(suspenseful music)
- [Narrator] Seattle in the mid-1960s was just coming out
of a successful World's Fair.
- [Announcer] It's the adventure of a lifetime!
- [Narrator] But it would be soon famous for something else,
a murder that will remain a cold case for decades.
There's very little evidence, witnesses,
or even suspects for the police to figure out
who the murderer is.
- Due diligence is the key when you're not presented
with witnesses or evidence.
You must focus on the basics like evidence collection
because it will likely help you in solving the case
down the line.
- It's a whole new world of evidence collection
from today to 50 years ago.
However, the basics stay the same.
Investigators have a whole new set of tools
at their fingertips.
- [Narrator] It will take decades for advances
in DNA research to reach a point that starts
helping solve crimes, but the wait will be worth it.
(gentle music)
- The unsolved ones. We have to stand up.
- And approach these cases in a way outside the box.
- Let the world knows, those out there
that did commit a murder, and there are people
that are coming after you.
- There's just a lot of good people
trying to do the right thing. (police radio squawking)
- Because it's something that you
have to be passionate about.
- Solve this, bring some peace to the family, at least.
Just doing my job.
(suspenseful music) (gavel bangs)
(relaxing music)
- [Narrator] In Seattle, Washington, 1967,
Joe Birlsawn starts his rounds
to open up the Seattle Central Parkade.
It's been closed for days, which is normal
when no events are scheduled.
(elevator door whooshes)
Joe sees a limp body lying in the corner of the elevator
and calls out to them.
He steps closer and he sees it's a woman
that isn't breathing and has obviously
been dead for a while.
- In the first 72 hours after death,
the body's internal organs will start to decompose.
At the three to five day mark, a deceased body
will start to bloat and exhibit signs of perch.
These signs are unmistakable.
- Time is always of the essence.
From the moment a body is discovered,
it doesn't matter if it's been five minutes,
five days, or 50 years.
Investigators are always aware that the crime scene
and the body are degrading,
which could cause loss of critical evidence.
So quick, thorough action is required.
- [Announcer] Everybody's planning to see
Seattle's Spectacular 100 million World's Fair.
(pensive music)
- [Voiceover] The 1962 World's Fair in Seattle, Washington,
also known as the Century 21 Exposition,
attracted more than 9 million visitors
between April 21st and October 21st, 1962.
The crowning jewel of the World's Fair
was the 605 foot space needle that cost 6.5 million
and is still a landmark in Seattle to this day.
During its operation, the fair brought tourists
and dignitaries from all over the world,
including Prince Philip, Vice President Lyndon Johnson,
and Elvis Presley, who filmed
"It happened at the World's Fair" on the grounds.
In total, there were surprisingly
only 325 larceny committed, well below most estimations.
- When a huge event like the World's Fair
is put on in a city, it naturally brings in people
from all over and all walks of life.
Some come with different intentions.
You could see an uptick in pickpocketing
due to the dense nature of the crowds.
(suspenseful music)
- [Narrator] Susan Galvin was one of those people
that moved to downtown Seattle in 1966.
Born in 1946 in New Bedford, Massachusetts,
but raised in Spokane, Washington.
Susan grew up in a large family
consisting of two sisters and four brothers.
In 1966, Susan Galvin moves to downtown Seattle
and lives in the Lower Queen Anne neighborhood.
This area, now known as Uptown,
is just north and west of Seattle Center.
Susan gets a job as a records clerk
at the Seattle Police Department,
located not far from the Space Needle.
She lives close to work and takes
a similar route for every shift.
She's quick to make friends with many of the people
she sees on a daily basis.
Days before she's murdered, Susan goes out on a double date
with a girlfriend and two men they met from the Navy.
- Finding patterns or anomalies in a victim's life
is an important step in the investigation.
It can lead to suspect's not immediately evident.
Retracing a victim's last days can often give
insight into their mind and possibly lead you
to a suspect you didn't know existed.
- [Narrator] On the night of July 9th, 1967,
Susan sets off for the graveyard shift
at the police department like she always does
through the Seattle Center parking garage.
