The South Lake Tahoe Strangler | Bloodline Detectives with Nancy Grace | Forensic Files

[Music] August 20th 1977 horseback riders in California Sierra Nevada mountains make a terrible
Discovery one of the Riders got a little head of the other one and pulled off the
trail and that's when Bren rainy's body was discovered it was a very horrific scene two years later another young
woman's body discovered nearby she was choked she was sexually assaulted and then her body was dumped
on the side of the road it would strongly suggest that she fought for her life both cases go cold and stay that
way until 2017 when the former girlfriend of a suspect comes forward with new and
disturbing evidence she described a few incidents between the two of them one of
them she she said they were in a hot tub together and he held her head underwater
to the point where she was gagging on the water I thought was he going to drown me there and put me in his
truck this is the story of the South Lake Tahoe Strangler and how a remarkable new technology investigative
genetic genealogy is used against him as a weapon without forensic genealogy in this case I don't know that we would
have solve it it was a huge part of this investigation criminals who hide in the
shadows for years now discover they may not be able to hide from forensic science and their own family tree I'm NY
Grace this is bloodline Detectives [Music] 1977 El Dorado County on America's West
Coast it's a former gold rush area but now it's better known for unspoiled scenery and Lively
casinos El Dorado County is in Northern California it's approximately 200,000 residents it stretches from the border
of Sacramento County all the way up to the border of Nevada and South like Tahoe Tahoe in the 70s was a place to be
seen outside of Vegas by the major stars of the day they had Elvis sunny and share Florence Henderson there were a
lot of local stars back then that were at the casinos in the Nevada side and back in the 70s the Hard Rock was the
Sahara it was a mecca for for young people in their early 20s to work and party and and spend their
time Bren Rainey and her brother moved to California searching for New Opportunities Bren rainy was originally
from Ohio she came out to the Lake Tahoe area in 1977 she came out here with other family
members fell in love with the South Lake Tahoe area and decided to stay April of 1977 she's hired by the
Sahara Casino as a Kino runner from people and they take them in and take your money and go place the bet for you
and bring it back and they would run around the Caso back in those days when they had Kino and it wasn't all
electronic run the numbers and then take them back to the person July 25 1977 bran Rainey doesn't show up to work
she was due to work at 2: a.m. on the 25th she never showed up for that work shift on the August 15th her landlord
reported her missing the landlord had said that he had seen her around the time that she'd last when scene which
would have been around July 24th and that he had not seen her since they did an initial investigation they contacted
family members they talked to her employers and did what they could they also put out an APB they called back
then and it was a national notification of a missing person that was out so they
did pretty much all they could do with that at the time one month after Bren rainy's
reported missing horseback Riders make a gruesome Discovery near the casino town
of state line on August 20th 1977 a body was found at the horse stable Park she was found just off a trail in a shallow
grave that had been Disturbed it was a very horrific scene she was pulled out of the Grave that she
was buried in the grave site was about 6 feet by uh 18 in by about 2 ft deep and
she had been dug up out of the Grave by animals and partially exposed her clothing was found about 30 ft from her
that included in her panties the bra the shirt the blue jeans uh her purse among
her belongings was a work identification that included her name and that led detectives at that time to identify her
as Bren R detective send Bren rainey's body to the coroner for autopsy the autopsy showed that the
cause of death was strangulation she had bruising on her as well as a broken high
bone anytime you have a a shallow grave that's been pretty dated um by animals there's other layers that you have to
sift through and trying to figure out what's a wound and what's an animal Mark and they also would have been able to
tell whether or not it was human blood and they would have been able to identify seminal
fluid the fact that her clothing had been removed from her body and was located near the shallow grave would
suggest that she was brought out to that location alive whatever assault occurred
likely occurred at that that location and then she was killed at that location and the killer of course took some
rudimentary steps in order to conceal the body by putting it in a shallow grave and then you have to consider the
digging of that grave and you wonder if it occurred prior to the murder in other
words did the killer prepare that spot in advance or is it something that was done on the spur of the
moment now police must tell Bren rainey's family the horrible news we weren't able to make death
notification in person and so a local law enforcement reached out to law enforcement in the state of Ohio and
asked for their assistance and as part of that process it came to light that brinn's mother had a heart condition and
