The Chilling Cold Case of Kim Bryant | Bloodline Detectives with Nancy Grace | Forensic Files

[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] NANCY GRACE: Las Vegas, Nevada. January 26, 1979, 16-year-old Kim Bryant,
last seen outside a Dairy Queen near her high school. BRIAN OXMAN: The boyfriend came and he looked around
and there was no Kim. So he hung around saying maybe she walked away, maybe she will be here in a minute.
By 10:30, she wasn't there. [POLICE CAR SIRENS] NANCY GRACE: The search begins. Three weeks later, Kim's body is discovered
by a 14-year-old boy who's hiking with two friends on the outskirts of town. LYDIA ANSEL: She was just at a Dairy Queen
doing what any other regular teenager would want to do, and her life and everything was stolen from her.
NANCY GRACE: Police look for a motive. I think there's no question that he went out
that morning looking to abduct a woman and sexually assault and kill her. BRIAN OXMAN: + She was naked from the waist down
and her head had been bashed in by a rock. NANCY GRACE: The case goes cold nearly 40 years,
but the development of a revolutionary DNA investigative tool might just give police a chance.
The importance of genetic genealogy in this case is unbelievable. And in the next five to 10 years,
the amount of cases that law enforcement is going to solve around the country is going to go through the roof,
as a result of this technology. Nearly four decades later, will Kim Bryant's killer
finally be brought to justice? I'm Nancy Grace, and this is "Bloodline Detectives."
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] [MUSIC STOPS ABRUPTLY] Las Vegas, Nevada, Sin City-- the gambling capital of America.
A sunny city with a shady history. RAY SPENCER: There's historically been a lot of crime here in the city.
It's not your stranger-type crimes. Typically with homicide or sexual assault, it's always going to be someone that you've had
some type of relationship with. The fact that stranger-type crimes be it a sexual assault or a murder,
those are very, very rare. COURTNEY FRETWELL: Kim Bryant was a 16-year-old high school
student living in Las Vegas, Nevada with her mother Sherry, and her stepfather. She was a sophomore at Western High School in Las Vegas.
And many would describe Kim as your typical All-American teenage girl. [OMINOUS MUSIC]
NANCY GRACE: Las Vegas can be a very violent city. That's true today, and it was true back on January 26th,
1979, when 16-year-old Kim Bryant was last seen outside a Dairy Queen. [OMINOUS MUSIC]
Western Hills High school was part of a major educational complex, which is now the University of South Nevada.
And Western was right across the street from the Dairy Queen. RAY SPENCER: I graduated from Western High School.
I went there 15 years after the murder of Kim Bryant occurred. But we shared the same school.
We shared going to the same Dairy Queen, all those type of things were things that I did.
This was a very typical day for Kim. She arrived at school. Her and her classmates were on campus to enroll in classes
for the upcoming year. She was surrounded by many of her friends that day. As soon as Kim and her friends wrapped up
registering for classes, her and a girlfriend decided to walk across the street from her high school
to a local Dairy Queen. Her friend's mother came by and said, hey, I'm going to take you all home.
She lived about six-seven blocks away from the high school. She says, just a minute.
I think my boyfriend was going to come and pick me up. And she went to a payphone.
She made a call to her boyfriend who says, I'm going to come and pick you up. So she told her friend and her mother
let me ride home with my boyfriend. So the mother and her friend left and left Kim
there alone at the Dairy Queen. The boyfriend came at 10:00 in the morning and he looked around and there was no Kim.
So he hung around saying maybe she walked away maybe she will be here in a minute.
By 10:30, she wasn't there. So he left and he didn't know what to do. [POLICE CAR SIRENS BLARING]
RAY SPENCER: Her parents were alerted and they were panicked, and they reached out to the police department
that evening, trying to get the police department to assist because they knew something was wrong with Kim.
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] Whenever you have a missing child and you go to take a report, officers
want to search the house because you want to find things that could give you clues.
You could see maybe there's some information that's left at the house. COURTNEY FRETWELL: One of the first things they looked at
was Kim's journal. And when they looked through the journal, one of the entries caught their attention.
RAY SPENCER: There is a description that she states that because there was an argument
the previous night, that she had been thinking about running away. So the police after seeing that, believed that she had ran away.
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] NANCY GRACE: But Kim Bryant has not run away. Later that same day, new clues point to something
much more disturbing. BRIAN OXMAN: A young woman was driving down the street on Decatur and she found a bag--
a backpack in the middle of the street. And she stopped and said, that's strange.
And she picked it up and she looked through it. And she found Kim's ID and her phone number.
So when she got home, she called and there was no answer. So she didn't know what to do.
RAY SPENCER: So at that point is when police started looking out and going to the media and advising
that they believe that Kim Bryant was in fact, missing child. NANCY GRACE: A few weeks go by, teen girl, Kim Bryant
