everyone can, like, be in their feelings, however.
A
Yeah. She says adoptions are the worst nightmare of a genetic genealogist. Genealogist, by the way, is an incredibly hard word to spell.
B
It's very annoying.
A
It doesn't make any sense. It's a great no I in the first part of that word. Make it make sense. Yeah.
B
It's the word gene G any. And then we go straight to a. I know.
A
I was like. Well, I kept getting the red line that I was spel it wrong. And I was like, I. This can't. Once again, I had to, like, zoom in and I'd, like, lean into my computer to, like, the lower third of this person and find the word. It's a hard word. Yeah, it's just a hard word.
B
It's a great thing.
A
Yes.
B
Hard word, tough to spell, you know,
A
And I'm not good at spelling in the first place.
B
No, you're not. Just, you know. Yeah, we're being honest here today.
A
Absolutely true. Spelling is for the birds.
B
You know what I mean?
A
You know what I mean?
B
Spell check.
A
Like, I know. And I get the red line in my nose all the time and I'm like, it's close enough. I'll know it when I.
B
It's for you.
A
Exactly. I'm like, I can sound that out.
B
So Karen's here, but also Harm, she's another volunteer. I immediately volunteered as soon as I heard about this case because I was, you know, a troubled teen and I
A
put myself in situations sometimes that weren't very safe. I made it through that, but not everyone does.
B
She made it through and not everyone does. There's a 16 year old girl with a bus pass and Harmony is just wondering like, what could have happened to her.
A
And then Karen, the other genealogist is saying she has a teenage daughter and she's like. And like my kid is just getting to that age now where everything, every one of these in my heart and brain relates to her. And Karen's just saying like, I can't imagine her like going missing and like not knowing what happened to her.
B
I just love them so much because they're like, we're fighting for these girls. Harmony's red lip looks amazing. It's so hard to pull off.
A
We're gonna see later. She's wearing a tank top. She is covered in tattoos.
B
She. They're like so fucking cool.
A
I know.
B
And they give a shit and you know, they really care such a long way.
A
Harmony later is gonna tell us that she was up at 4am Looking at the, at the matches coming in.
B
I'm like, Harmony's going by. Not a sip of water sipped.
A
I know.
B
Love it.
A
Take care of yourselves, but keep doing the good work.
B
I know, but like, I know. Who needs water when you're this close?
A
See, this is the thing. We're going to lose you completely if you start this work. It's true. Jillian, you got to come out. We got to record an episode.
B
I'm still emailing them though.
A
I know. Please do.
B
So Patrick, the uncle is their best bet. Everyone else connected to Jane Doe in the database shares less than 1% of their DNA with her. So the goal, as we know, is to build this massive family tree Connecting
A
all these people together, it looks so overwhelming to me.
B
It's like trying to connect the dots. And this is where they tell us, like, the war tedious doesn't even begin to cover it.
A
No.
B
And it can be so frustrating because it's hundreds of hours. And when you don't get anywhere, you're like, well, where do I go from here? It's just. It's like roadblock after roadblock because you
A
have to work your way all the way back through the generations to then work your way up back. You know what I mean?
B
And sometimes you just got to wait. Sometimes the information isn't there, and you just have to wait until someone uploads their DNA and it's enough of a match for the case you're working on, which is why this takes years.
A
And the thing about the genetics genealogy, it's not just doing the computer work. Like, oftentimes you get names, and now you've got to go to the public records office.
B
Right?
A
And, like, certain, like, because you get a name and you're like, great, but I got this person, but I need to find that person's spouse. Now I have to go find marriage records from the 1800s.
B
Right. Which is why, like, and we'll talk about it in the next episode. When someone is brought over on a slave ship and they're not, like, identified by their name, it makes it next to impossible. Yes, but we get a new match.
A
Anything above 1% would be significant. At one point, Anastasia will still be a distant cousin, but she offers a brand new lead. A search of her name in public records shows she has Hispanic heritage.
B
And I'm like, we got 1.4. I will take this win, and we will run with it.
A
We learned that this person, this person's name is Anastasia. This is the 1.4% match. And she could be, like, a distant cousin to our Jane Doe.
B
On the mother's side.
A
On the mother's side.
B
Which is why it's such a big deal, because we have Patrick from the father's side. So now, like, we're expanding our family tree, which is, again, a main. A major. When, after hundreds of hours.
A
Yes.
B
So Anastasia lives in Tucson, Arizona, which is just a few hours from where Jane Doe was found. This is another win. Like, okay, they're close. Maybe there's a lot of family here.
