Body found in Santa Cruz over 40 years ago identified
SACRAMENTO — An important link between the California Department of Justice and a genealogy lab dedicated to law enforcement investigations helped to close a decades-old cold case and bring closure to the family of Rodney Rumsey of Sacramento.
A hiker found Rumsey's body near Natural Bridges State Park in Santa Cruz County in October 1982 with investigators determining his death was likely homicide. For 41 years, the case remained cold until an important partnership along with emerging Forensic-Grade Genome Sequencing was done by Othram Labs.
Michael Vogen, the director of account management at Othram Labs, stepped us through their critical role in cracking the case and providing answers law enforcement had been searching for.
"Othram is the first private laboratory in North America that was purpose-built to generate human ID from forensic evidence and crime scene evidence," Vogen said. "We're working cases like this one all across California right now and having a great deal of success."
Rumsey was 28 at the time of his death and despite having distinct tattoos, investigators could never link his identity with any missing person's cases. That's why a partnership between Othram and the California DOJ became a critical link.
"DNA extract that was derived from bone from California DOJ was sent to us, of course, with permission of the Santa Cruz police," Vogen said. "We did what's called a suitability analysis on it and measured how much DNA is truly there."
Othram Labs has the capability to look at hundreds of thousands of DNA markers, making it easier to find more distant relatives and reverse engineer back to the direct family.
"In this case, it was genealogy that pointed towards a family, and then what I think the really cool thing is, the FBI got involved and they were able to use some fingerprinting, once they had an idea of who it may be, to confirm that identity," Vogen said.
Law enforcement is able to take that important link and finally give a name to the body known for so long to investigators as John Doe. Rodney Rumsey was born May 25, 1954, but CBS13 could not get additional information from the Santa Cruz Police Department about what family members they were able to contact about the discovery.
While one family receives answers they have searched so long for, those working for Othram say their efforts are far from over.
"This started out as an unidentified human remains case and now, they have a new homicide case that they're investigating," Vogen said. "The community is impacted, the detectives are impacted, decades of family members, and it feels really good, and we celebrate it and then it's on to the next one."
Anyone with information on the death of Rodney Rumsey is asked to call the Santa Cruz Police Department.