still not found, and a community begins to worry. [POLICE CAR SIRENS] BRIAN OXMAN: Any time a child goes missing, particularly
in a small town like Las Vegas, and Las Vegas was a small town then. It still has a lot of that attitude toward the residents.
It is sort a part of the culture of the people who live there. And when a child goes missing, the community gets upset.
[MUSIC PLAYING] What happened to teen girl, Kim Bryant? The answer comes nearly a month after she disappeared.
By chance, some boys out hiking make a gruesome discovery. [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] Three young men went hiking in a desolate area
of Western Las Vegas. And they saw what they thought was a wig on the ground. It was in a gully.
And they said this is weird, and they went to inspect it. It wasn't a wig, it was a young girl.
And it was her body. And they saw her hair protruding from the makeshift grave where somebody had tried to cover her up.
And it appeared hurriedly, that they tried to do that. RAY SPENCER: When they discover her body,
they start processing the crime scene. Looking for evidence, looking for a determination on what
caused her death, and notified the homicide section at that point. BRIAN OXMAN: Once the coroner's office came and the detectives,
they were able to recognize this as Kim Bryant. She was naked from the waist down.
She had been involved in a horrific fight, and her head had been bashed in by a rock.
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] After the examination of her body was complete, they concluded that there had been a sexual assault.
She had been raped before she was killed. NANCY GRACE: Police act quickly to find Kim Bryant's killer
and to calm a fearful community. LYDIA ANSEL: You can't prepare yourself. But once you hear the details, it takes the breath out of you.
And each detail of it in particular, just like crushes you a little bit of knowing
how young this girl was, that she had her whole life ahead of her. And that, you know, she was just at a Dairy Queen
doing what any other regular teenager would want to do, and her life and everything was stolen from her.
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] A 16-year-old girl with her whole life ahead of her murdered by a vicious predator.
Police race to find her killer, fearful he may strike again. That's next on "Bloodline Detectives."
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] Las Vegas, Nevada. January 26, 1979, 16-year-old Kim Bryant,
last seen outside a Dairy Queen near her high school. Three weeks later, her body was discovered by 3 boys hiking
on the outskirts of town. Police secure the crime scene. But now, they have to break the terrible news to Kim's family.
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] RAY SPENCER: It's very difficult when you know, especially when you have a family
that's been spending weeks looking for their daughter in the anguish. You know police now have to tell them that Kim's case
is now a murder investigation. [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] NANCY GRACE: Investigators examined
clothing from the crime scene and they study the autopsy results. Kim had injuries that were consistent that she
had been bludgeoned to death. And they had found a pile of clothes nearby that had been neatly folded.
That scene is processed. They're going to collect all the clothing shirts, pants,
underwear, rocks in the area, anything to that effect that are going to help and aid them in that investigation.
[MUSIC PLAYING] BRIAN OXMAN: By examining the sexual assault, which is pieced together because of bruises and injuries,
you can look at the woman's last days of her life and how it is that she died. And then at the autopsy, they looked at her head
and her head had been smashed in by a rock. It's pretty gruesome. And in Kim's case, she had lots of defensive wounds
on her body. We, we look at the fingers of the victim and we see bruises and we see contusions and scrapes.
We especially look at the fingernails because in a woman, she usually will have long fingernails.
And when she fights and claws and scratches at her attacker, the fingernails will break.
And it is a macabre science to look at those kinds of things and piece together the battle, which must have been going
on before Kim ultimately died. NANCY GRACE: Police gather more information and begin to follow up on leads.
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] COURTNEY FRETWELL: When the police started investigating Kim's case, they had to hit the ground running per se,
find potential eyewitnesses who had either heard or saw something. They even sometimes had to rely on jailhouse snitches.
So it was a much different world for criminal investigations than it is today. [MUSIC CONTINUES]
Police spoke with classmates, teachers, neighbors, everyone that they could, trying to determine
who had any information as far as where Kim may have went and her whereabouts. And early on, your first suspect, obviously, you're
going to look and try to determine what was the boyfriend's involvement? Was there any potential other people involved?
These are all things that took place in the early investigation. A witness describes seeing a white male
driving a Chevy pickup type truck in the parking lot of Dairy Queen. We had a generic description and a generic sketch
from people at the Dairy Queen, but that generic description of a white male did not turn up any viable leads.
NANCY GRACE: The sex attack and brutal murder of teen girl, Kim Bryant devastates the Vegas community and the entire state.
