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33 years later, prosecutors identify the victim of a Queens killing using DNA technology
By
Samantha Max
Published Dec 30, 2024
Modified Dec 30, 2024
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By
Samantha Max
Published Dec 30, 2024
Modified Dec 30, 2024
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A woman who was killed more than 30 years ago is no longer a Jane Doe.
The Queens district attorney’s office announced Monday that it used DNA testing to determine that a woman whose body was found in a grassy area at the corner of the Cross Island and Southern State parkways in August 1991 was 30-year-old Judy Rodriguez.
Rodriguez had last been seen about eight months before her body was found, at her daughter’s 1st birthday party, and her family had reported her missing, according to the DA’s office. But law enforcement didn’t realize at the time that the decomposed body discovered in the grass was hers. And officials didn’t have the scientific tools they needed to identify her remains.
On Aug. 25, 1991, someone called 911 to report a dead body beneath a wooden board at the intersection of the Cross Island and Southern State parkways in southeast Queens, according to the DA’s office. Prosecutors say the woman’s ankles were tied together with a cord.
An 18-year-old, a 19-year-old and two 20-year-old men were arrested and pleaded guilty in connection with the killing — one to manslaughter, two to reckless endangerment and another to hindering prosecution. But the woman’s identity remained a mystery for decades. That changed earlier this year, when the NYPD and the Queens DA’s cold case unit sent the woman’s skeletal remains to a DNA lab to create a genealogical profile. A detective then used that profile to search for the woman’s possible relatives.
After contacting potential family members and obtaining DNA samples, investigators confirmed that the remains belonged to Rodriguez. Queens DA Melinda Katz said she couldn’t imagine what it was like for Rodriguez’s daughter to wonder for so many years whether her mother was still alive.
“Death is a horrible thing for a child to experience of their parent,” she said. “But not knowing what happened to them is probably just as bad.”
Using DNA to solve old cases
After taking office in 2020, Katz launched a cold case unit to investigate Queens’ oldest unsolved homicides. The woman found between two highways in the summer of 1991 was one of them.
Katz said Rodriguez’s homicide is one of about 50 its cold case unit is investigating with unidentified victims.
“A DA’s office is not just for prosecution,’ Katz said. “It certainly is for that, also. But it’s also to find answers for people, and this was one way we could do it.”
Katz said the increasing prevalence of genealogical testing helped to solve this case. She said some DNA databases that people use for personal genealogical research allow users to check off off boxs that give permission for their DNA to be used for law enforcement purposes. A member of Rodriguez’s family had entered DNA into one of those databases, she said, and the relative came up as a match.
“Afterwards, we got a swab from another family member. And we were certain that it was 100% — that this was Judy Rodriguez,” Katz said.
The DA’s office recently received a $500,000 grant from U.S. Rep. Grace Meng to conduct DNA testing and genealogical investigations. Katz said the cold case unit is using genealogy to investigate 14 cases with unidentified remains, and that the technology can also be used to help identify perpetrators in unsolved cases. Meng said in a statement that she hopes the money will provide “answers and closure for families.”
“This latest case from 1991 underscores why this money is so important, and it’s an example of the types of cases it will be used to solve,” she said.
This story has been updated with more information about the case.
Tagged
queens
public safety
Samantha Max
Samantha reports on whether New Yorkers feel safe and whether the institutions that are supposed to protect them are working. Before coming to WNYC/Gothamist, she spent three years covering the criminal justice system in Tennessee for Nashville Public Radio. Her reporting on Nashville's police department received multiple awards, including the Daniel Schorr Journalism Prize. Samantha was also part of the inaugural class of Report for America, a service journalism program that sends up-and-coming reporters to local newsrooms across the country. She is a Northwestern University grad, a Baltimore native and fluent in Spanish. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal: samanthamaxwnyc.93.
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