This is part of our August cover story, which also highlights the work of NoVA cold case squads, 11 unsolved cold cases, and the use of forensics to solve a decades-long cold case.
Once culprits in cold case investigations are discovered, their identity is often linked through DNA to other crimes. A powerful new tool in the laboratory is the ability to generate hundreds of thousands of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from forensic DNA samples. Beyond identification, SNPs can be used to generate new leads through DNA phenotyping and investigative genetic genealogy (IGG).
Parabon NanoLabs in Reston has been helping law enforcement crack cases with its Snapshot advanced DNA analysis service, which includes IGG, DNA phenotyping to predict ancestry and physical traits like eye and hair color, and distant kinship inference to determine relatedness between two or more people.
Parabon was instrumental in generating leads that helped detectives solve many local cases, including the 1994 cold case murder of Springfield mother Robin Lawrence. In 2023, Fairfax detectives arrested New York resident Stephan Smerk, who confessed to the murder and was sentenced in March 2025. Parabon also helped agencies find serial rapists Jesse Bjerke and Michael Francis Thomson, both of whom pleaded guilty and are in prison.
In 2024, Stafford County and Fairfax County investigators collaborated using multiple technologies from both Parabon and Florida-based DNA Labs International to link Stafford County resident Elroy Harrison to two cold case murders: Jacqueline Lard in 1986 and Amy Baker in 1989.
Lorton-based Bode Technology supports DNA evidence collection and processing, boasting millions of DNA profiles processed for federal, state, and local agencies. Among other cases, using Bode DNA services, serial murderer Anthony Eugene Robinson was found guilty in January 2025 of two local homicides where shopping carts were used to transport and dispose of victims’ bodies.
Feature image courtesy Fairfax County Police Department
This story originally ran in our August issue. For more stories like this, subscribe to Northern Virginia Magazine.
