The boy...

A North Carolina detective called Rae-Venter and asked her to help investigate the “Boy Under the Billboard” mystery.

The remains of the boy had been discovered in 1998, but investigators couldn’t identify him, let alone his murderer. Rae-Venter ran the boy’s DNA profile through GEDmatch an online repository for genetic profiles uploaded by millions of curious people searching for relatives and determined he was half Caucasian and half Asian. She found a relatively close paternal relative and told detectives to ask that person if any family member had married an Asian woman.

A man in the family had married a Korean woman while stationed with the military in South Korea and they had a son. The family had lost touch with the mother and boy, but hadn’t reported them as missing, figuring they returned to South Korea.

Authorities identified the boy as Robert “Bobby” Adam Whitt and his mother as Myoung Hwa Cho. Investigators soon realized that Cho’s body had been found shortly before Bobby’s in 1998 along the same freeway.

The father was already in custody for armed robbery reportedly confessed to the killings. He has not yet been charged.