There's an incredible show of support for Kim Bryant's family, when she is finally laid to rest.
BRIAN OXMAN: The whole community turned out for Kim's funeral. This was such a tragedy.
The governor of the State of Nevada was there-- Governor O'Callaghan, and he eulogized
Kim for the bright, young lady that she was. He talked about how she has involved
herself in helping others. The Special Olympics were one of her primary activities
of being involved with people who needed help. She gave of herself. Well, those are all nice things to say.
But for Kim's parents, it was nothing but sadness at the loss of their child. For a parent to have to bury their child,
one of the most difficult and sad events that we ever can conceive of. [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
NANCY GRACE: The investigation goes on, but investigators can't nail down any real leads.
BRIAN OXMAN: This was a case, which was epitomized with blind alleys. Where the police found a clue, chased that clue,
and then came up with nothing. There was a report that there was a Jeep which was at the Dairy Queen the morning
of Kim's disappearance. It turned out that was a total blind alley. The next blind alley was a man from Michigan, a young fellow
and he said to his friends that he witnessed the murder of Kim Bryant. [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
COURTNEY FRETWELL: When the police heard about this guy, they travel from Vegas to Michigan.
They sit down and speak with him. And it turns out that this guy knows absolutely
nothing about Kim's murder. That he made everything up and he made it up because he
had heard some local teenagers talking about Kim's murder, but he knew nothing about it.
BRIAN OXMAN: The poor detectives who had traveled all the way to Michigan thinking they had it.
Uh-uh, another blind alley. NANCY GRACE: For investigators, more leads disappear and detectives anxious this case
is going cold. They began to look at similar crimes in other jurisdictions. Could there be a common thread and possibly
a serial killer in their midst? [PENSIVE MUSIC] So there were other murders that had similar patterns that they
wanted to see if they were related to, and that's what brought us to other jurisdictions looking
to see if there was a potential relationship. Well, the patterns are when you have
a young woman who is abducted, sexually assaulted, and murdered. The early leads and the tips that were received at the Dairy
Queen through interviews with the people who were located in the vehicle, we were able to rule those out
early on as they had alibis. [PENSIVE MUSIC] The police followed up on hundreds of leads
throughout the years, and all of those leads ended up being dead ends. [POLICE SIREN'S BLARING]
Not only did the police have Kim's case to investigate, but every day practically, they were getting
more and more murders to solve. They were constantly understaffed. And at the time of Kim's murder, they were only nine homicide
detectives in the Department. So when a new murder would come in, they were forced to temporarily put
Kim's to the side to be able to investigate the new homicides coming in. [MUSIC PLAYING]
BRIAN OXMAN: In the first couple of months of 1980, there were 25 homicides in Las Vegas.
This was an extraordinary amount. The Bryant case got cold and it got colder, and finally, it just disappeared.
Vegas PD hit a dead end in its investigation. Nearly 40 years will pass, as we see next on "Bloodline
Detectives," a breakthrough in forensic science breathes new life into a cold case.
It's been nearly 40 years since teen girl, Kim Bryant, last seen alive outside a Dairy Queen in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Three weeks later, Kim's body discovered on a hiking trail. Her killer has evaded justice and the case remains cold.
Detective Ray Spencer and his team reopened Kim's case using a new forensic weapon
[MUSIC PLAYING] I got involved in the case in 2018. And our first-- when we looked at the case
and I assigned it to an investigator, we had a couple different suspects that we were looking at.
And the first one that we looked into was Peter Morin. He had been executed in Texas and we thought that he
was potentially involved. Unfortunately, from that DNA evidence, we were able to rule him out as being the suspect.
So that left us with one other person that we were looking at. There was a person who had made a dying declaration
and said some information to a family member that they wanted to come forward with.
And it involved the purse that was turned into police, and they told us that the purse was in fact not
found on the street. And that it was actually found in the person's son's bedroom.
Well, when you get some of that information years later and one, It's a dying declaration,
dying declarations often are very accurate. And when you have a dying declaration, where the person
says that they believe that it's their son that could potentially be involved, that's very, very concerning.
I was hopeful at that point that we were onto the right suspect. We went up to Utah and we interviewed the son
and he admitted to finding the purse. He admitted to having it in his bedroom and said that his mom found the purse inside of his bedroom.
And he also said he was aware that his mom turned the purse in to police, but he could not answer
for us why his mom lied and said that she found it on the street. She never told any investigator about finding it
in her son's bedroom. We wouldn't rule out anything. We didn't know if he was the actual murder suspect
or if he was an accomplice. We did a lot of DNA work and we were able to rule him out as being the actual murder suspect.