A
Because the thing about it that I was just to go back to the beginning for a second is the likeness of the. Of the facial rendering that they do looks so much like the real victim that it almost Tells you that the family can't possibly live in Phoenix because if they did, somebody would have seen these billboards.
B
Yeah, it's because they might not know she existed, exists, and it might be so far back if it's a distant cousin. You don't know.
A
I know. I. I was thinking about this too. Like, many, many years ago, I was working on a podcast that never came to be about the Brian Schaefer case who went missing in. If you guys don't know this case, it's. I'm obsessed with it. He, like, literally in 2006, walked into a bar in Columbus and never came out. And so we put up billboards all over Columbus and we reached out to his family to say, like, hey, just to let you know we're doing this so that, like, if you are driving down the highway and you see a billboard of your brother, you don't drive off the road. Ben. I was thinking, like, with, with this Jane Doe's family, like, how shocking that would be to be driving down the road and you see, like. You know what I mean?
B
Oh, of course.
A
It could actually put people in danger, you know?
B
Yeah, yeah. It's surreal. And it's like, yeah, yeah. You just lose sight of yourself.
A
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B
So Stephanie is like, all right, I got to talk to Anastasia. So she heads over there, and she meets with Anastasia and Debbie, which is another cousin in the family.
A
Yes.
B
And they don't have that much information, like, so on your side of the family, do you recall anybody having a partner or husband, boyfriend that was African American?
A
I know that there's some on my mom's side, but I can't remember who
B
exactly was married to or had kids with. They think maybe someone had a child with a black man, but they can't 100% be sure that it even happened, let alone who it was.
A
Yeah. But Anastasia and Debbie are all in because they're gonna do thing that we really need, which is they're going to go to their family and say, y' all got to spit into this cup and, like, submit your DNA. Because we got to figure out we've got, like, a dead relative that's been missing, and these people are trying to help. We got to figure this out.
B
And they're going to, like, try to help make the family tree by calling people and see who knows who. And they're, like, really doing the work here.
A
And maybe that's another reason why we don't have more episodes because, like, how many families, even if they. These cases get solved, necessarily want cameras on all of it.
B
Yeah.
A
It's, like, a very sensitive thing.
B
It is. And I think the show really takes. Takes care of all those things.
A
Yeah. Yes. For sure.
B
Time and time again, we see these either, or we don't see the conversations, like, in this episode later on, or they're handled with, like, such care as they need to. And the DNA Adult project, they know what the hell they're doing.
A
There's just another case I'm obsessed with. It's called the Bag murders from the 1970s in New York. It was, like, six gay men separately found in trash bags in the Hudson River. They were like, they were mutilated and put in these bags. And it just kills me to, like, I was just thinking as I was watching this episode, like, great, like, let's get, like, let's exhume them and get their DNA and, like, put them in a database. Nobody knows where they are. Nobody has any files on the case. This was 1970 New York City. No files on any. We don't even know their names. We don't have any of their names. We don't even know where they were buried. Probably on Hart island in one of those mass graves or something. We'll never. Somebody said to me the other day, we're never gonna know. And they just had to, like, say it to me, like, we're never gonna know. And, like, it's the perfect storm of, like, it's the 1970s. They probably fled to Greenwich Village. Their families are probably out there thinking that they're out. That these men are out living, like, fabulous gay lives in New York. No, they're all. They were brutally murdered. We'll never be able to give them their names back. We'll never be able to tell the families what happened to them. And it just. It's heartbreaking because we have the technology now.
B
Yeah. But, like, we need so much more as we learn in these episodes. I know we do need a lot of things to fall into place.
A
Yeah.
B
So let's go back with Uncle Patrick. He is going through all of his documents trying to find information that can
A
help this story is because he tells us he's looking at his adoption papers. His adoption was processed on January 16, 1956. And this is where we learn that he was born in a place called Darmstadt, Germany. Record scratch. What?
B
So Patrick learns that he was part of a post war project called. They call it in this series, the Brown Babies Adoption Scheme. Yeah, I know it as the plan or project. I've never heard the word scheme attached to it. So I might be wrong. I mean, clearly. But what happened is just imagine children scrubbing themselves raw to try and wash off the brown color. That was the reality for thousands of kids born to German women after World War II and then fathered by black
A
American soldiers to save them from the prejudice they faced in Germany. 7,000 of these babies were sent to the United states throughout the 50s and 60s to be adopted by black families.