there was some concern that the shock of learning that her daughter had been murdered could have a a physical effect
on her and so local law enforcement was able to get her physician at the time to
come with them when they went to her home and broke the terrible news that her daughter had been
murdered Brin did not have any enemies there was no one that would have had a reason to kill her and the family just
wanted to know what happened they believe that someone could have possibly been responsible that they
knew one of the interesting facts in this cas case is that an unidentified male called Brin ry's employer and
informed them that she would not be showing up for her shift at the casino where she
worked we certainly don't know for sure who that was that made the call but under the circumstances and the fact
that brenn at that time was likely already dead it would strongly suggest that the killer made that call in order
to buy more time before people knew she was missing while detectives try to trace that
mystery Coller they also piec together Brian rainey's last known movements she'd been picked up earlier
that evening by a friend and dropped off at a bar that used to be there called The Bitter Creek it was just kind of a
beer bar and she had gone to this bar and Witnesses were interviewed that said that she was in the bar and she was
there till that evening and she had told her friend that she was going to catch a
bus but we're talking about her shift starting at 2 A.M on the 25th and to me it sounds like she either
could have been hitchhiking or picked up a ride from somebody else to try to get
down the boulevard which would have been a good five or six miles away one of the
main guys that they focused in on was a boyfriend that had come from Ohio and he
was infatuated with her but then they were able to eliminate him pretty early because they were able to prove that he
had left town 2 days before Bren Rainey was last seen two years go by and detectives run out of
leads and the case became cold as a result but on July 1st 1979 young woman's body was found on the side of
the road by a passing Motors and reported to law enforcement 2 years after Bren rainy's
murder the discovery of a second young woman's body in the same area injects new life into the investigation
could the same killer be responsible for both murders that's next on bloodline [Music]
detectives August 1977 horseback riders in California Sierra Nevada mountains discovered the remains of a woman in a
shallow grave close to Lake Tahoe she's later identified as a casino worker 27-year-old Brian rainy police have very
few Clues and the case goes cold then 2 years later a second female victim is discovered
nearby young woman's body was found on the side of the road in South Lake Tahoe a passing motorist saw her body laying
on the side of the road and stopped and then contacted law enforcement and reported that they had found what they
believed to be a deceased young woman she was wearing socks no shoes jeans and rock and roll Rod Stewart t-shirt from a
concert in 1979 but she had pretty significant injuries to her upper body facial area neck area ligature marks
were apparent on her wrists on her face there was a elongated mark on her cheek that looked like it either could have
been some type of gag or a rope that had caused the damage later on they found that her bra was pulled over her breasts
and under her shirt and that she had fingernail scratch marks under her right breast detectives struggled to identify
the victim then they received news of a missing person the South Lake Tahoe Police Department had learned that there
was a party and that there were juveniles at the party and when they investigated that party which was near
where the body had been recovered they were able to identify a young man who had picked this young woman up and
brought her to the party and then essentially lost track of her they're actually the ones that helped identify
her the next day there were some police officers that went down to a local Beach
called Reagan Beach and talked to her uh friends who these boys and they're the ones that said I think that might have
been this uh friend of ours named Carol Anderson they were able to go and contact the victim's parents the parents
showed a photog PHH of their daughter Carol Anderson and law enforcement was immediately able to recognize that they
had found this couple's daughter an autopsy reveals the cood cause of death Carol's body showed signs
of severe trauma to her face to her neck she showed signs of ligature marks on her wrist as if she'd been tied Carol
also had a damaged hyoid bone Carol's cause of death was strangulation as well they looked at clothing items just to
see whether or not there was anything odd about the clothing items that were there they collected quite a few
clothing items all of the undergarments the outer garments they're looking for any kind of bite marks things like that
that they might be able to get any kind of body fluid from a suspect or a perpetrator and they're taking hair
samples so they're taking hair from the the pubic area they're taking hair from the head and that way we can do any
comparisons if there's any any of those those pieces of evidence that are found later on somebody uh on their clothing
or anything else if they have a suspect forensic investigators collect a DNA sample that does not belong to the
victim in the meantime police piece together Carol Anderson's Final hours that morning it reported that she
