The Las Vegas Serial Killer | Bloodline Detectives with Nancy Grace | Forensic Files

[MUSIC PLAYING] NANCY GRACE: New Year's Eve, 1983, Las Vegas, 22-year-old Diana Hanson's reported missing when she fails
to return home to her family. Her family called the police, and they were concerned
because they knew she had went out jogging and that she did not return from that jog.
NANCY GRACE: Police are called to a brutal murder scene in the Nevada desert near Spring Mountain and Buffalo.
It doesn't get any worse than that. It really doesn't. Getting sexually assaulted and murdered
is probably the worst thing you can do to somebody, and to do it repeatedly, I don't get that.
NANCY GRACE: This is the story of Diana Hanson and how years after her murder and brutal sex
assault, new forensic genealogy is used to track down her killer. I'm Nancy Grace.
This is "Bloodline Detectives." [THEME MUSIC PLAYING] Vegas, Nevada, 1983, 22-year-old Diana
Hanson is reported missing. She never comes home from her daily run. She went out jogging around her home.
She would wear a Sony Walkman, which was another rage of the 1980s and you could put the headset on and listen
and be in your own world. KEVIN HANSON: I got the idea to give her the headphones,
the Walkman, 'cause a lot of people were jogging with those back then so they could listen to music.
As I recall, she was a pretty avid jogger. She jogged quite often but nothing that stands out
that indicated she had bad habits or hung out with bad people or anything along those lines.
She was a successful college student as far as I know. Diana was a creative young lady, a journalism major.
She liked to have interior design as part of her life. She created gifts that she would give to people.
We didn't know each other in our childhood. We just were in the same dorm at North--
University of North Texas in Denton, and we met in late '81 and dated off and on through '82 and then pretty solidly in '83.
We just hung out, and we jogged a lot. We'd go to the pool. I was a lifeguard at the pool there,
and she was a wonderful young lady. She was-- she was a year younger than me. We grew up in an Air Force family,
so we moved around a lot. But she was my little tattletale, always getting me in trouble, but when we started getting older
and I started getting to know her, I think she was a genuinely kind person. RICH EMBERLIN: You won't find anybody
that disliked her, not one. If you went and found everybody that was in that college at the time, not one person would
say I can't stand her, not one. I think we were on our way to having that adult sibling relationship where we would have
probably been best friends. RICH EMBERLIN: We talked on the phone probably that day.
We tried to-- I tried to sneak a phone call in every day, but it's long distance back in the day and my dad
would stay on me, give me five minutes. But I didn't know she was going to go running that day,
but she did around 4:00 in the afternoon and never came home. That was the one day she decided
to jog without her friends so-- NANCY GRACE: When Diana Hanson doesn't come home,
her parents rightfully are concerned. They know inside something is wrong. The worst nightmare that a parent could have
is that the child goes missing, but then within 24 hours, there was a report of a dead body at Spring
Mountain Road and Charleston. That area at the time in 1983 was very remote, and it was very--
very few people that would be going into that area. And it was basically used by a construction company
as a gravel pit where they recovered and looked for rocks in the area. BRIAN OXMAN: It was a desolate area.
It was wide open desert land, and the police found a body. It turned out that it was this young lady.
NANCY GRACE: When police find Diana Hanson, they are met with a gruesome scene, her murder obviously
very violent, her clothes gone. This is the work of a violent sex predator front and center.
BRIAN OXMAN: She was found completely naked, and she had been stabbed multiple times.
RAY SPENCER: It was a good mile and a half away from where she was last seen jogging,
and her clothing was never found at the crime scene. RICH EMBERLIN: People that sexually assault take
every bit of clothes off of people, but I believe she only had a sock on. So she was fighting like--
she was fighting for her life. And that's what makes me sad about this whole thing.
The last 15 minutes of her life were hell. BRIAN OXMAN: She died from the loss of blood.
The fact that a human being loses so much blood, it is a horrific scene, and the police
found her having bled to death from multiple stab wounds. RAY SPENCER: It's a very horrible situation when you
have to bring such bad news to a family because, you know, there's no good way or there's nothing
you can say that's gonna make it any easier for them to cope. BRIAN OXMAN: To have to go and identify your child,
I can't think of a more tragic, a worse scenario, a life experience that nobody should have to go through.
KEVIN HANSON: I don't remember much about it. I just remember being in shock. They just told me that it was her.
After some of the shock wore off, you kind of-- I was trying to picture I guess in my head what happened,
and I remember thinking that she was probably calling out for me. You know, she's calling for help, right,