B
In the 50s and 60s, these babies were born to German women who had them with black soldiers. Black American soldiers. And then they were thrown into, like, extreme racism in Germany. And so to save them from this Prejudice In Germany, 7,000 of these babies were sent to the United States to be adopted by black families. If you are blown away by this,
A
I am blown away by this.
B
Okay, look up Mabel Grammer. She's the black journalist who, like, discovered that this was happening and spearheaded and ran this project.
A
So this was a good thing, not a bad Thing.
B
This was a good thing. Oh, so they were just like. Instead of having them, like, they weren't being adopted in orphanages because people were so racist and awful.
A
So the birth mothers were giving them
B
up for adoption because the mothers were, like, also dealing with the racism.
A
Oh. So I didn't know if we were dealing with a situation where the kids were being taken from their birth mothers.
B
So look up Mabel Grammar. She's awesome. She is a black journalist who heard about this and was like, wait, what? So she personally made 500 adoptions happen.
A
Wow.
B
And her husband, who was an army chief, adopted 12 of these babies.
A
Oh, my God. That's too many kids. Mabel, you're doing the good work. But I got one. I could barely keep up.
B
So she and her husband were like, oh, because they're black. And she was like this black journalist who was like, no, wait a second. And she would be sort of the go between because a lot of. Just look her up. There's a lot.
A
I'm glad to hear that this was a positive thing and not, like a terrifyingly awful bad thing, to be fair.
B
Did I do four hours of research on this thing? No, but, like, look, you were too
A
busy trying to do genetic genealogy all
B
day, but, like, look at, like, her obituary was in the New York Times, like, she is known for, because she saw something awful and she was like, how can I help these fucking babies who didn't do anything wrong? Of course they're dealing with this awful racism for being mixed or being black or whatever. So she really spearheaded. Spearheaded this brown babies project, which is what they called it.
A
So Uncle Patrick says that, like, growing up, he had no siblings. He felt very alone, felt very much like an outsider. And he says it was probably the same for my brother.
B
Yeah, he's essentially saying, like, it would have been nice to have a brother.
A
Exactly.
B
And I'm sure his brother is feeling. Was feeling the same way. Is feeling the same way.
A
Yeah.
B
So now we gotta find Patrick's brother.
A
Now we gotta find Patrick's brother.
B
Here's what we know. He was born in Germany.
A
Because just as a reminder, Patrick's brother is the father of our Jane Doe.
B
Yes. Yes.
A
Yeah.
B
So he's born in Germany. So we know we're looking for an African American man who was probably born in Darmstadt. And we also know that he would have had a child with a Hispanic woman, probably in the Phoenix area. So we're looking for this very specific couple, and we just have to figure out how to find them later in life. He did have A child with a Hispanic woman, most likely in the Phoenix area.
A
Yes.
B
And this is when the DNA Doe project is like, okay, this is when it gets really exciting because this is a very, very specific couple. And they say we just have to figure out how to find them. But they know exactly what they're looking for.
A
I'm like connecting the dots a little bit too because I was like, oh, it'd be interesting to. As to why Patrick's DNA was in the system. Oh, Patrick's DNA was in the system because he was looking to see if he had any brother, like any family because he was adopted.
B
Right. You know, and he didn't know his birth family because it wasn't really about. It was about getting these kids these babies, homes and other families. So it wasn't really about his birth family at the time in this project.
A
Yeah. And it's just like, I mean, I know that this is the whole point of the episode, but it's so wild that he. That they were able to find the uncle.
B
I know.
A
And then the uncle was adopted so, like, doesn't know his brother. Who's the dad. Like, it's a, it's a wild story.
B
And it took years even to get here.
A
Yes.
B
Yes.
A
Yeah.
B
So we get another match and remember how they were like, yeah. Anything above one is good.
A
Yes.
B
15.2.
A
Everyone doesn't feel like enough, but I'm screaming.
B
But this match is one of the relatives on the mom's side. Which again is great because we need this big family tree so we need both sides.
A
By the way, this is the match that harmony found at 4 in the morning.
B
I love.
A
I just, I felt so in that moment.
B
The red lip, the nails, I know, like, they're both so awesome. But this match could be like as close as a first cousin. Yes, exactly. Which means that her aunt is likely the do's mother. Which means this cousin's aunt could be our Jane Doe's mother. We're getting closer.
A
You're losing me. But yes, I know this is a good thing.
B
Like, I always get so emotional.
A
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service available in select states. Terms and restrictions apply. Visit earn in.com for full details. Details. They go to social media to find the information on this person who would be the aunt.
B
Yeah. And so they find her.
A
Yes.
