The murder of Sophie Sergie
Fairbanks, Fairbanks North Star County, Alaska · 1993
Overview
Sophie Sergie, a 20-year-old former University of Alaska Fairbanks student, was sexually assaulted and murdered in a women's bathroom in Bartlett Hall on the UAF campus in April 1993. The case went cold for roughly 25 years until investigative genetic genealogy traced crime-scene DNA to Steven Downs, a former dorm resident then living in Maine, who was convicted of murder and sexual assault in 2022.
How it was solved
Working with private lab Parabon NanoLabs, investigators ran the suspect's crime-scene DNA against an open-source genealogy database (GEDmatch), where it connected to an aunt of Steven Downs who had uploaded her profile. Genealogists used that match to build a family tree pointing to Downs, and after obtaining a search warrant for his DNA in Maine, a traditional comparison definitively linked him to the sample collected from Sergie's body in 1993.
Sources
- Steven Downs Sentenced to 75 Years for Sophie Sergie's Murder 29 Years Ago at UAF
“Judge Temple sentenced Downs to 67 years for the murder conviction and eight years for the sexual assault conviction, to run consecutively for a total of 75 years.”
- Man found guilty 29 years after woman found dead in Alaska college dorm bathtub
“Sergie was found dead in a women's bathroom on the second floor of Bartlett Hall.”
- Emerging DNA technique leads to arrest in 1993 murder of woman found in dorm bathtub
“McPherron partnered with the private lab Parabon NanoLabs to conduct the genetic comparison ... Downs was taken into custody Friday at a business in Auburn, Maine.”
- Former Alaska College Student Convicted After Genetic Genealogy Linked Him to Murder of Young Woman in 1993
“A Fairbanks jury found Steven Downs guilty today ... they used genetic genealogy to make a partial match between his maternal aunt and the suspect DNA.”
- Man arrested in Sophie Sergie's 1993 murder in Alaska over DNA: Officials
“Genetic genealogy quickly and clearly pointed to the identity of the previously unknown suspect when all other avenues of traditional investigation had failed.”
- Appeals Court hears DNA privacy arguments in UAF cold case murder conviction
“The express purpose of that website is to allow people to upload DNA profiles and compare it with anyone else who uploads their DNA profile.”