Feb. 19, 2026

Cold Case: How AFIS And DNA Unmasked A Hidden Killer

Margarette Eby was murdered in 1986. In an investigation led by Genesee County (MI) Prosecutor Arthur Busch and the Michigan State Police, two cold case rape-murders were solved using the most advance forensic science available.

Key details regarding the case:

Date: She was found on November 9, 1986, having last been seen on November 7, 1986.
Location: She was murdered in her home at the Mott family estate in Flint, Michigan.
Perpetrator: Jeffrey Gorton, a sprinkler system installer who worked on the estate, was identified via DNA evidence and charged in 2002.
Outcome: Gorton pleaded no contest in Genesee County, Michigan (Flint) to the murder and was sentenced to life in prison.

We walk you through how a partial print on a faucet and carefully stored biological evidence waited years for the right moment, then unlocked a chain of breakthroughs that tied two murders to one man.

We break down why so many late‑20th‑century investigations stalled: reliance on eyewitness memory, confessions, and limited lab tests that hinted at guilt but rarely proved identity. Then we zoom into the tools that changed the map. AFIS took fingerprint comparison from magnifying glasses to searchable databases, and STR DNA profiling built full genetic identities from the tiniest trace. With CODIS linking labs across states, an old profile from Flint collided with a new profile from a hotel near an airport, revealing a single serial predator hiding in plain sight. Along the way, we revisit the Mary Sullivan case in Boston and the capture of the Golden State Killer to show how forensic genealogy fills gaps when offenders aren’t in criminal databases.

What ties it all together isn’t luck—it’s infrastructure. Proper evidence storage turns slides and swabs into time‑delayed witnesses. Dedicated cold case units create focus where daily caseloads can’t. Updated databases make every new arrest, every new algorithm, and every fresh upload ripple across past scenes. For families, a late arrest doesn’t erase loss, but it affirms that loved ones were not forgotten. For offenders, the takeaway is stark: time no longer offers cover.

If this story moved you, subscribe, share the show with a friend, and leave a review telling us which case changed your view of cold case work. Your voice helps fund the labs, units, and training that keep justice from aging out.

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Chapters

00:00 - The Flint Gatehouse Murder

00:40 - Evidence Preserved, Leads Fade

01:11 - Technology Revives A Cold Case

02:08 - Why Old Cases Once Stalled

02:58 - AFIS Changes Fingerprint Work

03:43 - DNA, CODIS, And Breakthrough Matches

04:32 - Forensic Genealogy And Big Lessons

05:03 - Funding, Storage, And The Future Of Justice

Transcript

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00:00:00.320 --> 00:00:07.280
In November 1986, a well-known university provost in Flint, Michigan, was found raped and murdered in her bed.

00:00:07.440 --> 00:00:11.599
She lived in a gatehouse, on the grounds of one of the city's most secure estates.

00:00:11.759 --> 00:00:13.119
There were no signs of a break-in.

00:00:13.439 --> 00:00:18.559
The killer wasn't a stranger off the street, he was someone with a key and a trusted reason to be there.

00:00:18.800 --> 00:00:21.280
Investigators at the time did everything they could.

00:00:21.440 --> 00:00:26.320
They preserved a partial fingerprint from a bathroom faucet and collected biological evidence.

00:00:26.480 --> 00:00:30.800
The fingerprint was clear enough to keep, but they had no way to match it to a suspect.

00:00:31.039 --> 00:00:36.000
At that time, DNA profiling was brand new and not yet a standard tool for police.

00:00:36.159 --> 00:00:40.159
After the initial leads dried up, the file was tucked away in a cold case drawer.

00:00:40.399 --> 00:00:42.880
For 16 years, the case sat untouched.

00:00:43.039 --> 00:00:49.840
Then, a new generation of forensic science and a prosecutor's office willing to invest in technology changed everything.

00:00:50.000 --> 00:00:54.560
They took that old fingerprint and the stored biological evidence and turned them into proof.

00:00:54.719 --> 00:01:00.560
It turned out the same man had committed a second rape murder and had been hiding in plain sight for nearly two decades.

00:01:00.799 --> 00:01:03.439
This story is becoming common across the country.

00:01:03.600 --> 00:01:12.640
Cold cases are being solved decades later, not because witnesses suddenly remember what happened, but because preserved evidence and modern lab tools are doing what time could not.

00:01:12.799 --> 00:01:14.560
How cold cases used to die.

00:01:14.719 --> 00:01:23.599
For most of the 20th century, a rape murder investigation relied on three main things eyewitnesses, confessions, and extremely basic lab work.

00:01:23.760 --> 00:01:29.680
In the 1980s, blood typing could narrow down a group of suspects, but it couldn't point to one specific person.

00:01:29.920 --> 00:01:35.680
Fiber and hair analysis could suggest a connection, but they weren't the smoking gun evidence that juries expect today.

00:01:35.840 --> 00:01:43.680
If a killer didn't confess, if no one turned him in, and if his fingerprints weren't already in a paper file, a case could go cold in a matter of weeks.

00:01:43.920 --> 00:01:46.640
Evidence would sit for decades in dusty property rooms.

00:01:46.799 --> 00:01:51.040
Slides, swabs, and clothing were sealed and labeled, but they were scientifically underused.

00:01:51.359 --> 00:01:54.799
In many cities, rape kits were never even sent to a lab for processing.

00:01:54.959 --> 00:02:00.000
When those kits and envelopes were properly saved, they became, quote, time-delayed witnesses.

00:02:00.159 --> 00:02:06.159
Once better technology was invented, they could finally speak, in ways that were impossible at the time of the crime.

00:02:07.519 --> 00:02:17.919
Between the late 1980s and the early 2000s, two major changes transformed how police solve old murders automated fingerprint systems and modern DNA profiling.

