Who is Jane Doe? Saint John police look to DNA bank that solved Moncton cold case | CBC News (2024)

Mia Urquhart · CBC News

· Posted: Oct 13, 2022 6:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: October 13, 2022

Eight years after Cheryl Pyne went missing from Moncton, her remains were discovered in Saint John.

But no one knew it was her.

It would take another eight years —and a new DNA database —to link the two cases. That connection finally gave a name to unidentifiedremains and answers to a family in pain.

It's one of 55 cases solved by the National Centre for Missing Persons and Unidentified Remains since it was created four years ago. The program stores DNA from unidentified remains and compares themto other profiles in their system.

It's the same program the Saint John Police Force is hoping will help solve the case of unidentified remains found floating at Long Wharf in Saint John Harbour.

The woman's body was found on Sept. 13, and police didn't have much to go on since the body had been in the water for an extended period of time. Police aren't even certain how long.

They consulted with a forensic anthropologist to come up with some identifying details. She is described as being between 17 and 30 years old and five feet four to five feet seven inches tall.

They were unable to determine hair colour or ancestry.

Because the case does not match any known missing persons files in the area, investigators have reached out to other police forces in the province and along the coasts in Nova Scotia and the northern United States.

Staff Sgt. Sean Rocca said the force sent samples to the National Centre for Missing Persons and Unidentified Remains to come up with a DNA profile to compare to the other samples in the system.

That usually takes between 30 and 60 days, said Ingrid Muhlig, manager of the missing persons unit, part of the larger National DNA Data Bank run by the RCMP.

Muhlig said once the profile is created, it will be automatically and regularly compared to all other profiles in their system. When the criminal indices are includedto givethem more samples for comparison,that means an unknown sample is compared to nearly 640,000 profiles in the database.

70,000 reported missing annually

On average,70,000 people are reported missing in Canada each year, said Muhlig.

About 85 per cent of that number are found within a week, and 98 per cent are found within three months.

At any given time, there are about 8,000 active missing persons cases in Canada, she said.

According to the RCMP, about 40 unidentified human remains are discovered each year. The RCMP alone have about 760 open cases —that doesn't include other police forces in Canada.

Muhlig said there are now DNA profiles for 324 unidentified remains found across the country.

The program also has 197 DNA samples of missing people and another 1,443 samples from relatives of missing people.

But that's only a fraction of the number of missing people in Canada.

The problem, said Muhlig, is that the DNA database for missing people has only been around for four years, and familial DNA comparisons have only been used for a relatively short period of time.

That means there are thousands of samples yet to be entered into the system in unsolved cases.

Muhlig said investigators have been encouraged to send samples from those cases to the national data bank.

Even then, she said, "we might only have half the story."

Muhligalso encourages people with missing family members to submit samples. Just because they submitted samples to the police during an investigation doesn't mean the samples were forwarded to the national database. She said there's a consent form that must be filled out and if that was never done, investigators would be unable to send the samples.

She said people should contact the police officer investigating their relative's missing person case to ensure the sample has been sent —particularly if the case predates the 2018 start of the missing person's DNA database.

Muhlig said the best matches are close family members —mother, father, child or siblings. Samples from more distant relatives can also result in matches, but it takes more work and isn't as precise.

A family behind each DNA sample

Cpl. Hans Ouellette, a spokesperson for the RCMP in New Brunswick, said advancements in DNA technology have given police new tools to explore in trying to identify remains and bring answers to waiting family members.

Ouellette said it was a difficult wait for the family of 27-year-old Cheryl Pyne.

"These are many long years of waiting and wondering," he said.

Even after a man was charged and convicted 13years ago of killing Pyne, Ouellette said the RCMP continued to search for her remains and investigate the case.

In November 2020, the RCMP's major crime unit requested a DNA sample from one of Pyne's family members, so they could send it to the national database for comparison.

That's when a match was finally made —eight years after her remains had been discovered in Saint Johnwell outside the search area, and 16 years after she disappeared.

Ouellette said investigators were "committed to finding her and bringing this file to a full conclusion so that her family no longer needs to wonder."

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