Woman Says She Took A 23andMe DNA Test Which Caused Detectives To Link Her To An Unsolved Murder Case

Mufid Majnun/Unsplash

A woman on TikTok says after she sent in her 23andMe DNA test detectives contacted her to inform her that her DNA was matched to a 36-year-old murder case, which landed her in the middle of a homicide investigation of a cold case. 

“I was so taken aback,”

31-year-old Jackie Vadurro told the New York Post.

“I knew I hadn’t done anything wrong… But when the police call you about a murder, you’re like, ‘Oh my goodness, what am I involved in?’” 

Vadurro, who is a Palm Springs, CA resident, said that a cold-case detective informed her that her DNA was a potential match to a 1986 cold-case murder of a woman who was never identified. Reports say that Jane Doe was fatally shot and tossed onto a San Diego road. The 31-year-old TikToker revealed that she was told

“No one ever reported her missing. [The detectives] do not know who she is.”

She continued,

“And now they think that I might be her family member because of my DNA that I uploaded on 23andMe.” 

If you’re unaware, 23andMe customers are requested to submit a saliva sample that is mailed to their lab for testing. In return,  several weeks later, the customer would be able to access an online report of their family’s origin, health hazards, and more. Officials sometimes have access to these records for their investigations, which was the case for Vadurro. 

After detectives informed her of what they’d discovered, the TikToker committed to cooperate with them to aid in the case. 

Vadurro posted a video on TikTok revealing her shocking discovery, she said,

“Within, like, 30 minutes [detectives] had called me back and were like, ‘Jackie, thank you so much. This is the biggest break we’ve gotten in this case in a whole year.’”

Detectives told her,

“‘You are a DNA match to the Jane Doe victim.’” 

Officials told her she was the 2nd or 3rd cousin of the unidentified victim. Authorities later learned that Jane Doe was related to Vadurro’s mother’s side of the family and was led to believe the cold-case victim was the love child of Vadurro’s mother’s great-grandfather. 

Vadurro is currently awaiting updates on the case

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