In 2005, the sheriff’s office renewed efforts to solve the crime by uploading the DNA sample to the FBI’s national genetic database, CODIS. The first breakthrough came in 2022, after the sheriff’s office received a grant from the state attorney general’s office. With this funding, they sent the DNA sample to Parabons NanoLab in Virginia for genetic genealogy testing. Twenty-six years after Tracy’s death, the sheriff’s office used lab data to identify John Guillot Jr. as her killer. Parabon NanoLabs tested the DNA sample and traced the suspect’s family lines to the 1700s.

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Persons: CNN — Tracy Whitney, Tracy, Robin Whitney, ” Robin, Tracy –, “, “ I’d, ”, Robin’s, Robin, John Guillot Jr, Guillot Jr, Pierce, Lindsay Kirkegaard, Parabon NanoLabs, Guillot, John Guillot III, ’ Robin, we’ve, she’s, ” Tracy, It’s Organizations: CNN, Burger, Sheriff’s, Sheriffs, Golden State Locations: Sumner , Washington, Tacoma, Pierce, Virginia, Pierce County, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania