LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — The Vegas Justice League has offered the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department support in identifying a decades old body found in a corroded drum on the coast of Lake Mead Sunday.
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Founder Justin Woo said he has offered to pay for genealogical comparison through Texas based Othram Laboratories if, and when, investigators harvest a sample from the remains.
"We just think it's great for the community to support the local law enforcement," Woo said.
Woo founded the Justice League to bring decades old cold cases to a close and they've had recent successes by linking the deaths of 22 year old Diana Hanson and 16 year old Kim Bryant to accused killer Johnny Blake Peterson in late 2021 more than 30 years after their deaths.
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Peterson died in 1993.
"We started with cold cases that are 40, 50, or 30 plus years old," Woo said, "and we're hoping that we can start to work through the backlog and actually get some newer cases which might lead to an arrest."
Othram Laboratories DNA analysis and comparison goes beyond standard checks against more traditional criminal databases by running results through genealogical data bases like 23andMe and searching for familial matches.
Woo said, to date, the results have been remarkable, and he was hopeful this case would be no different.
"I wouldn't be surprised, if they were to get a good DNA sample from Metro, that they wouldn't be able to get a good lead for Metro PD to work," he said.
Woo cautioned the process could take months to complete, and every case submitted to Othram Laboratories cost up to $5,000.
Anyone interested in helping the Justice League in their mission can visit the group's website.