and I'm her big brother and I wasn't there to help her. NANCY GRACE: Vegas detectives sift through what evidence is
left behind at the crime scene, and they make a very surprising discovery. In this case, we were trying to find
some forensic evidence whether it be blood, semen, or things of that nature. So we got the search and rescue team together,
and we just put everybody in a line from where the body was found and did what's called a wheel search.
They just go 360 around where the body was found, and one of the guys flipped over some palm--
discarded palm branches and there the clothes was, folded rather neatly, too, as I recall.
And that was always something that stuck in the back of my mind about the personality
of the individual. The police thought that was very significant because it's sort of the mark of a killer.
Killers have an MO, a modus operandi, where they tend to do things the same on each death.
The police thought this was so strange that they then went and they teletyped-- teletyped.
I mean, we had fax machines. We had teletype machines. There was no internet. There was no email.
There was no instant communication all around the world. You had to do a teletype, a telex, to all the police
stations, hey, do you have any cases which involve a killing where the clothes have been neatly folded
up into a little pile and placed under some debris near the body. Do you have anything like that?
They were hoping to get leads in that way. Didn't happen. The key piece of evidence when we found the clothes I think
it was one or two days later and we found a bloodstain, and through examination, we were told from the lab
that it was a mixture of two different blood types. So we suspected that at some point in time,
he either injured himself or she injured him in the altercation. And-- but in 1983, that wasn't much.
NANCY GRACE: Police began by interviewing those people closest to Diana Hanson including
her boyfriend Rich Emberlin. RICH EMBERLIN: My dad said some detective wants to talk to you from Las Vegas, and he got on the phone.
He said I'm sorry to tell you Diana Hanson's been murdered. And I said, what happened, and he wouldn't
give me any details obviously. It was so unbelievable, I wanted to call him back to make sure,
and my dad said don't do that. It's true. It was just I'd never been touched by death.
NANCY GRACE: A 22-year-old young woman, the victim of a violent sex attack and murder.
A tiny spot of blood not belonging to her is the single best clue police have. The first stop for detectives, the victim's boyfriend.
That's next on "Bloodline Detectives." [MUSIC PLAYING] New Year's Eve, 1983, Vegas police
discover the nude body of 22-year-old jogger Diana Hanson out in the desert. Diana Hanson, clearly the victim of a violent and brutal sex
attack and murder discovered when she never came home from her jog. Now police begin their investigation
by interviewing those the very closest to Diana Hanson. RICH EMBERLIN: The boyfriend's always a suspect,
and they were probably just trying to make sure I was where I was at. I think I was probably a suspect for about an hour,
but I think they polygraphed a previous boyfriend previous to me. And that's pretty serious to get drug down and polygraphed.
They never did anything like that to me. No follow up calls, no nothing. So the previous boyfriend as part of the investigation
cooperated with investigators, and he even passed a polygraph examination so he could be
ruled out for his involvement. NANCY GRACE: Detectives very quickly rule out Diana Hanson's
boyfriend as a suspect, and there are not very many more obvious suspects in sight.
For Vegas police, it's time to return to the crime scene, establish a timeline for Diana's gruesome murder.
KEVIN HANSON: It looked like at the time somebody was waiting for her. I think they found tracks or something that there was
a vehicle waiting, and then when she jogged by, I think he popped out and grabbed her
and threw her in the car. BRIAN OXMAN: Tire tracks are a notorious way of finding a killer because what we can do
is we can find the manufacturer of that tire based on the tread. And sometimes it's brand new tread, which will tell us,
aha, check the new car dealers. Check the service stations and the tire shops around town.
Who got this kind of tire within the last 30 days or so if it's a brand new tire.
However, if it's an old worn tire, our ability to find a lead based on that becomes less and less.
TOM DILLARD: Did a lot of research calling different manufacturers. We went to some local places in town
with the photographs see if we could determine the exact brand. I believe that we did.
They were pretty common tires, so there was nothing really unusual about it. But we were trying to figure out what type of vehicle it was on,
and we came to the consensus that it was likely a van or a light truck. So then with that information, then we tried
to find witnesses in the area. Nothing ever came to fruition that got us pointed in any direction.
NANCY GRACE: Often the single hardest time for investigators is when at some point all their hard work
and efforts don't pay off. The community is beginning to panic, and a crime victim is laid to rest.
[MUSIC PLAYING] BRIAN OXMAN: In this case, there were two funerals. There was one in Texas University for all