B
Her name is Rachel. She married a black man named Benjamin who. Guess what? Where was he born? Germany.
A
Yes, exactly, exactly. So, like, this is going to be Patrick's brother.
B
This is it.
A
Yeah.
B
And Arjane Doe's father. So Karen and Harmony meet up with Stephanie, the crime scene technician who like started this whole crusade for the first time.
A
By the way, they say after 20,000 Zoom meetings, they finally get to meet in person.
B
Can you stand it?
A
I know.
B
In a parking lot.
A
It's so good. Yeah.
B
And so like the volunteers fill Stephanie in on everything. We're all crying.
A
Yes.
B
And when they put the photos of Patrick and Benjamin side by side, it's
A
as though they are twins.
B
I thought they. I was like, is that the other reveal?
A
They look exactly alike.
B
So there's no question.
A
It also like, it fudgeing. Breaks my heart that they separated them at birth.
B
I know.
A
I don't know why. I mean, I guess if you're just trying to find good homes in this family, only wanted one or whatever.
B
I guess like that they were just doing the best. Get them out of this super racist situation to get them a good life.
A
The brother breaks my heart.
B
I know.
A
Stephanie cannot process any of this. Like every time they tell Stephanie anything, she's like, what? Cause like, you can tell that Stephanie's been working on this for 15 years or something.
B
Alone.
A
Yeah.
B
And now she has this team of people behind her who are like, no, this is what we do.
A
Right.
B
You know, and like she's been in this by herself for all these years.
A
Yeah.
B
Must be amazing. So Benjamin, the brother, he married Rachel and they've been. They've been divorced since at least 1984. They have four kids, two boys, two girls. In 1985, we have Rachel filing some child support papers, which is how we got the birth dates for each of the kids. So Michelle was born in 74 and Melody was born in 77. Right. That's very close because an estimate of Jane doe's age from 16 to 18. So one of these two girls is our Jane Doe one of these daughters is our Jane Doe?
A
Yes.
B
No question.
A
Yeah. And. And, you know, she's estimated again, to be between 16 and 18 years old when she died. But it's also that their birth years are too close, the daughters, to know right away which one it is really
B
could be, you know, one.
A
Exactly.
B
And so Jane Doe was discovered in 1992. So we're gonna look at public records to see if there are reports about Michelle or Melody going missing or anything.
A
If one of them sort of disappears from the public records after 1992, then we'll know which one when it is. And it's also interesting that, like, they want to get all of the information before reaching out to the family. They could just reach out to the family and ask. Yeah, but they want to get all the info first.
B
And they don't know what the family knows. They don't. They don't want to drop this, like, tragic bomb on them because they would
A
essentially be calling the family to tell them that their missing person is dead.
B
Right. And they don't know, like, how she went missing, what the dynamic was at home or what.
A
Yeah.
B
And also, like, Benjamin doesn't know he has a brother. There's, like, a lot happening.
A
Right.
B
They're going to gather all the information first so they can handle it with the care that needs to be.
A
And it's amazing. Amazing that they do it by going to Facebook, because everybody's information is just, like, right there.
B
Yeah. But they're also looking. They're, like, going in person to look up records. They're tracking down high school yearbooks.
A
Right, right, right. And that's the amazing thing, too, is, like, what I was saying before is a lot of this can't be done online because I think it's Karen who's saying that, like, I. She finds the high school because the high school is mentioned in a lot of the family social media, so she assumes that most of the family went there. She's trying to find the yearbooks online. They don't have them online. She's got to go to the school and look at the yearbooks. And I was like, should I call my high school and make them sc. Scan all of the yearbooks just to assist so we don't have to have, like, Harmony and Karen flying all over the country.
B
That's true. You know, just the pages with everyone's, like, everyone's name. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
A
I mean, we gotta do whatever we can. We are, like crusaders for genetic genealogy at this point.
B
That's a Good idea to digitize high school.
A
Scan your yearbooks, put em online. Everybody wants it. We'd all. I'd contribute five bucks to that.
B
You know. So they are looking at yearbooks from 1992 and 1993. Michelle is in the yearbooks, but Melissa, Melody is not.
A
Yeah.
B
And there's also not a record of Melody anywhere. There's no address or no, like, driver's license.
A
All of the other three kids have public records, but Melody does not.
B
And she's also not in the divorce or custody papers either.
A
Right. But I was very happy to see that this seems. I mean, the parents are divorced, but the family is intact.
B
Yes.
A
You know, like, it seems like there was just like normal divorced parents. One kid lives with one, two kids live with the other. And so I was like, we're gonna. We're gonna find them like this. This is. We're gonna. This is gonna work.