00:02:18.240 --> 00:02:18.719
1.

00:02:18.960 --> 00:02:21.520
Automated fingerprints, AFIS.

00:02:21.919 --> 00:02:27.919
Before computers, police had to manually compare fingerprint cards by hand using magnifying glasses.

00:02:28.159 --> 00:02:35.280
Automated fingerprint identification systems, AFIS, replaced that slow process with huge searchable databases.

00:02:35.439 --> 00:02:40.960
A print from a 1980s crime scene could be scanned and instantly compared to thousands of people.

00:02:41.199 --> 00:02:48.800
In mid-Michigan, the Genesee County Prosecutor's Office, led by prosecutor Arthur Bush, became a leader in this technology.

00:02:48.960 --> 00:02:57.120
They set up an AFIS pilot site and trained Flint police department technicians to run digital searches long before other agencies had the chance.

00:02:57.280 --> 00:03:03.120
These officers evolved from using magnifying glasses to becoming some of the most advanced fingerprint experts in the state.

00:03:03.280 --> 00:03:03.599
2.

00:03:03.759 --> 00:03:08.719
The power of DNA CODIS, at the same time, DNA science became much more sensitive.

00:03:08.879 --> 00:03:12.080
Early methods required large samples of blood or fluids.

00:03:12.240 --> 00:03:19.439
Modern short-tandem repeat, STR analysis, can build a full genetic profile from tiny microscopic amounts of material.

00:03:19.599 --> 00:03:24.000
These profiles are uploaded to CODIS, a national database run by the FBI.

00:03:24.159 --> 00:03:32.159
This allows a lab in Michigan to see if their unknown killer's DNA matches a suspect arrested in California or a different crime scene in New York.

00:03:32.319 --> 00:03:37.439
In Boston, this combination of technology helped solve a famous case nearly 50 years later.

00:03:37.680 --> 00:03:43.919
Investigators revisited the 1964 murder of Mary Sullivan, a case linked to the Boston Strangler.

00:03:44.080 --> 00:03:52.800
Using new DNA testing on old evidence and comparing it to a relative of the suspect, they finally proved Albert DeSalvo was the killer, long after he had died.

00:03:52.960 --> 00:04:00.159
In the Flint Gatehouse case, the biological evidence saved from 1986 eventually produced a usable DNA profile.

00:04:00.319 --> 00:04:05.759
Years later, a second case occurred: the rape murder of a flight attendant in a hotel room near an airport.

00:04:05.919 --> 00:04:09.759
When that new DNA was put into the CODIS system, it was a perfect match.

00:04:09.919 --> 00:04:12.479
The same unknown man had committed both crimes.

00:04:12.639 --> 00:04:16.240
This didn't give police a name yet, but it changed the investigation.

00:04:16.480 --> 00:04:20.720
Two different police departments could now work together to find one serial predator.

00:04:20.879 --> 00:04:25.680
Eventually, the partial fingerprint from the flint bathroom was re-examined using digital imaging.

00:04:25.839 --> 00:04:31.920
When run through the AFIS system in the Genesee County pilot program, it finally pointed to a specific man.

00:04:32.079 --> 00:04:34.959
A DNA swab later confirmed he was the killer.

00:04:35.120 --> 00:04:38.240
We see this same pattern in the Golden State killer case.

00:04:38.480 --> 00:04:43.759
Joseph James D'Angelo committed dozens of crimes in California during the 70s and 80s.

00:04:43.920 --> 00:04:48.399
Traditional DNA searches never found him because he wasn't in the criminal database.

00:04:48.560 --> 00:04:56.079
In 2018, investigators used forensic genealogy, the same kind of DNA testing people used to find their ancestors.

00:04:56.240 --> 00:05:03.040
They found the killer's distant cousins, built a family tree, and finally identified D'Angelo after 40 years of searching.

00:05:03.199 --> 00:05:05.040
Why funding and infrastructure matter?

00:05:05.360 --> 00:05:07.120
These cases aren't solved by luck.

00:05:07.279 --> 00:05:10.480
They require three specific things: proper storage.

00:05:10.720 --> 00:05:16.560
Evidence must be dried, sealed, and kept in a safe place so it doesn't rot or get lost for over 40 years.

00:05:16.800 --> 00:05:17.920
Dedicated units.

00:05:18.160 --> 00:05:21.680
Solving cold cases takes time that regular detectives don't have.

00:05:21.920 --> 00:05:27.839
Cold case units, often funded by government grants, give investigators the space to look at old files.

00:05:28.079 --> 00:05:34.639
Modern databases, systems like CODIS and AFIS, only work if states keep them updated with new information.

00:05:34.879 --> 00:05:36.399
What this means for the future.

00:05:36.560 --> 00:05:40.319
For the families of victims, the passage of time doesn't make the pain go away.

00:05:40.480 --> 00:05:46.160
When an arrest happens 50 years later, the family usually feels a sense of relief that their loved one wasn't forgotten.

00:05:46.319 --> 00:05:49.600
For criminals, the message is clear: time is no longer a shield.

00:05:49.759 --> 00:05:55.680
A single skin cell left on a piece of clothing or a fingerprint on a faucet can wait quietly for decades.

00:05:55.920 --> 00:05:59.120
When technology catches up, that evidence will carry a name.

00:05:59.279 --> 00:06:05.920
The work done in the Flint Gatehouse murder and other cases across the country shows that justice doesn't have an expiration date.

00:06:06.079 --> 00:06:12.319
When communities choose to fund labs and support cold case units, they are doing more than just solving old mysteries.

00:06:12.480 --> 00:06:18.879
They are identifying dangerous people and making sure that time, by itself, is never enough to let a killer get away with murder.