(suspenseful music)
But there's someone that seems to know her routine
and is following her.
Susan never makes it to work.
(suspenseful music sustains)
Her supervisor asks an officer if anyone has seen her.
The officer says that Susan might have taken the night off.
(line buzzing)
(telephone rings)
Susan's family hasn't heard from her in days,
and every time they try to connect with her on the phone,
they get no answer and are getting worried.
(handset rattles)
Days later, Susan still hasn't reported to work
and no one has heard from her.
Her supervisor is looking for any indicators
of where she could be or have gone.
(dialer whirs) (line engages)
- An investigator cannot play favorites
when investigating a crime.
It doesn't matter if you knew the person or not.
You have to treat the case with the same professionalism
as you normally would.
If you lead with your heart instead of your mind,
there could be things you miss
because you're not thinking rationally.
(dramatic music)
- [Narrator] After four days, Susan is finally found
on July 13th at approximately 7:00 PM.
The parking attendant runs for help.
Since the police station is next door,
officers arrive within minutes.
- Time is critical when it comes to any investigation,
but especially a murder.
A crime scene must be secured
to ensure the integrity of evidence.
- [Narrator] Susan's body wasn't found immediately
because the parking garage and elevators inside
were closed and locked up.
The parking garage authorities tell police
this is a common practice for them
when there are no events going on at the Seattle Center.
- The second a crime scene is discovered, it's contaminated,
and while making every effort to collect evidence,
you are contaminating it just by being there.
So the focus is careful collection without causing
any damage to forensic evidence.
(bright music)
- [Narrator] Police are quick to question the two Navy men
that Susan and her friend went out with days earlier
as they could be the last people to have seen Susan alive.
- Some of the people that you bring in
aren't necessarily suspects but are persons of interest.
If they are credible, they can attest
to someone's state of mind.
This can help investigators paint a picture of the victim
and whom else they might have been with before.
- [Narrator] The Navy men are not charged and are let go.
The clock is ticking to find another suspect.
- Early in the investigation,
it's important to follow every lead that you come across,
no matter how small or strange.
- [Narrator] Despite the initial setbacks,
detectives get a strong lead about an unexpected suspect.
(suspenseful music)
(bright music)
(suspenseful music)
Susan Galvin moves to downtown Seattle and soon gets a job
as a records clerk at the Seattle Police Department.
Susan has only been there for a few months,
but makes a lasting impression on all she meets.
She also has an active of social life
and enjoys meeting new people.
Susan's coworkers begin to notice that she's missing.
Susan's body is found four days later
inside an elevator car by an attendant
in the Seattle Center parking garage.
The elevators in the garage had been shut off as there was
no activities at the center, which is common practice.
Investigators act fast and question two Navy men
that went out with Susan shortly before her death.
However, no charges are laid against the men.
(percussive music)
A new tip comes in that says Susan was seen
hours before her death with a man
in clown makeup called Punchy.
Punchy the Clown is brought down
to the police station for questioning.
- [Detective] Were you employed as a clown
at the Seattle Center? - Yes.
- [Detective] Okay.
At the Seattle Center back in 1967,
a young woman was killed.
Do you remember that happening?
- [Detective] Exactly.
That's interesting that you could remember that.
- There's various types of interrogation techniques
that an investigator can use.
It all depends on the person you're talking to.
One can be direct by presenting the evidence against them,
use empathy to gain trust or be repetitive
to break down the suspect.
- [Narrator] The investigator questions Punchy
about why he was with Susan hours before her death.
- [Detective] Were you in that elevator with her?
- [Punchy the Clown] No.
- [Detective] Did you have anything to do with her death?
- Okay.
Did you ever have sex with her?
- No. - Okay.
Are you sure about that?
(foreboding music)
- Another technique is keeping
the room very cold.
A cold room may increase a person's anxiety,
which may break down any barriers a person is putting up,
so that the truth can come out.
It could just also be a cold room.
- [Narrator] The investigator then questions Punchy
about quitting his job just days after he last saw Susan.