left her house around 10:00 a.m. on Saturday now it's summer she's out of school it's South Lake Tahoe the
weather's beautiful it's a beautiful place and she's hanging out with her friends so she's down at Reagan Beach
where all the kids hung out going back and forth probably to liquor stores or doing whatever they do there as kids she
hears about a party which is not very far from Reagan Beach this party that Carol had been at was given by guys that
were in their early 20s that were renting the house and there were quite a few people there 60 to 70 people it's
estimated were at the party and reports indicate that she was there in the evening and she was there and then left
around 11:30 there's different stories that she was offered rides and refused them and there's other people that say
she left with somebody and then there's all kinds of different theories that were looked
at one of the early thoughts was that because Carol Anderson had been at this party that her killer may have been at
the party and that may be where her killer came into contact with her and perhaps lured her away from the party or
was willing to give her a ride away from the party or a ride home and that's how
he was able to gain control over her and so it was really important to us to identify as many people as possible who
are at that party to see if any of them either might be responsible for Carol Anderson's death or might know something
that would help us move the investigation forward police follow up on every single
lead but in the end Carol Anderson's case goes cold then in the early 2000s a Cold Case unit
reopens the investigation one of the things that moves any of these cases forward
dramatically is when we're able to develop some forensic evidence that can link the killer to the crime and in the
Carol Anderson case we were able to test samples that have been collected during
her autopsy and preserved for decades and and the result of that testing was developing a male DNA profile and so you
need to find that person and you need to match them to the evidence that they left behind and one of the first things
we do when we have a robust profile is we add it to the codus uh database and we look to see if there are any matches
to known offenders and in this particular case there were no matches and so we needed to continue to search
for people who may have crossed paths with Carol Anderson who may have been in the area
who may have been motivated to commit this kind of a crime and get from them either surreptitiously or voluntarily a
DNA sample to test back to the crime scene DNA detectives have an individual DNA
profile for the prime suspect now they need to match that profile to a name they were focusing on the party where
she'd last been seen and the people people that were at the party so there were a lot of interviews and identifying
the people that were there and getting their names it became a priority to go out and try and get their DNA the
investigator that actually had it Brett Peterson he had two binders for people that were at the
party one binder was people that were in cotus or that we had DNA from and the other binder was people that needed to
get it and that binder the team would periodically we'd be somewhere we'd find somebody when we go interview them and
we get that DNA check it and it would come back negative you know but we kept going kept pushing
it it's a huge task 60 coal cases and a mountain of evidence we brought together all 60
unsolved cases and we did a thorough review of each and every one of them and we tried to categorize them so we had
cases from the 70s and the 80s where physical evidence items were collected at the crime scene packaged and
preserved by law enfor for ment but had never been subject to to modern technology and had never been checked
for DNA evidence for example and so we started working through those cases as our first step we
identified the Brin rainy case as one that had never been subject to Modern forensic Technologies and we thought
that might provide us with a lead in 2017 Deanna Hayden who was a senior criminalist at the Department of
Justice reexamine the shirt I remember it being at the task force and the discussion taking place that she said
you know I think I'm going to take another look at that shirt and see what I can find and she did that she took
another cutting off of blood stain was able to develop a pretty significant DNA profile the DNA extracted from Bren
rainy shirt undergos testing alongside the male DNA collected from the Carol Anderson crime
scene on November 17 of 2017 we received a message from doj that we had a match between the bin rainy case and the Carol
Anderson case through DNA it meant that the same suspect was involved in both Brinn and Carol's murder when we got
that information from DOA we brought the team together and started again reviewing the case looking at the
similarities and we started to make assignments for follow up on what we were going to do next the really
interesting thing is these two cases happened in such close proximity and time to each other and we were working
them in parallel really and then all of a sudden we have no longer in parallel we have one investigation for these two
cases and I'm sure that was something that investigators were happy to hear this was new information this changed
the way that we had been looking at both of these cases and we immediately started to look for the imaginary ven
diagram of where and what connection these two victims might have with one another and that was a big leap forward