B
We're gonna do it.
A
Yeah.
B
So we're told our Jane Doe is Melody.
A
Yes.
B
And they track down her family.
A
Stephanie and another cop are in a cop car with Harmony and Karen. And Harmony and Karen, who are like the genetic genealogists, are not going on this death notice. Just the cops are going.
B
Cuz it's really layered and the family might not want to speak to them. And it's like a.
A
It's like a. It's like a formal thing.
B
Yeah. And Stephanie. But like, it's kind of like it would. It makes more sense for like one person to go in.
A
Yeah. It's like an official notice of death. You're not gonna like show up with cameras.
B
No. So they go to Michelle's house. Who? Melody's sister. And she's not home, but her daughter answers. And then she calls her mom and she's like, there's police here and they
A
said they need to talk to you about your sister. My sister?
B
Yeah. And Michelle's like my sister.
A
I was just thinking about like all. All of the things that Michelle must have known in. Right. Because. And it's a moment of true confusion for her.
B
And we don't see what Stephanie says to the family. Yeah. Which of course I totally understand. But we just cut back and suddenly like, everyone's at the house and Harmony is called to the house because Stephanie's like, the family wants to meet you. And I'm like, what? Okay, great. So the conversation went as well as it could have, all things considered.
A
Yes. And meanwhile, Harmony is like in a parking lot and Karen is at the airport and everyone's still trying to keep Karen in the loop. So off they're going to the family's house.
B
So now Stephanie and Harmony are filling in Karen on the details, which is where we get all the information, because the conversation wasn't filmed, which we totally
A
respect, which is really amazing. Like, it is important to, like, just say again that the show really takes care of this family and this woman. Like, we sort of see the house as they're walking in from, like, a very safe distance.
B
Yeah. So Jane Doe is Melody Harrison. They say the family started crying about the gold ring because their mom gave it to Melody.
A
They recognize now this body was found in, like, 1993.
B
Yeah.
A
It's like, whatever, you know, 20, 25. Like, they remember this ring.
B
Yeah. And so Melody had a boyfriend. They said that she ran away with her boyfriend and that they never heard from her again. And they thought that she was, like, alive somewhere and were just hoping that they'd hear from her, but they never did. And they thought she was alive. They didn't think that anything happened to her. They just thought, like, the fight was bad enough and she ra with this guy and she went. No contact for whatever reason.
A
Yeah.
B
And there's also a quick but, like, beautiful moment on the phone because Karen isn't here with us, but Karen goes, Melody. Melody. Her name is Melody. Like, she just wants to say it. And Harmony goes. Her name is Melody. And I just thought that, like, it was so telling about these women and how they approached this case and probably all of the cases.
A
This person, like, they probably dream about
B
this person and, like, she was Jane Doe for so long. And now that they know her name, they wanna say it a million.
A
It's also, like, a wild moment too, because Karen is, like, boarding, but she's like, they're boarding group one. I'm group four. Like, we've all had that tense moment at the airport of, like, I can talk for, like, 30 more seconds.
B
Yeah. And she's like, she'll miss the flight if she has. You know, it's just like, when she was Mel. Her name is Melody.
A
Yeah.
B
So Michelle is going to sit down and tell us about her sister Melody, who was born in 1977 and died in 1992.
A
The thing is, like, they were so close. Like, Michelle is just saying, like, I remember the moments of, like, sitting in bed with her and just, like, laughing. And, like, all of these years, Michelle has just, like, thought that her sister was out there and, like, not calling her.
B
Yeah. They were best friends who, like, happened to be sisters.
A
Yeah.
B
And she says she just Brought sunshine to dark places.
A
She was very outgoing and she loved
B
to sing, but she had a very
A
serious side to her.
B
She wanted to be an attorney.
A
She was an excellent student and everybody loved her.
B
Melody loved to sing and she was outgoing, but she also wanted to be a lawyer.
A
Yeah.
B
The day that Melody left home, Melody and Michelle had a fight about Melody's boyfriend.
A
Yeah.
B
And we don't know anything about him, but something happened and, like, he was causing some drama in the family, like his existence. The family didn't like him.
A
They just didn't like this guy.
B
And I don't know how old he was, but 16. Like, there's a lot of strife here about this relationship.
A
And we get this moment with Michelle where she's like sitting doing her like two camera interview and she's talking about Melody and she just like stops and she's like, I'm sorry, I'm like, still processing this. Like, this must have all happened very fast. Like, here's information about your missing sister. Would you like to sit down and talk about her? Probably happened like within a day or two.