of her friends and the relatives, and then there was a funeral in Las Vegas. In Las Vegas, they had an open casket.
RICH EMBERLIN: I'd never seen that many students gathered around. And I remember that casket, and I just remember thinking
my girlfriend's in a box. And I saw her family crushed. I was more or less in shock.
It came later, the crushing, but I just looked at her family and thought, golly,
these people are destroyed. You know, the injuries were noticeable to the family that
took place during the murder. And you know that's just a horrible thing for the family
to have to deal with, especially during such a time of grief. KEVIN HANSON: You can't believe you're there.
You can't believe it's happening to you, and then you're just-- you're trying to figure
out what am I going to do next. I mean, how are we going to go on without her? I think for me, though, it was my mom
that I was worried about the most because to lose a child is hard. But for I think to mother to lose a daughter
might be probably one of the hardest. RICH EMBERLIN: I don't want to call it a luxury.
I get to go see her every once in a while and clean up her tombstone and make sure it's OK.
BRIAN OXMAN: The reaction of a community to a young girl being stabbed to death, being raped, and literally being
mutilated in the process is so horrific that the community can't comprehend it. It doesn't make sense.
People shake their head, and they wonder what is it that our society has become.
Why are we this way? Well, it was that way 50 years ago, and it is that way today.
I guess this is just the way life is, but I don't think I'll ever get used to it.
And nobody ever get used to it, and the Las Vegas community, they were shocked. I just thought that she was out jogging and got murdered.
I didn't know about sexual assault. I didn't know the manner she was stabbed. I didn't know the manner in which she got killed.
I didn't know any of that until I came to Vegas in '89 with a bunch of cops for the first time in one
of those inexpensive trips. And we stayed at the Four Queens Hotel downtown, and the first morning I woke up, this is-- we didn't
have the internet, you know. You couldn't-- I would call the detectives, and they'd say
there's no changes. There's no changes. And I open up my window, and there was the Las Vegas
Metropolitan Police Department, like, right down the road and I went I'm going to go over there and talk to them.
And I went over there and I walked in, and the lady was real nice. And what I did not know is they had just done a crime
re-enactment of her killing. They called it the JK Killer, the Jogger Killer. And I didn't think this lady would know anything about it,
and I said I want to talk to somebody about a homicide which is probably not the smartest thing to say
to a secretary in homicide. She goes which one. I go, well, it happened six years ago.
Her name was Diana Hanson, and she went hang on a second. He became a policeman himself.
It was Diana's death which made him feel that he needed to do something to be able to contribute
his skills, his knowledge, his motivations of solving crimes. And they go you wanna talk about the Hanson murder.
I said hold on guys. I pulled out my badge. I go I'm a police officer. Detective Dillard was there, and he remembered my name.
And he says come on upstairs. We'll show you the case file, which is shocking to me
that they would let me do that. They forgot to take the pictures out of the crime scene,
but I think they wanted me to see how hard they had worked on the case. That case file was that thick.
There was another smaller one next to it, and they said here's the case file. And they slammed it down in front of me.
They were real nice. They just wanted me to see how hard they worked. And I went through it page by page,
and they were really meticulous all the way down to that Sony Walkman she had on.
They found the manufacturer and who bought it, and I knew I wasn't going to solve her case
and I didn't solve her case. I just called a lot, but I didn't want there to be Diana Hansons in my town
'cause it just hit me really so hard. You read it in the newspaper and it doesn't mean anything,
but when it happens to you, that's when you go I gotta do something about this. TOM DILLARD: At some point in time,
there's another one on your desk and another one on your desk, and you have to move on.
We did everything we could do with what we had to work with. We just weren't successful.
Investigators received a lot of tips in this case, and none of the tips though were anything
viable that were leading us to any potential suspects. I don't remember at what point it became a cold case,
but I do know that the Las Vegas Police Department kept in touch with my dad because my mom didn't wanna--
I guess I was-- my mom and I were kind of the same. We kind of just buried it to a degree, so they worked with him
and they kept in touch with him. I'd say at least every couple of years, they updated him.
NANCY GRACE: Believe it or not, it will take 40 years, a whole new generation of detectives,
and brand new cutting-edge forensic science to solve the violent sex assault and murder
of 22-year-old jogger Diana Hanson, as a matter of fact, the same forensic science detectives
used to link Diana's case to another brutal sex assault and murder. That's next on "Bloodline Detectives."
[MUSIC PLAYING] 2021, in Las Vegas, Nevada, more than 40 years since two young women, 22-year-old jogger Diana
Hanson and 16-year-old Kim Bryant, were murdered and sex attacked. Investigators, armed with new forensic science,
genetic genealogy, link a suspect to Kim Bryant's murder. But now they believe the two cases are connected.
RAY SPENCER: I was involved in the Diana Hanson case last year when we were actively investigating Kim Bryant.
Kim Bryant was a 16-year-old girl who had been murdered after she'd been kidnapped from a local Dairy Queen here in Las Vegas.
We had solved that case as a result of genetic genealogy. You will probably be surprised to know that more times
than not when we identify a perpetrator, especially from a sexual assault homicide, they end up being
linked to other crimes as well. RAY SPENCER: So in the Kim Bryant investigation,
we had used Othram Labs because we had done that investigation with no leads, and Othram believed that they would
potentially be able to make us solve based upon genealogy and genetic genealogy work.
Their work on that case led to us identifying Johnny Peterson as the suspect in the murder of Kim Bryant.
Once we discovered the perpetrator for Kim Bryant, that made news, and someone called law enforcement.
[MUSIC PLAYING] So we received a phone call from the ex-wife of Johnny Peterson who had watched my press conference and gave that
information believing that Johnny Peterson could be involved in another murder. Now the ex-wife did not know the specifics,
but she did know that there was a woman who had went missing at that time. After watching me give the press conference,
she remembered that back in 1983, she had found a Walkman radio and a pair of panties
inside of his vehicle. And when confronted about it, he basically said that his brothers were playing tricks on him,
and she basically dismissed it at that time because of the story that he was able to provide.
And she was very young and didn't know anything about the previous homicide. You know, I give a lot of press conferences and news
interviews, and I intentionally withhold information because I want to be able to vet information as tips come in.
When a person calls and they have information that is not publicly released and those type of details,
those are things that we use to make sure that the tip is, in fact, accurate. So when she gave information that, one,
she was the ex-wife of Johnny Peterson and the fact that she had found a Walkman and a pair
of panties that she thought were potentially related was very concerning. And with the information that she provided,
that made us think that there's a potential link, and we had DNA evidence that was stored that we then
did a comparison between Johnny Blake Peterson's DNA and the DNA that was found at the murder of Diana Hanson.
NANCY GRACE: There is not a single police department with unlimited funds to pay for the expense of science
a private company can offer. In Las Vegas, a group of concerned citizens decide to help.
They call themselves the Vegas Justice League, and their donations to private labs
make a dramatic impact in bringing cold cases back to life. LYDIA ANSEL: Vegas Justice League is a group of people who
have philanthropic hearts and souls and who want to help the community often in many ways, not just through the Vegas Justice League,
and what the Vegas Justice League does is give a $5,000 donation that goes directly to Othram.
And then Othram will go to the local PD and ask for cases, cold cases, that they say are now fully
funded, and they say, you know give us your cases, whatever you want. You choose for us.
We don't know as the Vegas Justice League. And hopefully they solve them. So we're very new.
We just got started, and already we've had a couple of solves. We help southern Nevada law enforcement agencies
work and solve cold cases that have DNA evidence that's available for genealogical DNA
testing and research. I really saw the closure that was brought to the family, and I wanted to bring that to more families.
KRISTEN MITTELMAN: Othram is the only forensic DNA lab in the world that is purpose built to identify victims
and perpetrators from crime scene evidence, and we do everything from the very beginning
from all the way from evidence to the courtroom in-house. We're trusted with what very little remaining evidence
is left to bring answers to families, to bring people's stories. DAVID MITTELMAN: I did spend some time running a research
facility at Virginia Tech, and it was for the first time then that I was exposed to other kinds of applications of DNA
testing biomedical science that helped me develop and hone techniques that could be used outside of traditional
biomedicine. And it was there that I became aware of problems that involved, for example, folks, that have never
been identified, crime scenes that have rich information but that information hasn't been uncovered or measured,
and these crimes go unsolved for years. So I began to get an appreciation of some
of these other problems that could benefit from technology we'd built in medicine but had never
