The DNA Doe Project (DDP) is an American nonprofit, volunteer organization that seeks to identify unidentified deceased persons (commonly known as John Doe or Jane Doe) using forensic genealogy. The unidentified deceased persons include victims of homicide, automobile accidents, or unusual circumstances, and persons who committed suicide under an alias. The group was founded in 2017 by Colleen M. Fitzpatrick and Margaret Press."DNA DOE PROJECT: genetic genealogy and the search for identities". FBK Magazine. Retrieved 2025-09-16. Since the organization's founding, the DNA Doe Project has been credited with identifying over 150 unidentified decedents.
History Colleen M. Fitzpatrick, a physicist who worked with NASA and the US Department of Defense, was the founder of IdentiFinders, an organization that used Y-chromosomal testing to attempt to identify male killers in unsolved homicides. Margaret Press is a novelist who worked in computer programming and speech and language consulting. As a hobby, Press began working in genetic genealogy in 2007, helping friends and acquaintances find relatives, as well as helping adoptees find their biological parents.
In 2017, Fitzpatrick, Press, and a group of volunteers formed the nonprofit DNA Doe Project (DDP), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in Sebastopol, California. Working with law enforcement agencies, the organization uses genetic and traditional genealogy sources in conjunction with DNA from unidentified victims to build family trees through GEDmatch, a free public DNA database. In March 2018, the DDP announced it had solved its first case, the identification of the "Buckskin Girl" as Marcia Lenore Sossoman (King) (see below).
Notable identifications Marcia King, "Buckskin Girl"
In 1981, three passersby found a female murder victim in a ditch in Troy, Ohio. Because the victim was found wearing a distinctive buckskin coat, she was given the name "Buckskin Girl" as the investigation continued. For decades, authorities sought the woman's identity, but to no avail.
At the 2017 American Academy of Forensic Sciences conference, Elizabeth Murray, an Ohio forensic anthropologist, met Colleen M. Fitzpatrick and Margaret Press, founders of the DDP, who discussed what genetic genealogy techniques could do for this case. The victim's body had long since been buried, but a vial of blood had been held in a lab for 37 years. The vial had not been refrigerated, however, resulting in the DNA becoming highly degraded, with only 50 to 75 percent of markers remaining. With the help of Greg Magoon, a senior researcher at Aerodyne Research, they were able to upload this DNA data to GEDmatch.
From this point, the DDP was able to identify the "Buckskin Girl", based on a very close DNA match (to a first cousin once removed). Her name was Marcia Lenore Sossoman (King) from Arkansas, aged 21 at the time of her death. DDP volunteers provided law enforcement with the name of a close relative of King's who lived in Florida. This relative volunteered a DNA sample that confirmed Sossoman's identity. This sample proved to be a match.
After 37 years, her mother was still living at the house where Sossoman had grown up. She had refused to move or change her phone number in hopes that her daughter might return or try to contact her.
"Lyle Stevik"
In September 2001, a man was found to have hanged himself in a motel in Amanda Park, Washington, a town on the Olympic Peninsula. The man had checked in as "Lyle Stevik," which appeared to be an alias. This name appeared drawn from "Lyle Stevick", a character in the Joyce Carol Oates novel You Must Remember This (1987).
The Grays Harbor County Sheriff's Office spent countless hours in search of the man's true identity but to no avail.
In 2018, the DDP took the case at the request of the county sheriff's office. To raise the funds required to complete the necessary DNA analysis, the DDP set up its first-ever "Doe Fund Me" campaign on behalf of the victim. The campaign was a quick success, as, by this time, "Stevik" had gained internet fame among web sleuths. Adequate funds were raised within 24 hours. By March 22, 2018, DDP volunteers had obtained his DNA results and began analyzing through GEDmatch and related genetic genealogy research.
After about 20 volunteers put hundreds of hours into the case, they found a candidate in a 25-year-old young man from California. DNA tests indicated he was of mixed Native-American and Hispanic descent. Authorities contacted the man's family, who conclusively verified his identity using fingerprint samples taken in his childhood, having previously thought the man distanced himself from them. The family has requested that Stevik's identity remain private.
Robert Nichols, aka Joseph Newton Chandler III
Joseph Newton Chandler III, a resident of Eastlake, Ohio, committed suicide in his apartment on July 24, 2002. As authorities sought to identify his heirs, they discovered that his name and identity were fake. The real Joseph Newton Chandler III had died in a Sherman, Texas, car accident at age eight on December 21, 1945. The suicide victim had stolen the boy's identity in 1978 while living in South Dakota. Authorities began a search for the man's true identity.
Extracting DNA proved difficult, as the victim's remains had been cremated. In the year 2000, however, two years before his death, the victim had had a tissue sample taken for a medical treatment. Authorities obtained this sample, but genetic analysis of the sample using traditional law enforcement techniques yielded few clues. In 2016, authorities contacted IdentiFinders, a company run by Colleen M. Fitzpatrick, for help. In examining the man's Y-DNA signature, they determined that his true last name was likely "Nicholas" or some variation.