B
Yeah. And, you know, I would think that Michelle probably had to go through her own mourning process.
A
Oh, my God.
B
My sister's out there and choosing to not speak to me because our fight was so bad. So that. That is what she's been living with for God knows how long.
A
And probably we're putting a lot on Michelle here, but probably also thinking, like, maybe she's too embarrassed to call us now. Maybe she thinks we don't want to talk to her.
B
But maybe one day, yeah, maybe the cops are saying, like, your sister's looking for you, not the tragic version.
A
Well, and that's the other thing too. Like, there was so much in that moment where she goes, my sister, because she knows she's gonna get an answer, whatever the answer is. And she's probably running around in her head 500 ways. She's about to find. Find out, girl. Fabletics is back. I'm obsessed with Fabletics. My entire, like, workout wardrobe is Fabletics. And when I signed up as a new VIP with Fabletics, I got 70 to 80% off everything.
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Again, that's Fabletics.com TCO for 70 to 80% off everything as a new VIP. Like they get in this fight about Melody's boyfriend. It got super heated. Melody took a walk and she just never came back. And everyone is out looking for Melody. They are always.
A
Except for the authorities.
B
Well, of course, because they file a missing persons report.
A
But I don't think much effort was really put in to them. She was just a person of color. She's just an angry teen. She's just probably ran away. But they didn't know who she was. And we're like telling them like, she's not one to wander off.
B
Of course our family's like, no, you don't know her. We do.
A
And so like, you know, Michelle is saying that we cared. We were out there searching day and night. We're searching the woods, we're searching the cities. Like we never stopped looking for her.
B
They said for years. Yeah, for years. And they always thought that maybe she was scared to reconnect or that maybe one day she would.
A
I mean these are the things that you just like wake up thinking about in the middle of the night. Like, does she hate us or is she afraid that we hate her? Or, you know what I mean? Like it sort of seems to me and I think maybe Michelle even says it at one point. Like the idea of Melody being dead never really crossed their minds. They never really allowed that as an
B
option because it was just a fight and she stormed out or Whatever, you know, they were just like, fine, fine. Door slammed.
A
If the boyfriend was so awful, it's like, maybe they're still together and he's brainwashed her and made her believe that we're terrible and she's better without us.
B
And you know what that means. They never heard from the boyfriend again either.
A
Well, I've got. My only issue with this series, which isn't really an issue, is like, we never really investigate what happened to the person.
B
Well, the case is still open now that there's a bunch of eyes on it. Yeah, apparently.
A
Because it's like, how long after she ran away was. Did she die? You know, like, we don't. No. Was it days?
B
Did the boyfriend skip town too?
A
Right. Like, we gotta find that boy. Like, that's. We should. There should be like the sister series, which is like finding out what actually happened in these cases.
B
Yeah. It's so crazy.
A
It's crazy.
B
But Michelle, she talks about going to Melody's grave and she says this, like, heartbreaking and sweet thing.
A
I always had this vision of us drinking coffee together.
B
And so I might bring her some coffee and just sit there and just
A
really chat with her.
B
I just figured we'd catch up over coffee. And she is sort of like, as she's saying it out loud, she's kind of realizing, like, well, can I do that now in my own way to heal or grieve or whatever? And the answer is yes.
A
Yeah, of course you can do. I mean, my God, whatever you want. And they're gonna go see her in the place where she's been buried all of these years. And she's bringing her son in. Oh, God, I'm gonna sob. She's bringing her son in law and her daughter with her. And we see them at the grave and God damn this show playing this
B
beautiful fucking song that I think Michelle brought to play.
A
Yes, she did. And like, literally we see again at a respectful distance, we see Michelle, like lay down on the grave sobbing and this awesome son in law. Because, like, as they're approaching the grave, there's a bird chirps. And the son in law says she's singing for. And I. That was the moment that I like, laid down on my computer and was like, heave. Sobbing. And the song is perfect. The song is beautiful.
B
Michelle brought the coffee. And Michelle brought the coffee, the whole thing. When he's like, she's singing to you. Do you hear that? And I was like, this is the best show on television.
A
It's so good. And like, the son in law is Sobbing.
B
Everyone is sobbing, you know, and it's not because. Not because I'm, like, reveling in this tragedy, but because, like, do you see what can happen?
A
Yeah. Because there's beauty in. As sad as it is. The family hasn't answered. There's some kind of closure here, you know, and, like, these amazing women who've been working so hard on this also have an answer.