been applied to forensics. This is a flow cell, and 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. And so you synthesize the complement to that DNA, and as you synthesize it, you're using chemically modified
DNA letters that emit a color. If you take a bunch of photos in every step of that,
you can essentially reverse engineer the sequence of DNA that was originally any XY position on this slide
and in parallel measure all of them and reconstruct it 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 and then try to figure out where each of these pieces
go, and those positions that you're measuring where there are differences, those are your DNA markers.
If you take about a couple of 100,000 of those, those differences, and you measure them,
then you can use that to essentially infer how 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 over, for example, using 20 markers. CODIS DNA looks at 20 markers in the DNA,
and they're doing a one to one comparison to known profiles in a database. We can't do a one to one comparison
because we don't have known profiles for these victims. We don't have known profiles for these perpetrators.
They've already been run through CODIS, and there is no hit. That when we build one of these DNA profiles
and upload them to a genealogical database, we'll be able to get enough matches from everyone else that
is in the database to be able to sort of tell you where that piece fits on a genealogical tree
so that you can hone in to the identity of that person. So what we're doing is trying to figure out who someone is.
That's very different from trying to figure out if someone is in a known perpetrator database,
and so therefore we need to look at a lot more markers in the human genome. DAVID MITTELMAN: Forensic genetic genealogy
plays an important role in helping identify people when there's essentially an exhaustion of all the leads.
There's no one to exclude. There's no suspects. It's just an open ended crime of which the suspect
is generally a random stranger. And sometimes it's very, very critical. For example, in Kim Bryant's case,
we were able to identify someone that was never under suspicion. But then once that person's identified,
they can be connected through traditional forensic testing such as STR testing and CODIS testing, and then
that same person was connected without the use of forensic genetic genealogy to Diana Hanson's crime.
You feel relieved when you have so many potential other suspects and now because of genetic genealogy, we know for a fact.
who committed Diana's murder. And even I had to have, you know-- step back for a second
and go through and spend an hour walking through the case just so I could be informed exactly how we got to Johnny
Peterson from all the other suspects because just because you have a name, you still have to make that link with additional evidence
and make sure that the person is responsible. You build a timeline, and you look
and make sure that the person were they here at the time, you know. Was there additional information?
Was there any potential witnesses? And the fact that his ex-wife is able to put him at the scene
or put him in the city and the headphones and the underwear, those type of details corroborate the forensic
details that we already knew. RICH EMBERLIN: I called in November 2021, and I just asked for the cold case group.
And I left a message, and this very nice detective called me back. And she said I think I know about this case.
And I-- and she didn't tell me they were working on it. They'd had some new developments like real recent to my--
it was just coincidence. And she wrote me a very nice email where she thanked me for my diligence,
but all I did was call all the time. And it was an email that said Jonathan Blake Peterson is the suspect.
There's no doubt. And I just-- I stared at it, cried. NANCY GRACE: The bloodline detectives now
have a prime suspect in the brutal murders of two beautiful young women in 1979 and 1983.
The perp's name, Johnny Blake Peterson, but now they've got to track down the predator, a predator who has evaded
police for over 40 years. [MUSIC PLAYING] It is 2021 and Vegas detectives have solved
almost identical murders and sex attacks of 22-year-old Diana Hanson and 16-year-old Kim Bryant
more than 40 years earlier. Their main weapon, a private research company named Othram Labs, Othram pioneering
the use of genetic genealogy to match the DNA of victims to their predators. KRISTEN MITTELMAN: The fact that he's
deceased means that he would have never been arrested and his DNA would have never made
it into CODIS as a perpetrator. So therefore traditional testing, CODIS testing,
would have never worked to identify him. But because we were able to use the advanced DNA testing
that we do at Othram to identify Kim Bryant, we were able to enter his DNA into CODIS,
and now there's another match. BRIAN OXMAN: Forensic genealogy was absolutely critical here
because it narrowed down the number of possible suspects and then gave us a DNA match with Peterson
as being the perpetrator of both crimes. We knew that he had ended up dying of a drug overdose years
later, but we also knew that he was responsible for killing Kim Bryant in 1979 and he also had a prior case involving
a sexual assault prior to that. And it's just-- it's a horrific case of a guy who is a monster