NANCY GRACE: Las Vegas Detective, Ray Spencer looks outside his department for help
to solve Kim's case. The Vegas Justice League had a very interesting development as it came.
It wasn't a concept that happened, it was something that happened because of circumstances.
JUSTIN WOO: So it's a group of people that each person donated $5,000, which is the cost of one
of the cases through Othram Labs in Houston, Texas to work the DNA and create a genealogical profile
and do the genealogical research. LYDIA ANSEL: Justin Woo was on social media and learned about Othram Labs and DNA Solves.
This company was doing incredible work solving cases using genealogy, and it's truly astounding
the work they've done already. DR. DAVID MITTELMAN: I've spent most of my career working on developing
technologies to read DNA. And so that-- I started at Baylor College of Medicine and has basically grown through various diagnostic ventures,
biomedical research projects and even some large kind of World-wide University projects
like The Human Genome Project. The Human Genome Project was a worldwide initiative
to map out the key positions and the key reference markers of what is a typical human genome.
DR. KRISTEN MITTELMAN: Very early on, even as a kid I loved science and knew that I wanted
to do something where I was able to use science to make a difference in the world.
Baylor College of Medicine worked on gene therapies and the neurons. Started to work on technologies that
manipulate DNA and decided that was something that I wanted to continue to pursue.
I met David, my husband, who is also the CEO at Othram, at Baylor College of Medicine.
I actually created these blind mice and he created the therapies to fix them. And I thought if he could fix that, he could fix anything.
So I'd marry him. [LOW CHUCKLE] And so we ended up working on DNA projects together for decades now.
LYDIA ANSEL: So Justin reached out to them being the philanthropist that he is, and said,
if you can find a case in Las Vegas, I will fully fund it. The lab was able to go to Las Vegas Metro Police department
and somehow convince them to allow a company that they'd never heard of and allow them to give them a case that was
pretty much considered unsolvable because it had so little DNA left. The Las Vegas police were very adept at employing
the new technologies, which came their way to solve the cold cases where there is some kind of DNA evidence.
And Stephanie Isaacson was one of the homicide cases where there was 1.2 nanograms of DNA from the attacker.
Using those small, insignificant amounts of DNA, they were able to find the attacker
and the police were were amazed. And with that case, it broke World Records of solving,
of just the work that they did. The Las Vegas PD got so excited about now the partnerships
that we could do and working together. And we wanted to fund a whole bunch of cases.
The Vegas Justice League kind of formed after we solved the Stephanie Isaacson case in Las Vegas.
We wanted to come up with a creative way to get other people in the community on board.
NANCY GRACE: A $5,000 donation from the Vegas Justice League helps to reopen Kim Bryant's case
and allows the Vegas PD and author Othram Labs to collaborate, again. Science, I believe should be blind.
Our science should definitely be blind. So we don't know much about the case. We don't communicate much with the detectives
about their theories or their investigation prior to Othram getting the evidence.
All we need to know is that there's DNA and what the DNA looks like and the condition of that DNA.
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] After it passes, QCM, we know that we can build one of these profiles.
We take the DNA, we process it under all these novel methods that we've created here at Othram in order to get
the most out of that evidence. DR. DAVID MITTELMAN: This is a typical surface for which you can perform what is
called the luminous sequencing. This is a flow cell. So the way this works is that there's this glass surface.
DNA is fragmented into little pieces and then randomly positioned kind of on an XY
grid on this glass surface. You literally synthesize a new stranded DNA for each of the little DNA's that are here.
You sequence the complement, and as you synthesize it, you're using chemically- modified
DNA letters that emit a color. If you take a bunch of photos of every step of that,
you can essentially reverse engineer the sequence of DNA that was originally at any XY position
on the slide. The good news is it's very fast. It's very high throughput and it's very cost effective.
The bad news is that once you do that, you end up with a big text file full of little fragments of DNA
letters. And those have to be then reassembled and reconstructed into something that represents a human genome.
And that represents the second part of the challenge, which is the computational effort to use computer software
and algorithms to look at these little tiny pieces of DNA. They're called reeds, and then try to figure out
where each of these pieces go. Once you've done that, you can then look to see what makes the DNA sequence that you've
produced different than that of what would be on the reference. Then you can use that to essentially infer one person
might be related to another, whether one person was or was not at a crime scene.
And it just presents a more powerful and complete view of identity. [MUSIC PLAYING]
NANCY GRACE: With a tiny digitized sample of DNA from Kim Bryant's body, Othram Labs
is able to reverse engineer the code and fill in missing pieces. The only question now, which investigative route