B
And Michelle is here to say, not just in this case, in the midst of all this grief, there really is
A
some good that is coming out of this situation. When I told my father about Uncle
B
Pat, he was like, I got a brother. Patrick gets to meet his brother Benjamin about.
A
You completely forgot about this other part of the story that, like, Uncle Patrick and Benjamin are now going to be
B
reconnected who they didn't know the other one existed. So Michelle's, like, in the middle of all of this, like, the healing and the. The trauma, like, these two men get to learn about each other and meet each other.
A
Yeah. And we see Benjamin, the dad, for the first time. And Melody's dad, Melody's dad, he's not doing well. Michelle tells us he's had sex. Several strokes. I was. I wasn't clear. She says, we don't like to bring Melody up a lot because he could get sick at any moment. Did they tell him that they found her, or are they telling him that they found his brother and he gets to reconnect with his brother?
B
I'm not 100 sure.
A
I wasn't clear on if the. If Benjamin understood what was going on here, if they were intentionally not telling him about Melody as to not upset him, because Benjamin, the dad, who's not in good health, has missed his daughter every minute of his life since she.
B
Yeah. And then when he sits down for the documentary, he said, I never had a brother. I was all by myself. And then Patrick says, you know, why did Melody have to die in order for me to meet my family?
A
And it seems like Patrick and Benjamin have had kind of lonely lives. Yeah.
B
I think they felt like they were missing something, but they couldn't put their finger on it and they didn't know what it was. And they were right the whole time. Like, they knew. Like, I feel like maybe they didn't know, but they knew that something was out there that they couldn't connect with. And now here we are.
A
Right. And, like, clearly Patrick went searching, which is why he put his DNA in the database in the first place.
B
Right. And Patrick goes, hi, Benjamin. And Benjamin goes, how you doing? And Patrick goes, I'm fine now, this show. And then Patrick goes, I don't cry often.
A
I do. I cry when I'm alone. You ain't alone. No, It's a heck of a feeling.
B
Patrick goes, I cry when I'm alone. And Benjamin goes, well, you're not alone now. And Patrick goes, I know. It's a heck of a. A feeling. 10,000 seasons of the show. Why do we have all this other bullshit?
A
I know.
B
Kardashians don't need another thing. Hulu.
A
I know more.
B
This.
A
I know. I know. And the thing is, like, Patrick has come to Benjamin because Benjamin, you know, he's had a lot of strokes, and he's. He is. Mobility isn't great, but he stands up. They are identical. You have to convince me they are not identical twins.
B
I know they don't say what the age is, like, how old they are, but they could be. If they told me they were twins, I would not be shocked.
A
It's also just amazing to watching these men processing, finding their brothers in real and all of the emotion connected to that, because they're both very emotional, but in their own ways, they're both kind of quiet. Like, it's. You know, they're just standing there staring
B
at each other, and there is the air of what got them here, which
A
is Melody and that, like, unfortunately, they don't have a lot of years left now that they found each other, you know?
B
And everyone is also so grateful to Stephanie and the Team Tornado project for. Because this was a tough case for them and they never gave up. And, yes, that's not lost on anybody here. As we're ending and the family is, you know, we're told, continuing to heal. They take a photo, and someone's like, say cheese.
A
And Patrick goes, I want to say cheese.
B
Limburger cheese.
A
Limber cheese is good. All right.
B
And Benjamin's, like, really good.
A
Yeah. It's so funny because it's a German cheese.
B
Yeah. I have never had Limburger.
A
Me either. I've never heard of Limburger, but, like,
B
it was a cute. That they both got immediately. And it's like, this is gonna be a really lovely reunion for them to come together and, like, have each other finally. Yeah.
A
And it, like, ends with Michelle who's, like, still processing everything, and she just, like, drops these, like, bombs of wisdom. She's like, family is everything. That's all you have. At the end of the day, you need to learn to grieve with hope. She said, like, holy shit.
B
And so as we're ending, we Learn that the police investigation into Melody's death continues, which is great. I didn't find any on it today, unfortunately. Maybe when this comes out in a couple months, there will be something. Fingers crossed. I don't know. But the family has reburied Melody alongside her relatives. And it ends with this, like, gorgeous photo of her saying, in memory of Melody Harrison, 1977-1992. And this is when you realize, like, she really does look like that facial reconstruction.
A
It's side by side. Like, the facial reconstruction is like a picture of a picture.
B
We've come a long way, remember, like, people would do, like, clay busts and they all look like anything.
A
Absolutely wild. Those were insane.
