The Indiana State Police Cold Case Unit has identified the killer in the murder of the 1972 killing of 26-year-old Phyllis Bailer. 

According to the news release, Bailer was traveling from Indianapolis, Indiana to Bluffton, Indiana with her 3-year-old daughter to visit her parents on July 7, 1972.

Bailer and her daughter left Indianapolis around 8:00 p.m. but never arrived. Her family reported her missing.

Her car was found abandoned on northbound I-69 in Grant County at around 10:30 a.m. the next day.

Bailer and her daughter were found in a ditch about an hour later by a woman driving on West Road, north of Schoaff Road in Allen County. 

Bailer was found dead while her daughter was unharmed. 

ISP said an autopsy confirmed Bailer had died from a gunshot wound and had been sexually assaulted.

Years after her murder, the ISP Cold Case Unit utilized DNA testing not previously available to develop a partial DNA profile from Bailer's clothing.

In 2024, ISP and the Allen County Police Department began working with Identifinders International, a forensic genealogy company in California, founded by Colleen Fitzpatrick. 

Forensic genealogy was used alongside the DNA profile to identify Fred Allen Lienemann as the killer.

ISP said Lienemann from Gross Point, Michigan, was 25 in 1972. Lienemann was born in the Anderson, Indiana area.

Lienemann had no known connections to Phyllis Bailer but had a significant criminal history, ISP said. 

Detectives learned that Fred Lienemann was murdered in Detroit in 1985 during their investigation.

ISP said if Fred Lienemann were alive today, the Allen County Prosecutor’s Office would have charged him with the murder of Phyllis Bailer.

Colleen Fitzpatrick, founder of Identifinders International is proud to have help get answers for Phyllis Bailer's family. 

“Identifinders is proud to have supported the Indiana State Police with bringing long overdue answers to Phyllis and her family," Fitzpatrick said in the press release. "This case is an example of still another homicide that would never have been solved without Forensic Genetic Genealogy”.

ISP said this case demonstrates the Cold Case Unit's commitment to victims and their families.

Ramapo College’s Investigative Genetic Genealogy (IGG) Center finally brought closure to a 70-year-old mystery. Human remains discovered in Arizona in 2002 have now been identified as belonging to the U.S. Marine Corps Captain Everett Leland Yager, thanks to DNA analysis and collaborative research conducted by students, faculty and partners at Ramapo.

The case dates back to May 2002, when a young boy collecting rocks in a remote area of Yavapai County, Ariz, discovered a human jawbone. Despite efforts by the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office and the Medical Examiner’s Office to determine the individual’s identity, early DNA testing showed no results. For over two decades, the remains, referred to as “Rock Collection John Doe,” remained unidentified.

In January 2023, the Yavapai County authorities turned to Ramapo College’s IGG Center for help. The Center, part of the School of Social Science and Human Services, was launched in December 2022 to provide students with hands-on experience solving real-world cases using investigative genetic genealogy. 

The jawbone was sent to Intermountain Forensics, a non-profit forensic DNA lab in Salt Lake City, where experts conducted DNA extraction and whole genome sequencing. Once the DNA profile was developed, it was uploaded to GEDmatch Pro and FamilyTreeDNA. 

In a breakthrough, a match was found within just two days. The discovery came during Ramapo’s IGG Bootcamp, an intensive learning program where students and interns work on real cases and learn to adapt their skills. Among the participants was Ethan Schwartz, a high school student from Suffern High School who had joined the bootcamp as an intern. The team was able to narrow down to Capt. Yager as a candidate for identification.

Capt. Yager had died during a military training exercise in July 1951. His remains were initially recovered in Riverside County, Calif., and believed to be buried in Palmyra, Mo. The discovery of a portion of his jawbone in Arizona decades later remains a mystery.

To confirm the identity, a DNA sample was requested from Capt. Yager’s daughter. In August 2023, the analysis confirmed the match, officially solving the cold case. The identification not only brings closure to a family but also highlights the growing role of genetic genealogy in modern forensic science.

The Ramapo College IGG Center continues to offer pro bono casework to law enforcement agencies across the country. Students who participate in the program engage in a 15-week online certificate course. The program is designed to train students from a wide variety of backgrounds and provide them with skills that can be applied in criminal justice, anthropology, genealogy, and related fields.

For more information about the IGG Center and its educational programs, visit www.ramapo.edu/igg.

