By 2018, investigators had tired of waiting for another DNA cold hit and decided to hand the case to a cop named ‘Smugs.’ A young Montgomery County police officer who had already used genealogy to solve several high profile rape and murder cases. Crimes that had stumped detectives for years. Could ‘Smugs’ be the one to finally give a name to the Unknown Subject?

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As the nineties turned into Y2K Detectives Dean Combee and Joe Mudano were still trying to solve their cases. Years of investigating had gotten them nowhere until the FBI called with stunning news. DNA from all of the attacks had been linked to one man. A fact that floored the veteran investigators who never saw it coming.

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In the early to mid nineties, Montgomery County Police Detective Joe Mudano knew he had a ruthless rapist preying on women but he had no idea who he was. DNA linked a number of cases, but a clear description remained elusive. More maddening for Mudano was the fact the Unknown Subject seemed to have inside information. But how?

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Seven years before Christine Mirzayan was murdered in Georgetown, a man cut the phone lines to a house miles outside the city and raped a teenage baby sitter. The first in a string of similar attacks spread out over several years. Kelly survived that awful night and in this episode tells her harrowing story. A crime that was nothing like the murder in Georgetown.

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In the summer of 1998, a brilliant scientist walking home from a party is grabbed off the street and killed. Her body is found the next day in a wooded area just steps from the Georgetown University campus. It was a gruesome scene. DC Police had no witnesses and no suspects, but they did have a valuable clue: a key piece of evidence the killer left behind.

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For 9 years, he terrorized women across the DC region. Breaking into homes and raping his victims before killing a brilliant scientist near the gates of Georgetown University in 1998. And then, it all stopped. Was he dead? Locked up? Before the FBI would name him the infamous Potomac River Rapist, detectives simply called him their “unknown subject” for years. A man whose DNA linked him to multiple crime scenes, but whose name and face remained a mystery to police. For decades, detectives had no idea who he was until a bike cop named Smugs began connecting the dots.

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Part two of host Paul Wagner’s discussion with Tiffany, Darren and Luke Crandell, and Detective Bernie Nelson. In this episode, we go behind the scenes with the team on what it’s like creating a podcast. And Detective Nelson takes us deeper into the world of using genealogy to solve cold cases. 

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Tiffany, Darren and Luke Crandell join podcast host Paul Wagner and Detective Bernie Nelson to discuss their mother’s case. The conversation was the first time in 23 years all three Crandell siblings were together with the man who has never stopped looking for their mother’s killer.

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Ten months after Prince George’s County Police Detective Bernie Nelson began using genealogy to track Sherry Crandell’s killer through his relatives – the research continues on a promising family tree.

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Prince George’s County Police Detective Bernie Nelson turns to genealogy after seeing another Maryland cold case solved after 28 years. Can the murder of Sherry Crandell be solved the same way?

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