11 Investigates: New technology brings answers in decades-old Pittsburgh homicide

PITTSBURGH — The company that linked Bryan Kohberger to college student murders just solved a Pittsburgh cold case

Allegheny County’s longest cold case of an unknown deceased person was just solved with the help of modern technology and a lab that’s making headlines across the country.

On August 1, 1992, a caller on a pay phone told 911 dispatchers they had just seen a deadly assault. On the river dock between the 6^th and 7^th Street bridges on the North Shore, police found a crime scene and the body of a man floating in the river. He had signs of blunt force trauma, but the coroner later determined he ultimately drowned.

“He was fingerprinted and didn’t have any ID on him,” said Pittsburgh police homicide detective George Satler.

There were no matches to his prints in the databases utilized by law enforcement. Despite years of trying, investigators could never determine the man’s name or age until a few weeks ago.

“This is the only case here in Pittsburgh that this person’s never been identified,” Satler said.

He investigates cold cases, typically focusing his attention on homicide suspects who have gone undetected for years.

But in this case, a suspect was arrested the same night. A traffic officer tracked down Arthur Wiley downtown. Police said he matched the description of the 911 caller. He was charged, later confessed, and a year later, was convicted in the death of John Doe. He has already completed his sentence.

“Talk about how rare it is to not only have a suspect but an arrest, a conviction, and still not know who the victim is,” said WPXI investigative reporter Jatara McGee.

“It’s the rarest of the rare,” Satler said.

Answering that question more than 30 years later is also rare.

“This is not a 30-minute episode of CSI or anything like that. It does take a long time,” said Hannah George, forensic investigator with the Allegheny County Office of the Medical Examiner.

This is her first cold case and the first one she’s ever worked with no digital footprint.

“It was just a little bit older than myself, so I thought that would be a pretty big challenge,” she said.

That challenge sent evidence from the medical examiner’s office more than a thousand miles from Pittsburgh. Texas-based Othram specializes in advanced DNA technology.

Colby Lasyone says they have worked thousands of cases and publicly identified more than 600 people. They even linked Bryan Kohberger to the murders of four University of Idaho students.

“The focus for us is to digitize evidence,” Lasyone said. “We’ve built lots of technology here that helps to accelerate the genealogical process.”

They use DNA evidence to create a profile and then use public records and ancestry databases to build a family tree.

“I always imagine this as like a 1000-piece puzzle with all of these different individuals that make up this puzzle, and you don’t really have a reference photo by which you put that puzzle together,” Lasyone said.

In this case, Othram came up with a possible ID and sent the report back to Pittsburgh.

“When the report came back, I shrieked audibly,” said Adelee Conner, a scientist with the Allegheny County Office of the Medical Examiner. “It was super emotional. I’m getting chills just talking about it. It was really, really, really awesome, the most rewarding part of my job, I think.”

George was responsible for contacting a living relative to collect a DNA sample.

“You’re never sure what you’re going to get on the other end of the phone, so as soon as they picked up, my heart was racing,” George said.

After getting the sample, it was sent to Othram to confirm their findings.

“And I cried. It is very emotional,” George said.

The man who’d been known as John Doe for three decades was identified as 52-year-old Allan Barry Keener. He was originally from Kentucky and was most recently living in Bridgeport, Ohio, prior to his death. He was transient and had never been reported missing.

“The family just thought that he had left and never came back,” Satler said. “So for all these years, there was somebody arrested, somebody convicted, but we were never able to give closure to a family. So our office never really forgot about it.”

“Being able to provide them closure was just -- I can’t even really put in words,” Conner said.

Othram estimates each case costs around $10,000. The medical examiner’s office was able work with Othram through a $100,000 state grant. Pittsburgh police also received grant funding. Both entities are working with Othram on other open cases and hoping to close those cases as well.

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