The Placer County Sheriff’s Office has officially identified the remains of a woman found on March 20, 2001, as Zania Lynette Williams (DOB: 9/28/1966), also known as Zenia Williams. Williams, 34 years old at the time of her disappearance, was last seen around Christmas of 2000 at her residence in Sacramento. Her skeletonized remains were discovered on Driver’s Flat Road in Foresthill, California, and had remained unidentified for over two decades.

Initially, the case was handled by the Placer County Sheriff’s Office and classified as a Jane Doe cold case. Investigators were unable to identify the woman using the available technology at the time. Her dental records were entered into the missing and unidentified persons database in 2001, but no matches were found. Despite extensive efforts, the case remained unsolved until the formation of the Placer County Sheriff’s Office Cold Case Investigations team in 2023.

This newly formed Cold Case Investigations team, consisting of investigators from both the Placer County Sheriff’s Office and the Placer County District Attorney's Office, reopened the case. The team utilized advancements in forensic technologies, including genetic genealogy, to assist in the investigation. In 2024, the Sheriff’s Office sent a DNA profile obtained from the remains in 2009 to Othram, an accredited forensic lab in Texas to generate a suitable sample for genetic genealogy.

Additionally, the Placer County Sheriff’s Office partnered with the Investigative Genealogy Center at Ramapo College to develop leads on potential relatives. Through this collaboration, detectives located a possible relative and obtained a DNA sample for comparison with the California Department of Justice’s database. In 2025, a match was confirmed, linking the decedent’s DNA to that of the relative.

In March 2025, the remains were officially identified as Zania Williams. Williams had never been listed as a missing person. While the circumstances surrounding her death are still under investigation, we hope the identification brings a sense of closure to her surviving family members after nearly 25 years of uncertainty.

The Placer County Sheriff’s Office is continuing its investigation into the circumstances of her death and is urging anyone with information to contact us at PCSOTipLine@placer.ca.gov.

“As I told my children growing up, ‘You’ve got to know where you came from to know where you’re at right now and where you’re going to, bottom line.’ You’ve got to know where you came from and the museum’s a good place to do that.”

Those were the words shared by Cheatham County Historical and Genealogical Association Museum docent Jeff Taylor during the opening ceremony of the on Saturday. Taylor, dressed as a North Carolina militiaman who would have entered the county in 1780 under a land grant, perfectly summed up the sense of accomplishment and excitement present for all those who worked so hard to prepare for opening day and those in attendance.

Several hundred county residents descended upon the Cheatham County Historical and Genealogical Association’s (CCHGA) opening of the museum in its new location at 835 S. Main Street in Ashland City. The grand opening celebration included a ribbon-cutting ceremony, a special presentation to honor Ashland City’s first and only woman mayor Mary Gray Jenkins and refreshments.

The CCHGA and museum, a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization supported by donations, began in 2002 inside the Cheatham County Public Library in Ashland City, but the library began to need more space. According to Cheatham County Historian Lisa Walker, artifacts were placed into storage in 2023 until the former Family Dollar space was secured. The CCHGA moved into the new location in August 2024 and began working on exhibits.

The spacious new location offers a little something for everyone, reflecting on the many facets of Cheatham County history including the school district, local industry, military service, law enforcement, local sports and famous musicians with Cheatham County roots. There is also a gift shop containing postcards and souvenirs.

Getting the CCHGA and Museum established took a village. Funding came from from association fundraisers and a $6,000 annual donation from the Cheatham County Commission. There was even a donation of picture frames the local Veterans of Foreign Wars Post # 6181 for the museum’s local military history exhibit.

Walker talked about the importance of having a hub for local history. “History brings about community and you’re going to find stuff here you’re not going to find in other museums or other historical associations. We are the main collector of Cheatham County history and so people can come here and see the Mastodon bone that was found over across the [Cumberland] river and items like that. I mean, one story’s not as important as the other and that’s what we’re trying to do here, is to tell the stories of the people and the community and keep that alive for generations because we have 31 years worth of collected photos. People today, we’re not going to have that in the future if we don’t collect it,” she said.

Jenkins, who has spent her 90 years in Cheatham County, said how important it was to her to see the way CCHGA and Museum have taken off. “I’ve loved history all my life, so it’s beyond belief to see the museum and where the genealogy group has grown,” she said.