- [Detective] So this incident happened
on a Sunday afternoon and you ended up quitting your job-
- A day or two later. Do you remember that?
Do you remember quitting your job?
- How come?
- [Detective] But it seemed kind of abrupt to me
as I was reading kind of the chronology of things.
- Right?
- During the interrogation,
there are often things that come up that could lead
the investigation in a different direction,
and you can't ignore those.
Every possible lead and hunch should be followed up.
This ensures that you are doing your due diligence
and also respecting the life of the deceased.
- The US Constitution doesn't actually specify
how long they can hold someone, and many states
set their own limit.
Most states use about a 72 hour timeline.
- [Narrator] With no definitive evidence linking Punchy
to Susan's death, he is let go.
Punchy will remain a person of interest in this case
until he can be definitively ruled out.
In the meantime, investigators must continue
to look for clues and witnesses.
(suspenseful music)
Because of the time of Susan's murder
before her midnight shift at the police department
finding witnesses is proving
to be difficult for investigators.
Back at the scene of the murder officers are once
again going over the area to make sure
they don't miss a thing.
- It's quite common to go back to the scene of the murder,
to look for more evidence.
Even with the best intentions, there are things
that can be missed the first time.
These things can be big or small.
Think of when you lose something at your home.
You can turn your house upside down looking for the remote,
but it's not until you stop looking or take a break
that you actually see it was
in front of you the entire time.
- [Narrator] It's a whole new world of evidence collection
from today to 50 years ago when this took place.
The basics, however, stay the same.
- Today, investigators have a whole new
set of tools at their fingertips.
One of those tools is DNA phenotyping.
A forensic scientist will sequence a DNA sample
so they can indicate identifiable traits
such as skin, eye, and hair color.
In some cases, it can predict the age of a suspect.
There's a new technology and biosensors
used to determine minuscule traces of bodily fluids
found within fingerprints.
So if the deceased had contact with a murder,
even put their hands on them to push them away,
the biosensors can pick up age, gender,
and even medications.
- [Narrator] On July 15th, two days after Susan was found,
the King County coroner concludes
that Susan died via suffocation.
The autopsy posits that the killers placed
either their hand or an object over her nose and mouth.
She'd also been sexually assaulted.
The coroner states the time of death
was 11:00 PM on July 9th,
an hour before Susan was due at work.
(dramatic music)
Investigators continued to search for clues or evidence
that could lead them to Susan's killer.
They go through her apartment,
collecting her clothing as evidence.
Police doggedly continue to search for anything
that can help them solve Susan's murder.
- When an officer canvases door to door,
they are looking for potential witnesses
Odd behavior or anything unusual, including people.
Generally, neighbors tend to keep to themselves.
If they have a loud neighbor,
they often won't complain in hopes
that it will soon stop and they won't have to make a scene
or complain to the landlord.
But they'll never forget the noises
that came from that apartment.
- [Narrator] They canvas Susan's apartment building,
going door to door,
hoping that someone somewhere heard something.
- There's so much information you can gather
going door to door.
There's information about the victim
and their activities leading up to their death.
Did a new person come to their place?
Was there a specific vehicle seen before the murder?
It can identify suspects who many times
will have a residence in the area.
You're looking for anything out of the ordinary
that could explain how the victim got into the situation.
- On July 18th, a funeral is held
for Susan at St. Joseph's Catholic Church.
The family and members of the the Seattle Police Department
say their final goodbyes to Susan.
What makes this day even harder for most
is not knowing why Susan had to die
and not knowing who did it.
- There comes a point in certain cases
where detectives exhaust all potential leads.
It's a depressing feeling to know that you've done
all that you can, but it's not enough.
To see the family struggling with the death
of their loved one, and the lack of closure
is so difficult.
(dramatic music)
(light music)
(dramatic music)
- Susan Galvin is found dead in a parking lot elevator.
She had been suffocated and sexually assaulted
and locked in the elevator.
She wasn't found for four days.
The investigation determines that Susan was murdered
on her way to work the graveyard shift
at the Seattle Police Department.
