Cold Case: How AFIS And DNA Unmasked A Hidden Killer

Margarette Eby was murdered in 1986. In an investigation led by Genesee County (MI) Prosecutor Arthur Busch and the Michigan State Police, two cold case rape-murders were solved using the most advance forensic science available.

Key details regarding the case:

• Date: She was found on November 9, 1986, having last been seen on November 7, 1986.
• Location: She was murdered in her home at the Mott family estate in Flint, Michigan.
• Perpetrator: Jeffrey Gorton, a sprinkler system installer who worked on the estate, was identified via DNA evidence and charged in 2002.
• Outcome: Gorton pleaded no contest in Genesee County, Michigan (Flint) to the murder and was sentenced to life in prison. 

We walk you through how a partial print on a faucet and carefully stored biological evidence waited years for the right moment, then unlocked a chain of breakthroughs that tied two murders to one man.

We break down why so many late‑20th‑century investigations stalled: reliance on eyewitness memory, confessions, and limited lab tests that hinted at guilt but rarely proved identity. Then we zoom into the tools that changed the map. AFIS took fingerprint comparison from magnifying glasses to searchable databases, and STR DNA profiling built full genetic identities from the tiniest trace. With CODIS linking labs across states, an old profile from Flint collided with a new profile from a hotel near an airport, revealing a single serial predator hiding in plain sight. Along the way, we revisit the Mary Sullivan case in Boston and the capture of the Golden State Killer to show how forensic genealogy fills gaps when offenders aren’t in criminal databases.

What ties it all together isn’t luck—it’s infrastructure. Proper evidence storage turns slides and swabs into time‑delayed witnesses. Dedicated cold case units create focus where daily caseloads can’t. Updated databases make every new arrest, every new algorithm, and every fresh upload ripple across past scenes. For families, a late arrest doesn’t erase loss, but it affirms that loved ones were not forgotten. For offenders, the takeaway is stark: time no longer offers cover.

If this story moved you, subscribe, share the show with a friend, and leave a review telling us which case changed your view of cold case work. Your voice helps fund the labs, units, and training that keep justice from aging out.

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Chapters

• 0:00 The Flint Gatehouse Murder
• 0:40 Evidence Preserved, Leads Fade
• 1:11 Technology Revives A Cold Case
• 2:08 Why Old Cases Once Stalled
• 2:58 AFIS Changes Fingerprint Work
• 3:43 DNA, CODIS, And Breakthrough Matches
• 4:32 Forensic Genealogy And Big Lessons
• 5:03 Funding, Storage, And The Future Of Justice