Cheatham County Mayor Kerry McCarver said the new museum is especially important with the influx of newcomers to Cheatham County. “We have so many new people here that don’t understand the history, that never picked it up here. They can come and start to absorb all that. People who’ve been here, they live it, they see it, they truly have a connection with it, but it also gives the opportunity for those new people to understand the history of Cheatham County, where we are and who we are,” he said.

Peyton Craft, who attended the opening with her son Travis Craft, said her grandfather Danny Stack volunteered to help bring the new museum to life, and she sees its value. “It’s important to know where we all come from and learn the lessons from our roots and our family members from the past and always remember them. They’ve done a lot of hard work to get us to where we are now, and so that hard work shouldn’t be forgotten just because time has passed,” she said.

Another highlight of the opening was the announcement of the winners of the Kiss-the-Critter contest, fundraiser where the mayors competed to collect the most donations for the new museum. The winner received the honor of kissing a frog. Ashland City Mayor Gerald Greer took first place, raising $1,496.

The CCHGA and Museum is located at 835 S. Main St. in Ashland City and shares the space with local non-profit organizations Art League of Cheatham County, Arts and Entertainment League and Cheatham County Sports Hall of Fame. The museum is open Tuesday to Thursday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. For more information about the CCHGA and Museum, visit https://CheathamCountyHistory.Weebly.com/ or call (615) 792-3623.

Researchers have long relied on the National Park Service’s online "Soldiers and Sailors Database" to search for Civil War ancestors.  Many of those same researchers have discovered, however, that there are significant problems with that system and the search results are often unreliable.

 
Now the NPS has officially abandoned the effort to resolve those problems and have announced on the site that the system will no longer be maintained or updated.

Fortunately, a free replacement is already available to researchers. Over the past two years, thousands of researchers have switched to BetterSoldiersAndSailors.com which allows searching of the same soldiers and sailors database but with a modern search engine.  The new system supports "sounds like" searches, wildcards, logical sorting of search results, and other modern features that were missing from the old system.  It also recognizes common abbreviations in the data like Geo., Wm., and Sam’l that caused many searches on the old system to fail. For those reasons, if you ever failed to find a soldier on the old system, it would be a good idea to try again with BetterSoldiersAndSailors.com.

But there are even more advantages to the new system. If appropriate, it will point you to the online sites where you can find your soldier’s military records.  If those records aren’t online, it offers an easy option to order copies from Gopher Records which is much faster and much less expensive than ordering them directly from the National Archives.  In fact, orders have typically been filled in about two weeks and Gopher Records guarantees that its prices are lower than those of any record retrieval service.

BetterSoldiersAndSailors.com is developed and supported by Gopher Records, LLC.

Searching local newspapers from the early days of Pipestone County recently became easier.

The Pipestone County Museum launched a digital newspaper archive in February that can be accessed through the museum’s website, at pipestonecountymuseum.com, at no cost to users. For now, the archive has all copies of all newspapers published in Pipestone County from 1879 to 1916. That includes 50,831 pages from 11 different newspapers.

All of those pages can be searched by word, such as the names of people, places, and events; by date; or by newspaper title, as in Pipestone County Star, which is the only local newspaper, out of 17 that have been published in the county, to be continually in print since 1879, according to the archive. The archive also has a clip tool that can be used to select a section of text from a newspaper and download or email it.

Museum Executive Director Susan Hoskins said the newspapers available in the archive now are just phase one of the project. Phase two will include newspapers from 1916 to 1939 and phase three will include newspapers from 1940 to around 1970. She’s hoping to upload phase two this year and the next phase the year after that. Hoskins said she planned to discuss the sharing of more modern newspaper editions with the publishers of the existing local newspapers.

The Pipestone County Historical Society (PCHS) had been looking into an online searchable newspaper archive for quite a while, Hoskins said, and started raising funds for the project about a year ago. Phase one cost $22,500, which was paid for with grants and donations.

Hoskins said the PCHS chose to work with Advantage Archives on the project because the company would provide the archive without a paywall. The museum sent the company microfilm versions of the newspapers late last year and the company created the digital versions of the newspapers that are now available in the archive.

So far, all the local newspapers that had added to the archive have been scanned from microfilm, but in some cases, Hoskins said, there are editions that are not available on microfilm. In those cases, Advantage Archives can scan bound copies of newspapers kept by the museum.

Advantage Archives provides similar archives for museums and libraries all over the United States, and even in other countries, which are searchable by clicking on the Directory link at the top of the archive search page. In addition to newspapers, Hoskins said some of the organizations have included books in their archives.