Police interview two Navy sailors
that had went out with Susan and a friend
days before her death, but they're
never considered actual suspects and let go.
Police then zero in on a suspect
that was with Susan hours before she was killed.
Known around town as Punchy the Clown.
Police discover that he had become friendly with Susan
from passing each other on the street.
On top of that, Punchy had quit his job
just days after Susan's murder.
- [Detective] So this incident happened
on a Sunday afternoon and you ended up quitting your job
a day or two later.
- [Detective] How come?
- Right?
- [Narrator] While there is no evidence to connect him
to the murder, he remains a person of interest.
With all clues and leads drying up the investigation
into who killed Susan Galvin is put on hold.
- The feeling that a detective has after working a case
and getting nowhere is indescribable.
It's obviously not as bad as what
the family is going through,
but no one involved in the investigation forgets about it.
It's those cases that you can't close
that stick with you the longest.
We want to close the case as much as the family does.
- [Narrator] Whenever the topic of Susan
comes up in the Galvin household,
the conversation is quickly stopped.
- The loss of a loved one or family member
can take on many different forms,
all depending on the relationship
at the time of death and your personal views on death.
Some choose to confront it head on.
Others choose to talk about it,
while others will keep it closer to themselves
because they feel saying it out loud will make it true.
But if they keep it inside and never acknowledge it,
it's almost like it never happened.
- [Narrator] Talking about Susan remains taboo
in the Galvin household,
which takes an emotional toll on a family.
- Not talking or acknowledging a loss
can take a massive emotional toll on a person
because healing steps are not taken.
It can only get worse and even manifest into physical hurt.
Some people might take comfort from the grief and think
if they get past it, the person didn't mean much to them.
- [Narrator] Through the years there are no updates
to offer the family and their hope for closure runs out.
(somber music)
On September 13th, 2000, Susan's mother, Helen,
passes away at age 77.
She goes to her grave never knowing
who killed her daughter or why.
In 2002 advancements in DNA testing have gone to the point
that Seattle police think it can help solve
some long forgotten murders,
including Susan Galvin from 1967.
- It is quite astonishing that the evidence collected from
Susan in 1967 was still viable in 2002.
It is a credit to the officers at that time.
- We always owe a huge debt of gratitude
to the original crime scene investigators
because even before they could have known
how powerful DNA would be, they somehow collected
that evidence for us to work with almost what,
50 years in the future.
And so that's pretty incredible when you think about that.
- [Narrator] Susan Galvin's clothes are collected
and shipped off to Washington State Patrol Crime Laboratory
for DNA analysis.
- Though it really is like time travel, it is.
It's like having a time capsule to go back and help unravel
these mysteries.
- [Narrator] It is of utmost importance, but the evidence
carefully makes it to its destination or the collection
from the crime scene 35 years ago would've been for nothing.
- Chain of custody is absolutely vital
when it comes to prosecuting a case.
Sometimes evidence doesn't make its way into court for days,
months, or even years later.
If there's a breakdown in the chain that opens up
the possibility that the evidence has been tampered with,
and then it can be thrown out of court.
(pensive music)
- [Narrator] Once the evidence is received by the lab,
technicians will perform what is called DNA profiling.
- DNA profiling is a procedure that can identify a person
based on their specific genetic makeup.
So you're taking an old piece of evidence
and examining it for DNA.
Once you have that DNA isolated,
you can compare it to someone in the criminal database,
but that result only occurs if their DNA
is in the database, usually as as a result
of a previous crime, or if they've willfully uploaded
their DNA profile to a genealogy database.
- DNA alone generally is not enough to get a conviction.
It's a very integral part of the prosecution's case,
but you generally need more evidence than just simply DNA.
- [Narrator] Susan's brother Chris is on the phone
with the Seattle Police who have an update
on his sister's case.
The DNA profile that they found on Susan's clothing
does not match any of the DNA in the offender database.
- A case has never closed until it is solved.
Setbacks are heartbreaking, absolutely,
but there are technological breakthroughs
that happen every year.
