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Cloyd Steiger

Retired Seattle Police homicide detective (36 years, 22 in homicide), former chief criminal investigator for Washington State AG's HITS unit, and author of "Homicide: The View from Inside the Yellow Tape."

Jun 24, 2026

26:39
So even if there is some sort of DNA – wrong acronym – but if there is some sort of DNA – hit, would we even know about that, Cloyd?
26:48
No, we wouldn't.
26:49
And we shouldn't, you know, until you're ready to make an arrest.
26:54
You know, that all stuff, it all happens below the surface.
26:57
And, you know, it does take time.
26:58
And if there is foreign DNA found at the scene and they found it and identified it, you know, like you said, then, you know, if it's not in CODIS, the combined DNA index system, then you have to do genealogy.
27:12
And that It can take months because you're basically tracking birth and death records and finding relatives, presuming that somebody close enough in family has done a 23andMe or one of those home DNA tests.

12 MINS LATER

39:03
How difficult or frustrating is it for that team of detectives in Pima County?
24:07
So even if there is some sort of F- uh, DNA, th- wrong acronym, but if there is some sort of DNA hit, would we even know about that, Cloyd?
24:16
No, we wouldn't, and we shouldn't, you know, [laughs] until that's, until you're ready to make an arrest.
24:22
You know, that all stuff, it, it all happens below the surface.
24:25
And, you know, it, it does take time.
24:26
And if there is- Foreign DNA found at the scene, and they found it and identified it.
24:30
You know, like, l- like you said, th- then, you know, if it's not in CODIS, the Combined DNA, uh, Index System, then you have to do genealogy, and that can take months, 'cause you're basically tracking birth and death records and finding relatives, presuming that somebody close enough in the family has done a 23andMe or one of those home DNA tests, so it's even ... to even get someone to start with, you have to have a starting point.
24:58
You have to have ...

56 MINS LATER

80:45
I'm not allowing anyone to search on the American side." But here you have these Mexicans on the Mexican side of the border off of a tip, and she never said it, but, um, the tip seemed to be credible enough that they are continuing to search and said that, that, "Look, we're gonna just keep going out there." What do you make of this anonymous tip? Do you think there was something with it that made it, uh, you know, more, um, I don't know, pertinent or, or for these people to go out and search the way they, they have been searching?
12:15
There's always that thought, maybe she's still alive.
12:18
Yeah.
12:19
Well, that's, that's the worst thing for any of the victim families of crime.
12:23
It's bad enough that your loved one's been murdered and you have the body and not know who did it, but to not even know what happened is the absolute worst thing.
12:32
But, he's r- we're right.
12:35
She has to move on with her life.
12:36
It will always still be there niggling.

38 MINS LATER

50:18
What would that require?

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