Hoskins said the benefit of the digital newspaper archive is that it makes newspapers more easily available, which is one of the PCHS’s goals. Before the archive was created, people had to go to the museum to look through the old newspapers. Now, they can look at them whenever and wherever they like.

“We don’t want to be gatekeepers of history,” Hoskins said. “We want to be enablers for people.”

In addition to making the newspapers more easily accessible and searchable, the digitization also creates another copy of them and helps preserve the original copies, the oldest of which are deteriorating and becoming brittle. Hoskins said microfilm also helped preserve the newspapers, but is not as easily accessible.

The newspaper archive joins other online options to view portions of the museum’s collection, including a searchable collections database that started last year and photographs and documents that the museum has shared through the Minnesota Digital Library.

“We’re trying to put more in the hands of the public because that’s why we have it here,” Hoskins said. “We’ve preserved it for the public.”

Just down the street from the St. Landry Parish Courthouse is where Clerk of Court Charles Jagneaux is opening up his elections and archives center. Inside of this center is where Jagneaux is keeping generations worth of archives and court records, which is opening up an opportunity for something that Jagneaux is calling genealogical tourism.

“Once you’ve seen an old building, you’ve seen them all,” said Jagneaux. “But if you have a family history here in St. Landry Parish you want to learn about it. And you also want to know where they lived.”

With that idea in mind, Jagneaux wanted to provide a space where tourist and residents alike can look through the parish’s court records and read the tangible documents with their ancestor’s signatures for themselves.

“They’ll also have computer evidence that they can do additional research on stuff that’s not in a particular set of records,” said Jagneaux. 

Jagneaux says St. Landry Parish has a deep set of records concerning families, making the parish a prime candidate for this type of tourism, and opening the doors for even more people to make their way to Opelousas to visit the center.

“We have some NBA players whose ancestors lived here,” he said. “Beyonce has roots here. Any number of people have roots in St. Landry Parish. And when they find out about it, they want to do the research, and they want to come visit and see where their home place was for their ancestors. So, we call it genealogical tourism. No bricks and mortar, just records.”

Jagneaux says the election and archive center should be ready to open at the end of May.

The City of Tulsa, in collaboration with Intermountain Forensics and the Greenwood Cultural Center, will host the second round of Community Engagement Genealogy Workshops from April 25 to April 27, 2025, at the Greenwood Cultural Center.

Residents who are interested in participating in one of the workshops are asked to fill out pre-registration information at www.greenwoodculturalcenter.org/genealogy-workshop Friday and Saturday’s workshops will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday’s optional workday will go from 1 – 7 p.m. Space in each workshop is limited, so residents are asked to register early. Due to the private nature of genetic genealogy, each workshop is limited to registered participants only.

Workshops are part of the City's goal to increase public awareness and empower community members, especially those in Greenwood and North Tulsa - and 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre descendants - to explore their own genealogies, connecting them with resources and experts to uncover family histories.

Participants will have access to experienced genealogists who will guide them through the fundamentals of genealogical research, including:

• Tools and resources for effective family tree research, including free access to Ancestry Institution courtesy of Ancestry.com
• Guidance on when and how to expand your family tree
• Access to research materials and resources for continued learning

Several new surnames and locations of interest have been identified as part of the City's genealogy process for the unmarked graves uncovered at Oaklawn Cemetery. People may recognize these surnames and locations of interest in their family trees. The latest list of surnames and locations of interest can be found online.

Members of the group acting as the custodian of South Canterbury’s family history archives say a proposal to restructure roles at the town’s museum and library “threatens to undermine decades of cultural heritage stewardship”.

The South Canterbury Genealogy Society wrote to Timaru District Council chief executive Nigel Trainor following his announcement to staff, on March 23, of a proposal to cut 71 roles and create 19, outlining its grave concerns.

Under that proposal, the South Canterbury Museum director role would be cut and the duties would be combined with the existing curator of social history and curator of document history roles to create a new curator/team leader role.

A new curator role would also be created.

At the Timaru District Library, the manager role would be disestablished, a new team leader would absorb the roles of the adult and youth services team leaders, and the roles of senior librarian and heritage librarian would go.

General librarian roles would also be reduced from 4 full-time equivalents (FTE) to 3 FTE.

But South Canterbury Genealogy committee member Dave Jack described the proposals as posing “an unacceptable risk to the preservation, accessibility, and educational value of our shared history”.