There's always hope.
The next advancement is the one that you need
to help solve the case.
- [Narrator] The promising lead has brought
current day investigators back to a complete stop.
The news isn't all bad.
The DNA profile obtained from Susan's clothing
has given the police a genetic blueprint to work with.
Now, it's a matter of when the technology
will advance enough to utilize the DNA
to find Susan's killer.
(dramatic music)
(bright music)
(dramatic music)
Susan Galvin is just 20 years old when she's murdered
in 1967 on her way to work.
Witnesses are few and far between,
and there's only one possible suspect.
Punchy the clown was with Susan hours before her murder,
but there's not enough evidence to connect him to the crime.
However, he will continue to be
a person of interest going forward.
Years later, there is hope that new DNA profiling techniques
could help to identify Susan's killer.
But there were no matches in the criminal database
for the DNA profile found.
The case is once again cold.
In 2016, Seattle Police Detective Rolf Norton
reopens the case.
He feels the advances in DNA profiling
are now at a stage that could provide answers
to who Susan Galvin's murderer is.
The man who played Punchy the Clown
is now retired and living in Utah.
When Detective Norton tracks him down,
Detective Norton introduces himself
and tells Punchy why he's there, to tell him
he is no longer a suspect in the murder of Susan Galvin.
Newly processed DNA information proves
that he was not at the crime scene.
- Whenever new evidence is uncovered,
it's always prudent for the investigator to cross reference
that against previous suspects.
Police identify someone as a suspect for a very good reason.
And no matter how much time has passed,
you have to make sure this can either confirm suspicions
or rule out potential suspects.
(upbeat music)
- [Narrator] In 2018, there are more advances.
But this time, forensic genealogy, including one
of the most high profile cases in the United States,
the Golden State Killer.
- De Angelo is found using updated techniques
in genetic genealogy.
It uses DNA left behind creating and tracing a family
tree using profile submitted to a public genealogy database.
- [Narrator] Detective Norton sends DNA from the clothing
of Susan Galvin to Parabon NanoLabs in Reston, Virginia.
CeCe Moore has been working with law enforcement
for close to four and a half years.
With the lab's help, they've been able to help
law enforcement solve one crime per week on average,
which adds up to more than 225 crimes.
- So with traditional law enforcement investigations,
they're using a very specific type
of DNA test and DNA profile.
And that DNA profile is very limited,
has very limited information.
It works great for one-to-one if you know
who to compare it against, but it doesn't work great
for finding your suspect.
And so genetic genealogy is different.
And the type of profile that we use,
which is a different type of genetic markers,
and we look at about a million of those genetic markers
across the genome,
and that gives us the power to identify distant cousins
and to reverse engineer someone's identity
from who they're sharing DNA with.
And typically that's very distant relatives.
We're not getting one-to-one matches.
We're not getting close relative matches.
- [Narrator] CeCe Moore applies her methods
to the Susan Galvin case to try and find her killer.
- The Susan Galvin case really hit me hard when I learned
about it because it happened before I was born.
So that was really interesting to be invited
to help on a case that happened when I didn't even exist.
The other probably more compelling aspect of it is,
it happened in Seattle right by the Space Needle,
and my family is from Seattle.
My parents met at University of Washington
and we drove up there pretty much every summer.
Went to the Space Needle.
And it, you know, really struck me that it could have been
one of my family members.
- [Narrator] With an almost personal connection to the case,
CeCe Moore is motivated to find Susan's killer.
- The first challenge with this case
is that the DNA sample was mixed.
So that means that the DNA contained
the victim's DNA and the perpetrator's DNA.
And fortunately, we have extremely skilled scientists
that I work with at Parabon that are experts
in deconvolution, which means extracting out
the victim's DNA, so we're left with just
that perpetrator's DNA.
And so that really takes a lot of experience and training
to be able to do that.
There's a lot of attention in these cases
on the DNA processing
and the investigative genetic genealogy.
But there's a really important step
that happens in the middle.
These are almost never pristine DNA samples.