Chandler became the first case for the DDP. They analyzed the autosomal DNA of the highly degraded sample of the man's DNA, which had been stored in paraffin for about 15 years. Despite the obstacles and after over 2,500 hours of work, the DDP researchers were able to conclusively determine in June 2018 that Joseph Newton Chandler III was Robert Ivan Nichols, son of Silas and Alpha Nichols of New Albany, Indiana. This identification was verified when Robert's son, Phillip Nichols, volunteered a DNA sample, which proved to be a match.
Mary Silvani, aka "Washoe County Jane Doe"
The body of a woman aged between 25 and 35 years was found by hikers on July 17, 1982, in Sheep Flats, Washoe County, Nevada. The woman had been shot in the back of the head as she was bending over, possibly to tie her shoes. The bullet hole on her head had been covered with men's underwear.
The victim wore a light pair of tennis shoes, a sleeveless blue shirt, jeans with a blue bikini bottom in a pocket, and a blue swimsuit underneath. The shirt had been sold at stores in California, Washington, and Oregon.
At the victim's autopsy, a vaccination scar was found on her left arm and another on her abdomen. In addition, one of her toenails had a large bruise underneath. Evidence from the style of dental work she had received indicated she may have lived in Europe at some point during her life. This theory has since been disproved. The woman had hazel eyes, was around in height, weighed , and had brown hair tied back in a bun. As possible identities of the decedent, 231 people have been ruled out.
During the years when police struggled to identify her, she was known as "Sheep Flats Jane Doe" or "Washoe County Jane Doe".
In July 2018, it was announced she had been tentatively identified through genetic genealogy by the DDP. In September 2018, her identity was confirmed by the Washoe County Sheriff's Office. However, the sheriff's office withheld further information due to its ongoing homicide investigation.
In May 2019, the Washoe County Sheriff's Office announced that Washoe County Jane Doe is 33-year-old Mary Edith Silvani. She was born in Pontiac, Michigan, and grew up in Metro Detroit. She later moved to California as an adult.
The perpetrator, James Richard Curry, was also found through forensic genealogy. Curry committed suicide in prison the day following his arrest after being charged with another murder in January 1983.
Dana Dodd, aka "Lavender Doe"
On October 29, 2006, the badly burned body of a female aged 17 to 25 was discovered in Kilgore, Texas. The victim's cause of death remained undetermined, yet the manner of death was ruled a homicide due to the body having been set on fire deliberately and the victim having been raped.
The DDP took the case in 2018. In January, the organization announced a tentative identification in the case, which would not be released until the suspect's trial concluded. Despite this, Dodd's identity was released on February 11, 2019. She was 21 and last seen in Jacksonville, Florida. Joseph Wayne Burnette, a long-term person of interest in the case, confessed to the murder in August 2018, leading him to be charged with her death (and that of another woman, 28-year-old Felisha Pearson).
Debra Jackson, aka "Orange Socks"
Debra Jackson's body was found face-down and nude in a culvert along a highway in Georgetown, Texas, on October 31, 1979. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled. Along with the pair of socks on her body, she also wore an abalone/mother of pearl stone on a ring.
At the time, Jackson was believed to have been a transient or a runaway. Strong evidence supported this, as she had keys from an Oklahoma motel, long, dirty nails, insect bites (revealed to actually be impetigo scars post-identification), unshaven legs, and a makeshift sanitary pad. She had salpingitis due to having untreated gonorrhea.
Henry Lee Lucas confessed to her murder and was sentenced to death. It was later discovered that police officers from the area had him look at crime scene photos and then confess during interviews, which they would use to gain recognition for solving cold cases.
The DDP took on the case in 2018. On August 6, 2019, "Orange Socks" was identified as 23-year-old Debra Louise Jackson, who was from Abilene, Texas.
Joseph Henry Loveless, aka "Clark County John Doe (1979)"
The headless torso of a man was found in 1979, stashed in a burlap sack in Buffalo Cave, near Boise, Idaho. In 1991, a hand was located on the same site, leading to further excavations from which the other hand, one arm, and two legs were discovered. Identification was thought to be impossible, due to the missing head and the huge family tree of the deceased. However, thanks to an 87-year-old California man who agreed to take a DNA test, the remains were identified as those of his grandfather—bootlegger and accused murderer Joseph Henry Loveless. He had been accused of murdering his common-law wife, Agnes Loveless, on May 16, 1916, but had managed to escape imprisonment on May 18, 1916, by using a sawblade hidden in his shoe to cut the prison bar cells. It is unknown what happened to Loveless next, though it was reported in 1916, the year Loveless escaped prison, that he was discovered living at the outskirts of Dubois, Idaho, in a small-sized tent in the Idaho desert. The circumstances surrounding Loveless' death are, at present, suspected to be murder due to his torso and limbs being separated from his body, and his head and other arm being missing and nowhere to be found. However, it is believed that he died soon after his prison escape in May 1916, as he was found wearing the same clothing detailed in his wanted poster, with Loveless' cowboy-like hat, his brown coat, and his socks and shoes not being found with his remains in the cave his body was discovered in. Only his red maroon sweater and trousers were found, and a white-pinstripe collar shirt, not mentioned in the wanted poster, was found with the remains as well.
James Freund and Pamela Buckley, aka "Sumter County Does"