do they take? DR. DAVID MITTELMAN: That process is about 12 weeks. It involves DNA extraction.
It involves a QC step. It might even involve some iterative repair and enrichment
and filtering of the DNA, to make sure that we've got the best possible sample that DNA
to proceed to DNA testing. And then it includes that testing process and the computer work necessary to build
that map of markers. The second part in which we use it, in some way to then infer identity.
That might be through a genealogical search. It might be through one-to-one comparisons.
Those kind of processes can take anywhere from hours to weeks. Some of the harder projects can take months,
but we generally will return leads to the investigator within the same year that we get the case work.
BRIAN OXMAN: So they had DNA from the examinations of Kim Bryant. And they did the database with Othram and lo and behold,
they came up with a match. NANCY GRACE: Las Vegas, Nevada, 2018. Police investigating the 1979 sex assault
and murder of a teen girl, 16-year-old high school student, Kim Bryant. The case has been cold nearly 40 years.
Detective Ray Spencer and his team take one last shot at identifying the killer by contacting Othram Labs, which has
an amazing investigative tool called genetic genealogy. [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] RAY SPENCER: From that sperm sample,
Othram Labs was able to create a profile. And they had information on a potential family member
that they believed was going to be the suspect. I was very excited when we got the phone call saying that they
had a potential suspect. And that they just needed a little bit more information
for us to do some work on, and that they would be able to tell us if in fact, it was the suspect.
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] So they gave us the name of Johnny Blake Peterson. DR. KRISTEN MITTELMAN: There was huge surprise.
I think the question that came back is are you sure? David answered, yes, we are sure.
[CHUCKLE] And that's the thing about DNA technology. It's science, it's fact. And it gives you a direct answer as to who was there.
If there was ever any doubt there or ever any ambiguity as to whether somebody else was involved or not involved,
that person's DNA was not found in that piece of evidence. And the person's DNA that was found was identified.
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] Othram Labs identifies the man who murdered the teen girl, Kim Bryant.
Johnny Peterson was 19 years old at the time of Kim Bryant's death. He was never on the radar for the police.
They never suspected or knew anything about him. He was a construction worker. He lived in the area.
He even went to Western High School. He graduated a year before this incident. So did he know Kim Bryant?
Likely he did. The police were astounded. How is it that Kim, who was waiting for her boyfriend
was abducted and nobody noticed? Nobody saw on a very busy street at the Dairy Queen,
where there were lots of kids. Maybe she knew her attacker. And maybe she had gone to say hello.
And the next thing she knew, she was forced in the car. To me, that is the likely scenario.
He seemed to have the ability to have contacted her and abducted her. [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
RAY SPENCER: We started to have to do a deep dive into Johnny Peterson and find out who is he?
What's his involvement, and we learn that he lived in Las Vegas at the time of the murder.
And that he was also connected to some other crimes that occurred in the City of Las Vegas
prior to the murder of Kim Bryant. But to confirm that, we needed a family member's DNA.
So at that point, we reached out to the father and went and spoke and conducted an interview with him,
and he gave us a voluntary DNA sample. That way we could either prove or disprove
his son's involvement. Once we tested that DNA that in fact Johnny Peterson was the suspect in the murder of Kim Bryant.
[PENSIVE MUSIC] In 2018, Vegas police finally identify a suspect in the 1997, rape and murder of 16-year-old Kim Bryant.
His name, Johnny Peterson. They plan Peterson's arrest until they find out Peterson has escaped justice in a bizarre way.
He died from a drug overdose back in 1993. RAY SPENCER: I don't think he felt any guilt.
I think he died of an overdose, and had he not had an overdose, there would probably be more victims out there.
You know, you're excited that you're able to give closure to a victim's family. But you're not able to provide the true closure of bringing
a suspect to trial and making sure that he's held accountable for what he did. We don't how he got her into the vehicle.
What I do know is that he took her out to the edge of town and sexually assaulted and murdered
her and left her where she laid for three weeks after the fact. [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
NANCY GRACE: Las Vegas police have finally tied a deceased predator named Johnny Peterson to Kim
Bryant's rape and murder. But now, Peterson's DNA also connects him to the murder
of another young woman. RAY SPENCER: I would say Johnny Peterson is pure evil and a monster.
You abducted a 16-year-old, beautiful, young woman from a parking lot of a Dairy Queen and murdered her.
Not only that, you go on to murder another woman after the fact. And it's just-- it's a horrific case
that I wish he was still alive to be held accountable for. DAVID MITTELMAN: It's very validating
to find out that they were able to also connect the same person that was previously unconnected to a--
a sexually violent homicide to another victim. And I think what it does is it shows that the process works.