“We work with both the library and the museum very closely and they store all our archives in their research rooms — all our assets,” he said.

The group manned the museum’s research room on a Sunday, with two volunteers working in with staff.

“There can be people from the other side of the world that come in wanting to research their history in Timaru.

“Are we going to put the brakes on family research?”

Members also spent time at the library helping people with their research and he said at the most recent session, on Wednesday morning, two residents came in wanting to start research of their family tree.

“Where do we end up if we get rid of key staff? Does the council want volunteers running the places? You need to be qualified in these roles.”

He said those affected by the proposal had a wealth of knowledge and the society’s archives supported the greater South Canterbury area.

“We have all sorts of stuff. If you take away your history, what have you got left?’’

Jack says people affected by the council proposal have a wealth of knowledge and the society’s archives support the greater South Canterbury area.J

The letter, sent to Trainor on Wednesday, said the society had “grave concerns over the proposed disestablishment and merging of key archival and curatorial roles”.

It outlined the impact such changes would have on public access to community records, the digitisation of local collections, and its longstanding collaborative work with museum and library staff.

The proposal to remove roles, such as senior heritage librarian, and reduce librarian FTEs posed a serious risk to the preservation and accessibility of the library’s heritage collection stored in the basement, as well as public services via the research room, it said.

The collections were essential for local family history research, tangata whenua whakapapa studies, school and community projects and digitisation efforts under the Aoraki Heritage Collection.

Without the roles, it was unclear who would continue the vital work, the letter said.

Meanwhile, at the museum the consolidation of multiple roles would “inevitably result in the loss of specialist capacity, either on the archival or the curatorial side”.

The society also pointed out the archives at both the library and museum were public assets and community members relied on the institutions to research ancestry, land history, cultural identity, and civic records.

“These services underpin the democratic right of access to public records and cultural heritage.”

The society was also keen to strengthen its partnerships with staff at both, to enhance public genealogical services including joint digitisation and indexing of school rolls and war records, and share expertise on historic preservation public workshops and training and support for the planned South Canterbury Archives Online Access Portal.

“Without dedicated archivists to collaborate with, these projects cannot proceed. The result will be a net loss of community value and a reversal of recent gains in accessibility and outreach.”

It said Timaru had “long-prided itself on valuing and protecting its heritage” and the proposed cuts were deeply at odds with that.

“A district of our size and historical depth must continue to support professional roles dedicated to heritage preservation — not diminish them at a time when digital access and historical understanding matter more than ever.”

The group recommended the council retained the full-time senior heritage librarian role, maintain the roles of curator of social history and curator of document history or an archivist role at the museum, and ensure adequate staffing for the Aoraki Heritage Collection, with a long-term digitisation and access plan.

It also asked the council to support continuation of public research assistance and education through appropriately skilled and resourced staff and engage with community stakeholders, including the society, before finalising staffing decisions to align the council’s strategy with community needs.

Trainor said as staff were considering the proposal, it “wouldn’t be fair to comment on specific individual roles during this process”.

“All staff are being invited to provide feedback and alternative ideas for the organisational structure, which will be considered before we come to any final decisions,” he said.

“Unfortunately the council is faced with a significant deficit in its day-to-day running costs, and in order to provide essential services to the community in an affordable and efficient way there are some difficult decisions that will need to be made in the months ahead.”

The States said the project, which provides "unprecedented access to the Bailiwick's rich history", was a collaboration between local groups and the genealogy company Findmypast.

The collection features 210,000 pages of archive material from the Greffe records, parish church registers, conveyance documents and World War Two identity cards.

The originals will continue to be preserved at various archives on the island.

The project was led by the Bailiwick of Guernsey Digitisation Partnership, a steering group consisting of representatives from the Priaulx Library, Island Archives, the Deanery of Guernsey, La Société Guernesiaise and the Greffe, which is the island's official court office and registry.

It will include Greffe records, baptisms, marriages and burials records from parish church registers - some of which date back to the late 1500s - and identity cards from the German occupation of Guernsey during World War Two.

The project, which is only available to Findmypast subscribers, will also include registers from Alderney and Sark.

Steve Foote, chief executive of the Priaulx Library, said: "This project has been driven by a shared passion for preserving and sharing our history, and we want to thank all of those who have helped to make it possible."

Vikki Hart, island archivist, added that the digitisation was a "major achievement".

"By making these important documents available online, we are ensuring they remain accessible to researchers worldwide, while also preserving the originals for our future generations."