“Naming the Dead” airs Saturday, Aug. 2, on National Geographic and streams next day on Disney+ and Hulu. Each episode follows a case from start to finish.
TYLER, Texas — In a world of crime solving, DNA technology is no longer just cutting-edge – it’s front and center.
The DNA Doe Project is a nonprofit organization where volunteers help identify unknown persons using investigative genetic genealogy. One Central Texas volunteer’s work is getting national attention in a new docuseries coming out this weekend.
“I’m excited and a little terrified, I must admit,” said Rhonda Kevorkian, the co-executive director of the DNA Doe Project.
Kevorkian is used to working behind the scenes, but her latest cold case – which dates back to 1985 – has her stepping into the spotlight. After four decades, Kevorkian finally helped Sindy Gina Crow get her name back.
“She was recovered off this side of I-20 in Tyler, Texas. She was kind of in a gully. I believe mowing crews just kind of mowed over her remains. One of them noticed a skull, and that’s when they found her,” Kevorkian said. “They found her remains and then a pile of clothes near her remains.”
As one of five local volunteers with the DNA Doe Project, Kevorkian works to identify Jane and John Does using DNA and family trees.
“We have volunteers in the UK and Canada, in Australia and Chile, to name a few,” she said. “We look at the match list, and we start building the trees of the relatives and see where they connect. And then we start building forward in time from those connections.”
Her work on this Tyler case, as well as others, will be featured in a new six-part docuseries called “Naming the Dead.” Each episode follows a case from start to finish.
“I’d love for you all to watch it. And they go into a lot more detail about the techniques that they use to extract DNA,” Kevorkian said.
The series also looks into the emotional journeys of all the people it takes to solve these mysteries. In the case of Sindy Gina Crow, Texas police officer David Turner worked the scene in 1985 and spent his entire career trying to solve it. He’s the one who reached out to DNA Doe Project for help.
‘”The detective on this case just never gave up on her the whole time. He was so dedicated to getting her case resolved. He did not want to retire until this case was solved,” Kevorkian said.
Crow’s family finally got closure, and the DNA Doe Project presented Turner with a commemorative coin as a thank you for never giving up.
Kevorkian said funding can be an issue when it comes to law enforcement investigating cold cases, but that’s where DNA Doe Project can help. Volunteers with the nonprofit offer the genetic genealogy pro bono, but the lab work can be expensive. It can cost up to $8,000 per case, if not more. You can visit the organization’s website and donate to the general fund or even to a specific case.
“Naming the Dead” premieres Saturday, Aug. 2, at 10 p.m. on National Geographic. It will stream the next day on Disney+ and Hulu.
KVUE Daybreak’s Yvonne Nava is shining a spotlight on several Central Texas cold cases as part of a series called KVUE Crime Files.
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