The law enforcement investigators have spent years working these cases. In helping work one of the cases,
we were able to provide that little clue that connected for law enforcement an entirely different case.
And I think-- I think this is a wonderful thing because they invested the time, the money, and the effort to work one case
and ended up with a value for more than one case. LYDIA ANSEL: Hearing that there was a serial killer involved,
you get a mix of emotions. There's anger. And you're like how can someone like this
continually get away with it? And how can someone like this exist? And how can they be out there and hurt more and more people?
And why aren't we doing more? And there then comes in a slight feeling of like, well,
maybe we can stop more of this happening. BRIAN OXMAN: We say, hey, there's closure
and that we want to know what happened to our loved ones. After this amount of time, we've buried
it so deep in our thoughts. And we become numb. The fact that the police solved this crime,
they were very proud of that. And they should have been. But telling the parents reopens all the wounds, all
the memories, all the tears. NANCY GRACE: Investigators inform Kim Bryant's family.
And then, police tell the entire Las Vegas community. For the past 42 years, this case
has been reviewed by numerous LV AND PD detectives hoping to gather new leads. 10 days ago, we were notified that the genealogical profile
built by Othram Labs, based on sperm recovered from the body of Kim Bryan at autopsy, revealed that Johnny Blake
Peterson was the person who kidnapped, sexually assaulted, and murdered Kim Bryant.
NANCY GRACE: For Detective Ray Spencer, Kim Bryant's murder has special meaning.
This case affected me because I know exactly where it occurred. You know, I grew up in that area.
I've been in that Dairy Queen probably 200 times in my life. You know, I walked across the street to the football field.
I was probably in the exact same classrooms. No question, I walk down the same hallways,
you know, that Kim Bryant did 15 years before I went to Western High School. So it's unique in the situation where, you know,
you share that in common with a victim on a case that I get to solve 40 years later.
BRIAN OXMAN: This case, the police were able to take out the box. And for reasons, which no one really knew at the time,
they had preserved the DNA evidence. Oh, my goodness, kudos to them. They didn't even know about how DNA
evidence would work back then. But then to have the benefit so many years later of analyzing
that DNA, pretty remarkable. RAY SPENCER: We were overwhelmed with joy that we were
able to solve such an old case. And right now, it's still the oldest cold case that the Metropolitan Police Department has solved.
And, you know, we look at those type of cases. And we tell the family it doesn't matter
how many years have passed, we never forget about their loved one. And that we're always going to keep
working and doing everything we can to solve their loved one's murder. NANCY GRACE: For Bloodline Detectives, like Ray Spencer,
the science of genetic genealogy is now a weapon of choice. RAY SPENCER: Genealogy is extremely
important because without it, we never solve Kim Bryant's case. And the fact that we have this technology
and we're able to put pieces together that we would never have been able to do 20 years ago,
is what's going to change the face of law enforcement moving forward. DAVID MITTELMAN: If there are no leads and there's nothing
to work from and you've exhausted all existing methods, I think forensic genetic genealogy is the tool
of the future to make that-- that case solvable. There's no justice. You're never going to bring true closure to the family,
but at least we have answers. And, you know, what's going to happen, I can tell you, in the future is Othram
is going to solve another case. And another family is going to get closure, but they're also going to get justice
because there's going to be another case where the suspect is alive. And we're going to be able to prosecute it.
NANCY GRACE: This remarkable new technology is now being adopted by people beyond the law
enforcement community under a program called DNASolves. KRISTEN MITTELMAN: DNASolves is a group of advocates, people
that believe in this technology and what we do here at Othram that tries to solve the problems that
are easy to solve. For example, bringing awareness to these cases by sharing them with their group of friends.
Or helping forensic genetic genealogy by uploading your DNA onto the database. Or by helping by providing funds for some of these cases
that are unfunded. A lot of the times, a couple of dollars, which you would have paid for a cup of coffee,
will help solve a case. I think that in the future when there's a DNA dead end, it won't be a cold case for decades
and decades and decades. I think that case will quickly be flipped to advanced forensic testing.
And then the perpetrator will be caught in real-time, hopefully, before they commit another crime.
And I think that's going to create a safer world for all of us. And if nothing else, become a deterrent for future crime.
NANCY GRACE: Justice is never neat and tidy. And Johnny Peterson never served one day in jail
for the women he murdered. But at least now, after four decades, Kim Bryant's family know he was the killer.
The more DNA from everyday people that becomes available for public use, the more cases,
like Kim Bryant's and so many others, will be solved. I'm Nancy Grace. Thank you for joining us here on "Bloodline Detectives."
[SERENE MUSIC] [THEME MUSIC] [THEME MUSIC] [THEME MUSIC]