B
We've really, like, the stuff that can be done here. Should really, even. Even if you're not interested in doing it, like, you have to acknowledge that it's cool that it exists.
A
It's absolutely incredible.
B
It's crazy. 10,000 more seasons. Hulu, right now.
A
Right now. Oh, my God, girl. We did Naming the Dead, the Body in the Sand. How many episodes is this?
B
It's only like, six or eight. We're doing all of them, but I don't know. It's the same with that other great show on Hulu with a terrible name, Web of Death.
A
Oh, the Robin Roberts one?
B
No, that's Murder Has Two Faces.
A
But also that only that only had many episodes.
B
3 episodes. Haven't heard anything about a second season. Don't know about Web of Death.
A
Like, Web of Death was one that Bob Ruff was on. Yeah, yeah.
B
About, like, people kind of very similar to, like, just like, boots on the ground, like, getting shit done. Hulu.
A
Get it together, Hulu.
B
It's not like, thanks for these three great series. 10,000 more seasons.
A
10,000 more seasons starting tomorrow. You need to go. I'm telling you, they would greenlight season 9 if you would go do it now.
B
I would do it.
A
Oh, my God. You should do it.
B
Call her.
A
Oh, fam. We love you so much. Thanks for hanging out with us. Bonus episodes are going great, girl.
B
I think they're great. I know there are so many series that we can really dive into. Everyone's been requesting a lot of. There's, like, stuff we haven't done yet. We're going to go to, you know, Old Faithfuls, like this show, which is just, like, so important, and it feels like we're doing, like, good work.
A
Let's get a jewel heist in there if we can.
B
We'll try for the bonus episodes. That's like a regular feed jam okay?
A
Yeah, yeah. I just need to. Some art being stolen.
B
Oh, we'll figure that out.
A
Oh, my friend Matt in Monaco reported back. He's having a very lovely time.
B
Safely.
A
He's doing okay. He's still alive as far. Matt Doyle is still with us Broadway fans as far as I know.
B
Safest unsafe place. Or unsafest, safest place. Anyway.
A
All right, we love you, fam.
B
Bye.
A
We love you.
B
Stay safe.
Release date: May 28, 2026
Hosts: Patrick Hinds & Jillian Bezavalli
Documentary recapped: Naming the Dead S1E3, "The Body in the Sand" (Hulu)
This episode of True Crime Obsessed dives into the third episode of the Hulu docuseries "Naming the Dead," which follows the remarkable work of the DNA Doe Project. The docuseries chronicles the process of restoring names to unidentified victims through genetic genealogy, with this episode focusing on the case of a teenage Jane Doe found in the Arizona desert in the early 1990s. With their signature mix of humor, heart, and reverence, Patrick and Jillian guide listeners through the episode’s emotional twists, the painstaking detective work of volunteers, and the profound impact of giving a name back to those lost.
| Timestamp | Segment/Topic | |------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 02:22 | Finding Jane Doe’s body in the Apache Junction desert | | 03:03 | Stephanie Burjeau introduced as lead crime scene technician | | 04:43 | Facial reconstruction, billboards, and investigation’s challenges | | 05:45 | The difficulty and frustrations of genetic genealogy | | 06:18 | Inclusion barriers: concerns of communities of color in DNA submission | | 09:43 | The DNA Doe Project’s mission statement (Jennifer Randolph) | | 11:21 | Uncle Patrick learns he has a brother and a deceased niece—personal impact | | 15:41 | 1.4% DNA match with distant cousin—major breakthrough | | 25:37 | Major match (15.2%) found by Harmony at 4am—leads toward identification | | 33:31 | Official identification: Jane Doe is Melody Harrison | | 36:17 | The importance of naming the dead; volunteers’ emotional response | | 37:02 | Michelle remembers her sister Melody | | 42:10–42:56| Michelle’s visit to Melody’s grave, coffee and singing birds—scene of closure | | 45:42 | Patrick and Benjamin’s reunion: “You ain’t alone…not now.” | | 47:36 | Michelle’s final thoughts: family, grief, and hope |
Tone:
Key Takeaways:
Patrick and Jillian passionately advocate for more DNA Doe Project stories on TV, acknowledging the impact these narratives can have—not only on families, but on listeners, viewers, and volunteers who might hold the key to another identification. They celebrate the triumph of returning Melody’s name, mourn the lost years for her family, and honor the newfound brotherhood of Patrick and Benjamin.
“10,000 more seasons, Hulu. Right now.” — Patrick ([48:35] and repeated throughout the episode)
For further interest:
End of Summary