But investigators never got a match through Codis.
Dan Crane, a biology professor at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, who has researched DNA evidence evaluation tools for criminal investigations, said by phone Tuesday that in 1997, Codis was “still very young” with only about two million people in the database, compared to roughly 14 million today.
Most of the DNA in the database comes from criminals or people who have been arrested and had their DNA collected, Professor Crane said.
In December 2020, Ceci Moore, a genetic genealogist who works with Parabon NanoLabs, a Virginia company whose services include new DNA-based forensics, received a DNA sample from the crime scene from authorities.
DNA tests on the person show that there are many recent immigrant family members from Italy.
Ms. Moore found that about 2,300 residents of Italian descent lived in the area at the time of Ms. Bichler’s death. From there, she further narrowed the pool of potential suspects to those whose ancestors lived in Gasperina, Italy.
Then, using newspaper archives, public search databases, social media, court records and other resources, Ms. Moore determined that Mr. Sinopoli, who is of Italian descent, was a possible suspect, in part because he lived in the same apartment building where Mrs. Biechler had. She said at the press conference that she later provided “strong scientific advice” to authorities.
Investigators watched Mr. Sinopoli, eventually following him to the airport. There they brought out a coffee cup that he had thrown away.
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