Transcript

The Flint Gatehouse Murder

SPEAKER_00 0:00

In November 1986, a well-known university provost in Flint, Michigan, was found raped and murdered in her bed. She lived in a gatehouse, on the grounds of one of the city's most secure estates. There were no signs of a break-in. The killer wasn't a stranger off the street, he was someone with a key and a trusted reason to be there. Investigators at the time did everything they could. They preserved a partial fingerprint from a bathroom faucet and collected biological evidence. The fingerprint was clear enough to keep, but they had no way to match it to a suspect. At that time, DNA profiling was brand new and not yet a standard tool for police. After the initial leads dried up, the file was tucked away in a cold case drawer. For 16 years, the case sat untouched. Then, a new generation of forensic science and a prosecutor's office willing to invest in technology changed everything. They took that old fingerprint and the stored biological evidence and turned them into proof. It turned out the same man had committed a second rape murder and had been hiding in plain sight for nearly two decades. This story is becoming common across the country. Cold cases are being solved decades later, not because witnesses suddenly remember what happened, but because preserved evidence and modern lab tools are doing what time could not. How cold cases used to die. For most of the 20th century, a rape murder investigation relied on three main things eyewitnesses, confessions, and extremely basic lab work. In the 1980s, blood typing could narrow down a group of suspects, but it couldn't point to one specific person. Fiber and hair analysis could suggest a connection, but they weren't the smoking gun evidence that juries expect today. If a killer didn't confess, if no one turned him in, and if his fingerprints weren't already in a paper file, a case could go cold in a matter of weeks. Evidence would sit for decades in dusty property rooms. Slides, swabs, and clothing were sealed and labeled, but they were scientifically underused. In many cities, rape kits were never even sent to a lab for processing. When those kits and envelopes were properly saved, they became, quote, time-delayed witnesses. Once better technology was invented, they could finally speak, in ways that were impossible at the time of the crime. Between the late 1980s and the early 2000s, two major changes transformed how police solve old murders automated fingerprint systems and modern DNA profiling. 1. Automated fingerprints, AFIS. Before computers, police had to manually compare fingerprint cards by hand using magnifying glasses. Automated fingerprint identification systems, AFIS, replaced that slow process with huge searchable databases. A print from a 1980s crime scene could be scanned and instantly compared to thousands of people. In mid-Michigan, the Genesee County Prosecutor's Office, led by prosecutor Arthur Bush, became a leader in this technology. They set up an AFIS pilot site and trained Flint police department technicians to run digital searches long before other agencies had the chance. These officers evolved from using magnifying glasses to becoming some of the most advanced fingerprint experts in the state. 2. The power of DNA CODIS, at the same time, DNA science became much more sensitive. Early methods required large samples of blood or fluids. Modern short-tandem repeat, STR analysis, can build a full genetic profile from tiny microscopic amounts of material. These profiles are uploaded to CODIS, a national database run by the FBI. This allows a lab in Michigan to see if their unknown killer's DNA matches a suspect arrested in California or a different crime scene in New York. In Boston, this combination of technology helped solve a famous case nearly 50 years later. Investigators revisited the 1964 murder of Mary Sullivan, a case linked to the Boston Strangler. Using new DNA testing on old evidence and comparing it to a relative of the suspect, they finally proved Albert DeSalvo was the killer, long after he had died. In the Flint Gatehouse case, the biological evidence saved from 1986 eventually produced a usable DNA profile. Years later, a second case occurred: the rape murder of a flight attendant in a hotel room near an airport. When that new DNA was put into the CODIS system, it was a perfect match. The same unknown man had committed both crimes. This didn't give police a name yet, but it changed the investigation. Two different police departments could now work together to find one serial predator. Eventually, the partial fingerprint from the flint bathroom was re-examined using digital imaging. When run through the AFIS system in the Genesee County pilot program, it finally pointed to a specific man. A DNA swab later confirmed he was the killer. We see this same pattern in the Golden State killer case. Joseph James D'Angelo committed dozens of crimes in California during the 70s and 80s. Traditional DNA searches never found him because he wasn't in the criminal database. In 2018, investigators used forensic genealogy, the same kind of DNA testing people used to find their ancestors. They found the killer's distant cousins, built a family tree, and finally identified D'Angelo after 40 years of searching. Why funding and infrastructure matter? These cases aren't solved by luck. They require three specific things: proper storage. Evidence must be dried, sealed, and kept in a safe place so it doesn't rot or get lost for over 40 years. Dedicated units. Solving cold cases takes time that regular detectives don't have. Cold case units, often funded by government grants, give investigators the space to look at old files. Modern databases, systems like CODIS and AFIS, only work if states keep them updated with new information. What this means for the future. For the families of victims, the passage of time doesn't make the pain go away. When an arrest happens 50 years later, the family usually feels a sense of relief that their loved one wasn't forgotten. For criminals, the message is clear: time is no longer a shield. A single skin cell left on a piece of clothing or a fingerprint on a faucet can wait quietly for decades. When technology catches up, that evidence will carry a name. The work done in the Flint Gatehouse murder and other cases across the country shows that justice doesn't have an expiration date. When communities choose to fund labs and support cold case units, they are doing more than just solving old mysteries. They are identifying dangerous people and making sure that time, by itself, is never enough to let a killer get away with murder.