and he had killed one girl and then he killed Diana Hanson. And there's potentially more victims that we just have
not been able to identify yet. I'm certain he's gonna be linked to other cases. It's just a matter of how many.
It's-- you know, once we're able to identify and conduct genetic genealogy on additional cases, we're gonna
link him to other cases. Criminologists tell us that sexual crimes are not crimes
involving a sexual desire, but they are crimes of violence where sex is used as a weapon.
What we can tell about Peterson is that he was a predator, he was violent, and he liked using sex as a weapon.
We still to this day have not been able to make a link between Diana and Johnny Peterson
as far as if they knew each other, but, you know, knowing his past violent background
and his sexual deviancy, I do believe that he was out looking to abduct and rape another victim.
As a homicide investigator, you know, you're never gonna see such a huge change in technology
in such a short amount of time, and you look back at some of the cases that we're solving
because of genetic genealogy, you know, it's fulfilling. And the fact that you're able to close these cases
and give families justice is just a great feeling to be able to have. NANCY GRACE: Next on "Bloodline Detectives," finding justice
after more than 40 long years. [MUSIC PLAYING] Las Vegas, 2021, after more than 40 years,
two almost identical sex attacks and murders solved by a combination of ground-breaking science
and good old-fashioned detective work plus a community that not only cares but takes action.
JUSTIN WOO: It definitely has opened my eyes to more of these families and some of the pain
that they've gone through, and that's, you know, something that in the future that I'd like to see, you know,
being able to help them out any way that we can to help them have a little bit of closure in their lives.
We're just glad that we could help, you know, to solve another case and to bring
closure to the family for that. Just by the goodwill of Justin Woo and him having created the Vegas Justice League
and funding the cases from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, the willingness of Lt. Spencer
to use new technology and unconventional funding to still pursue justice in his cases and the ability of Othram
to sort of connect all those pieces together and to perform this advanced testing
in a predictable and reliable manner allows us to bring closure to so many people in this community.
And so many families now have answers that they would have otherwise never had. DNA Solves is our advocacy site, and it's
where we talk about the stories for the people that we were able to identify the perpetrators that we were
able to identify from crimes that were committed against others. You can add your DNA to our DNA Solves database
to help solve some of these crimes. You can help fund one of these cases that are unfunded.
Even as little as $1 would help fund these cases. Also you can help share these stories.
Sharing these stories and bringing awareness to this method, bringing awareness to the need
that there is for this type of technology, and funding for this technology in order
to be able to solve entire backlogs is key to the success of this type of technology.
NANCY GRACE: For Diana Hanson's boyfriend, Rich Emberlin, the pain may ease, but it will never completely go away.
RICH EMBERLIN: It's a happy, sad conclusion. We know who did it. I don't come to Vegas and look around at every guy
and go I wonder if-- you know. That I really did, but I know where that guy is buried.
And that's a good thing. And I accept closure now. Diana's the victim, but I'm not the only
wounded person from it. It's her family truly. They were crushed. And now having a daughter, I can see why.
My mom hated God for a few years, but she actually came back to the church and in her way forgave--
well, we didn't know who it was-- but forgave the killer. I don't think-- I don't know if I could ever forgive like she
did, but for me, it was-- I think I changed and instead of letting memories of her
make me feel sad, I figured out a way to make memories of her make me happy or make me feel comfort.
As I kind of realized that it was more about her and not about how she died or who killed her,
she started becoming more of a comfort to me, just knowing that she was there, and sometimes I would do something stupid
or I'd do something, I'd always-- I'd wonder how she would react to it. I can imagine I would give her a phone call and say, hey--
I think there was things I could probably tell her later in life that I probably would have a hard time telling other people.
So I think if I miss anything that's probably what I miss is that opportunity. NANCY GRACE: One of the many tragedies about the murders
of Diana Hanson and Kim Bryant is that they were beautiful, young, vibrant women struck down
by a vicious predator with the very best years of their lives still ahead of them.
The bloodline detectives can never bring them back to us, but after 40 long years, bloodline detectives
have eased the pain for the victims' families and their loved ones. At the very least, they can also keep Diana Hanson's
and Kim Bryant's spirits alive. I'm Nancy Grace. Thank you for joining us here on "Bloodline Detectives."
[MUSIC PLAYING] [END THEME PLAYING]