They're never optimal samples.
They're almost always highly degraded.
They might be contaminated with bacterial DNA,
and they can be mixed, like in this case.
(suspenseful music)
- [Narrator] Once the genetic forensic team
extracts the perpetrator's DNA,
they can begin the process of building a family tree
to hone in on Susan Galvin's murderer.
- If people share significant amounts of DNA
with each other, that means they have to have
a common ancestor in their tree.
The more DNA they share, the closer that common ancestor
is in time and the smaller amount of DNA they share,
the more distant that common ancestor is in time.
So for our top match, I needed to determine
which branch of that match's family tree
was gonna connect to our killer.
In order to do that,
I looked at who else on that match list,
who else that was sharing DNA with the killer,
also shared DNA with that top match.
When you can build the trees of multiple matches or people
sharing DNA with your suspect and find how they connect.
So that gives you one piece of his family tree.
If they all share DNA and they have that common ancestor,
it means that he will as well.
So that gives us one piece of his family tree.
The next thing that I had to work with
was I knew that he was approximately 16% Native American.
And that was interesting and quite unique
because most of his ancestry was Northern European.
- [Narrator] With each new branch added to the tree
CeCe and the genetic forensics team,
gets closer and closer to naming Susan Galvin's killer.
- So 16% kind of falls in the middle.
A great grandparent gives you about 12 and a half percent,
and a grandparent gives you about 25% of your DNA.
So that meant that this killer either had a grandparent
or great grandparent, of full Native American ancestry.
And so that gave me something else to look for
among the descendants of this genetic network.
I knew that he had to be a descendant
of this couple that I identified, and so I needed
to trace all their descendants, build out the rest
of their family tree and see if one of their fairly recent
ancestors was of Native American ancestry.
And so I did find that a descendant
of that genetic network couple married somebody
who had a Native American ancestor.
I could see through the matches that a number of people
that were sharing DNA with this killer
had ancestors all from Poland.
So if all of their ancestors are from Poland
and they're sharing DNA with him,
that means he has to have some Polish ancestors as well.
(bright music)
- [Narrator] The family tree is almost complete,
and Cece has taken the investigation as far as she can.
- And in this particular case,
I knew that his direct paternal line, so his father's,
father's father's line likely had that Polish origin.
And that's because we also looked at his Y chromosome,
which is a different type of DNA.
And so I knew these pieces had to come together.
We had to have a descendant of the genetic network.
We had to have a person descended from a Native American
ancestor and someone descended from Polish ancestors,
and through marriages, I found all those pieces
coming together and they led to just one individual.
He was the only individual who had the correct ancestral mix
to be the person that left his DNA behind
at that crime scene.
Therefore, he must have been Susan's killer.
- [Narrator] Now, Detective Norton
just has to find this individual.
(suspenseful music)
(bright music)
(suspenseful music)
In 2019, with patience and advances
in genetic genealogy testing, authorities have finally found
the person responsible for the murder
of Susan Galvin back in 1967,
CeCe Moore from Parabon Nano Labs
took the DNA a sample profile
and through tracing descendants,
found that only one person matched:
Frank Wypych.
Now police must find him.
Detective Rolf Norton doesn't have to search
very hard for Frank.
He died in 1987, but they still need proof.
- When you work a very old case such as this one,
it's not a big surprise when you find
that the suspect is already deceased.
Of course, it's always disappointing.
You always hope that they will have to face justice.
But on the other hand, in such a brutal case like this,
I'm glad that his life was cut short
because we don't know how many other victims
there were or could have been in his lifetime.
- Frank Wypych never had to answer to authorities.
Nobody will know exactly what happened
the day Susan Galvin died.
The situation of her murderer being deceased
and being the only other one that knew
means that we can only speculate what happened.
There's no journal or letter of confession.
So really it was DNA that tells
the story of Susan Galvin's murder.
But the fact that Frank Wypych lived freely is unjust.
- [Narrator] Since Frank is long passed,
authorities must exhume his body
from the Riverton Crest Cemetery in Washington State.
