ATLANTA — A cold case is finally solved nearly 34 years after a young woman was murdered.
The FBI has been working with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to use new technology to finally bring the family of Stacey Lyn Chahorski some peace.
This is a historic case. The FBI said this is the first time in the country when both the victim and the killer have been identified by forensic genealogy.
The photograph Special Agent Joe Montgomery has of Stacey is old, photocopied in black and white.
"It was overwhelming," Agent Montgomery said.
But to the agent who worked her case without knowing her name or identity for nearly a decade, this photograph colored in so much of what he was missing.
"To me, it's incredible. Because as an agent, you live with these cases," he said.
Stacey was 19 years old when she went missing.
A body was found in December of that year, but law enforcement weren’t able to identify it.
In 2005, the DNA was entered as a Jane Doe into the missing person's database.
In 2015, her murder was assigned to the cold case unit.
In March of this year, Agent Montgomery finally got to call Stacey's family and tell them she had been identified through forensic genealogy, nearly 34 years after her death.
Late last month, her killer was identified the same way.
"I spoke to Stacey's mother last week to let her know who the killer was and she of course got really upset," he said.
Law enforcement identified the killer as Henry Fredrick Wise – who went by Hoss and drove a truck all over the southeast.
He also worked as a stunt driver in South Carolina.
"He was killed in a stunt accident at myrtle beach speedway in 1999 and burned to death," Montgomery said.
Wise died before he could face justice for killing Stacey. He died 23 years before Stacey was ever identified.
"It was traced back, Wise had a living relative who was interviewed, cooperated, and it was matched to Wise," FBI Special Agent in Charge Keri Farley said.
Forensic genealogy uses the DNA from the suspect or the victim’s living relatives but Agent Montgomery said it takes investigators to make the connections.
"It's like another lead to run down, it develops a profile, but then you have to go through different relatives and it's almost like a tree and you're working your way back to the trunk," Agent Montgomery said.
In this case, he said the limbs of that tree lead back to Henry Hoss Wise and Stacey Chahorski. They created this photograph.
"It just sits and sits and sits... and then when something comes through, it's like, wow, it's just really overwhelming," he said.
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