The Alberta RCMP & Calgary Police Service Leverage Othram's Genetic Testing Platform to Solve the 1976 Murder of Pauline Brazeau

Ronald James Edwards, 73, of Sundre has been arrested for the 1976 murder of Pauline Brazeau.
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Published November 09 by Michael Vogen
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Summary

In January 1976, 16-year-old Pauline Brazeau visited a pizza diner in Calgary, Alberta, Canada for dinner and drinks, where she was last seen alive around three o’clock in the morning. Hours later, Pauline’s body was discovered in Cochrane, a rural city that is located approximately 22 miles from Calgary. An autopsy confirmed that Pauline’s manner of death was homicide. Brazeau was a single mother who had recently moved to Calgary from Saskatchewan. For decades, law enforcement worked to identify the person responsible for Pauline’s death, but a suspect was not identified.

In 1995 a task force investigated the cold case, and despite exhaustive efforts, the case remained unsolved. Later in 2021, the Alberta Royal Canadian Mounted Police worked with the Calgary Police Service to re-evaluate homicide investigations dating back to the 1970s. Brazeau’s murder was included in this effort and the decision to utilize forensic genetic genealogy was made in hopes that advanced DNA testing could generate new leads and solve the decades-old mystery of Pauline’s killer.

In 2022, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police submitted forensic evidence to Othram in The Woodlands, Texas. With this forensic evidence, Othram scientists used Forensic-Grade Genome Sequencing® to develop a comprehensive DNA profile for the unknown suspect. After successfully completing the process, the DNA profile was delivered to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police who worked with forensic genetic genealogists from Convergence Investigative Genetic Genealogy to generate new leads in the case. The leads were returned to law enforcement investigators who continued working the case.

Empowered with new leads, investigators were able to eventually identify the unknown suspect in Brazeau's murder as 73-year-old Ronald James Edwards of Sundre, Alberta, Canada. Edwards was arrested on November 7, 2023 on murder charges consistent with the 1976 Criminal Code that was in place at the time of Brazeau’s murder. Following a Judicial Interim Release Hearing, Edwards has been remanded into custody and is scheduled to appear in the Alberta Court of Justice in Calgary on November 14, 2023.

The case is ongoing and updates will be provided as they become available.

Help fund another case Your contributions pay for lab supplies and research tools

Michael Vogen

Michael Vogen

Director of Case Management

2829 Technology Forest Blvd Suite 100, The Woodlands, Texas 77381
media@othram.com

Michael works with law enforcement agencies throughout the United States and Canada on “unsolvable“ cases that can benefit from advanced DNA testing methods. He helps these agencies use cutting edge DNA sequencing and new forensic techniques to develop investigative leads for their cases.

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About Othram Inc.

Othram is the world’s first private DNA laboratory built specifically to apply the power of modern parallel sequencing to forensic evidence. Othram’s scientists are experts at ... Read morerecovery, enrichment, and analysis of human DNA from trace quantities of degraded or contaminated materials. Founded in 2018, and located in The Woodlands, Texas, our team works with academic researchers, forensic scientists, medical examiners, and law enforcement agencies to achieve results when other approaches have failed. Follow Othram on Twitter @OthramTech or visit Othram.com to learn how we can help you with your case. With dnasolves.com anyone can make a difference and help solve the next cold case.