- 30 Years later, there would still be viable DNA.
There would still be some degradation to the body.
It really depends on the conditions of the body
and how it was stored.
Most conservative guesses estimate
that the conditions are right,
DNA a can last hundreds of years.
- [Narrator] After Frank's body was exhumed
and his DNA collected,
it was confirmed that it did match the DNA
taken from Susan's clothing back in 2002.
(suspenseful music)
Susan's killer was Frank Wypych,
but who was Frank and why did he kill her?
Frank Edwards Wypych was born in 1941
and grew up in Seattle.
He served two years in the US Army.
He was 26 years old at the time he murdered Susan Galvin.
In 1966, Frank marries his 23 year old girlfriend, Judith.
The next year, the year he killed Susan,
they have a child, another one will follow in two years.
Frank lived his life freely and was never suspected
in Susan Galvin's death.
(dramatic music)
Reports come out that Frank had a habit
of impersonating security guards.
- The reasons that someone impersonates
a security guard can vary.
One could fantasize of being a guard
or be addicted to having power over ordinary citizens.
It could also be to hide the fact that they are stalking
someone under the guise of security.
- [Narrator] In 1971, Frank and Judith divorce.
Later that year, he's convicted of larceny.
He will remarry the following year.
In 1975, Frank is again arrested,
this time for a weapons offense.
His relatives tell police that he has been
impersonating a police officer and making traffic stops,
all the while carrying a gun.
- Stolen valor is when an individual pretends to be a member
of the military.
It gives them a weird sense of power and respect
from the public.
It's using the uniform for false validation.
It's disrespectful to anyone that's ever worn the uniform.
- There are many reasons why someone would steal valor.
It could be as simple as wanting to be part
of a respected group.
Instead of earning your way into it,
you dress like it.
Or there could be more devious reasons
such as collecting money for a supposed charity.
- [Narrator] Frank spends nine months in jail.
In 1987 Frank Wypych passes away
at the age of 46 from diabetes complications.
In May of 2019, a press conference is held
to announce that the case of Susan Galvin's murder
is officially closed.
The police chief presents Susan's brother Chris,
with the American flag that flew
over the Seattle Justice Center
the day Detective Norton solved the case.
(upbeat music)
- It's a satisfying feeling when you finally
solve a case that you and your coworkers
have been working on for so long.
For detectives, it's an uncomfortable burden to carry
when the case isn't solved.
As a detective, the drive to solve the case is so important,
mostly for the family, but also for the department.
- [Narrator] The detectives that originally worked
the Susan Galvin murder case have all passed away,
but their legacy remains in the way they collected
the evidence to keep its integrity,
to allow future investigators the opportunity
to solve the case.
This is the oldest case to utilize genetic genealogy
to identify a suspect.
- And initially the pieces just weren't falling in place.
But what was really key in this case was his mixed ancestry,
the fact that he had these diverse origins
and I needed to find that one person that had that mix.
And so when I found him,
it was obvious it was him
because it was such an unusual combination of ancestry.
- There is a very common misconception
that one match solves a case.
People always ask me,
what's the one match that solved a case?
And it almost never and should never be one match.
It should be a web of matches.
It's like pieces of a puzzle:
You've gotta put 'em together one by one by one,
and that web has to finally close in
on just one person or one set of siblings.
When I found him among the descendants
of that genetic network,
he had such a unique mix of ancestry
that really became obvious that this had to be the guy.
- [Narrator] It is unjust that Frank was able
to roam freely for years before serving time.
Susan's family suffered knowing her killer
wasn't behind bars.
- So we owe this huge debt of gratitude to those original
investigators, those crime scene investigators
that collected that DNA not even knowing what they were
collecting and the value of that.
- Armed with Frank Wypych's, DNA profile,
police continue to investigate if Frank had killed
anyone else when he was in the Army and stationed
in New York, Germany, and Alaska.
Well, the family of Susan Galvin
will never know why she was killed.
More than 50 years later, they finally have closure,
thanks to the decades long determination
of law enforcement officials.
(pensive music)