Las Vegas, Nevada, 1983, 22-year-old Diana Hanson fails to return home from a jog. 24 hours later her body is discovered – she has been sexually assaulted and stabbed. Almost 40 years later, DNA from the crime scene confirms the identity of the perpetrator, however, the DNA is linked to another unsolved murder, suggesting the possibility that there was serial killer plaguing the Las Vegas area in the 1980’s.

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.

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Brief Summary

The episode details Diana Hanson's murder and the forensic breakthrough that linked her case to another victim, Kim Bryant, solving it after 40 years.

Key points

Diana Hanson Goes Missing. On New Year's Eve 1983, 22-year-old Diana Hanson fails to return from her jog, sparking concern from her family.
Gruesome Discovery. Police discover Diana's body in a remote area, revealing a violent crime scene.
Community Shocked. The brutal nature of Diana's murder leaves the Las Vegas community in disbelief.
Cold Case Revival. After 40 years, new forensic science links Diana's case to another murder, reigniting the investigation.
Closure After 40 Years. Detectives finally identify the perpetrator of two decades-old murders.
Forensic Genetic Genealogy Unveiled. Othram Labs pioneers the use of genetic genealogy to solve cold cases.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

The worst nightmare that a parent could have is that the child goes missing.

Nancy Grace discussing the impact on Diana's family

4:33WatchApr 26, 2023

Tension

80/ 100High tension

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