Las Vegas, Nevada, 1979, 16-year-old Kim Bryant disappears from outside of a Dairy Queen. Three weeks later her body is found, she's been sexually assaulted and bludgeoned to death. 40 years later, genetic genealogy finally names her killer but police question whether her killer was behind other cold cases.

Now in its third season, Bloodline Detectives is the leading true crime series that explores how police departments harness genetic genealogy to solve crimes that were once considered "unsolvable," bringing long-awaited answers to victims' families.

=============== Like, comment and subscribe if you’re ready for more true crime. Your favorite shows like World’s Most Evil Killers, Meet Marry Murder, Forensic Files, Unsolved Mysteries, Murdered At First Sight and Bloodline Detectives are all available to stream 24/7 for free via the FilmRise Streaming Network. You can access The FilmRise Streaming Network through most free App Platforms and Smart TV portals such as Amazon Fire TV, The Roku Channel, Android, iOS and many more.

Brief Summary

The episode reveals how genetic genealogy solved Kim Bryant's 1979 murder case, identifying Johnny Peterson as her killer.

Key points

The Disappearance of Kim Bryant. 16-year-old Kim Bryant goes missing after leaving a Dairy Queen in Las Vegas.
Gruesome Discovery. Three weeks later, Kim's body is discovered by hikers in a makeshift grave.
Community Mourning. The community rallies to support Kim's family during her funeral.
Othram Labs Reopens Cold Case. A $5,000 donation helps to reopen Kim Bryant's case, allowing collaboration with Vegas PD.
Cold Case Reopened. Detectives reopen Kim's case nearly 40 years later using new forensic technology.
DNA Technology Identifies Suspect. Othram Labs uses DNA evidence to identify Johnny Peterson as Kim Bryant's murderer.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

You can't prepare yourself. It takes the breath out of you.

LYDIA ANSEL describes the impact of hearing the details of Kim's case.

9:30WatchApr 10, 2023

Tension

75/ 100High tension

More from True Crime Files

Solve the Crime

Read a real case one clue at a time, then see how your call held up against the investigators.