as far as as searching for the killer two victims one killer can a new generation of bloodline detectives crack
this case that's [Music] next 2017 South Lake Tahoe California two young women murdered just two years
apart yet both their cases remain unsolved nearly 40 years the remains of Brien Rainey found in
1977 the body of teen girl Carol Anderson Just 16 discovered nearby 1979 then 2017 a breakthrough detectives
discover the suspects DNA samples from both murders are not just a match they're a perfect match now all
detectives need is a name one of the first things we did was go back and re-review everything that we
knew and everything that we thought we knew about both the Carol Anderson case and the Bren Rainey case and what we
were looking for was any connection that we had failed to see in the past any new
interpretation that we could make of the information that we had based on the new
knowledge that they had been both killed by the same person it also of course brought to the Forefront the idea that
we were dealing with a person who was a serial killer in the sense that had killed at least twice and had killed two
young women both in the South Lake Tahoe area had disposed of the bodies in a somewhat careless manner there were
there were some real indicators there that made us feel very strongly that we were going to be able to identify a
suspect that same year investigators team up with DNA investigative specialist parabon
nanolabs I joined forces with parabon to offer a genetic genealogy service to law
enforcement I was one of the early adopters and one of the pioneers of genetic genealogy and since that time my
team and I have been responsible for over 275 positive identifications we started
with two types of DNA tests called y DNA and mitochondrial DNA and then in 2010 is when we started using autosomal DNA
which is the basis for investigative genetic genealogy and the work we do with law
enforcement we reached out and we established a contract with parabon we shared with parabon the DNA information
that we had in 2017 the prim scene DNA sample was sent to parabon and parabon created a snip
profile with their partner lab they worked with the agency on this case to predict what the suspect may have looked
like phenotyping is where you take areas in the DNA and you estimate genetic expressed
traits so so that would be where they would go through and look at these areas of the DNA and decide whether or not
they felt somebody had brown hair blue eyes whether or not they had any kind of predisposition for baldness whether they
would have had a round face a Slender face those types of things to try and build what they would imagine would be
how the DNA would Express itself visually to us the phenotype test indicates the
suspect is Caucasian with dark brown hair and dark eyes in December 2017 parabon delivered their report with the
snapshot phenotype predictions to the agency and so in early May the case managers reached out to the El Dorado
authorities to ask them if they might be interested in trying genetic genealogy on Carol's case and they agreed
autosomal DNA is the type of DNA that you inherit from all of your ancestral lines you receive 50% from your mother
and 50% from your father about 25% from each of your grandparents and about 12.5% from each of your great
grandparents and that type of DNA is essential to being able to identify someone from their DNA alone we need to
have lots of information and we need to be able to piece that family tree together and so we have to have DNA from
different sides of the family tree from different ancestral lines we had a handful of matches that would be related
somewhere in the second to fourth cousin range and that means we're building those trees back to great grandparents
great great grandparents and then great great great grandparents trying to identify those common ancestors it only
took 2 days to narrow the genetic genealogy data down to Just Three Brothers three brothers that could
potentially have been the contributors of the DNA recovered from Carol Anderson and from Bren
rainy the one that was of greatest interest to us was Joseph Holt because we were able to establish that he lived
in and around the South Lake Tahoe area during the time frame that these crimes occurred through our investigation we
found Joseph Hulk had grown up in Cupertino California he graduated from C Pino high school he went to Berkeley he
moved to South Lake Tahoe he became a realtor his profession throughout his life was real estate he had a a son he
was married at one point we learned about some of Joseph Holt's relationships with different women
investigator gains talked to a former girlfriend who said that Joseph Hol wanted to tie her up when they were
intimate one woman messaged us and said that she had dated Joseph Hol that she had met him in South Lake
Tahoe that woman is Colleen Wilson like the murder victim br rainy Colleen is a casino worker living in the South Lake
tahoo Area I received a phone call from a homicide detective and my heart just dropped when he introduced himself I
think he said you used to date Joseph H and I said uh yes a long time ago and I told
him that I was living in a duplex on ski run and he was the real estate agent and I remember he came over to meet me
and told me he was going to be showing the place he would call me ahead of time and I came home and there were some
flowers on my table and I thought okay did he show it to clients and there was a little note there a little card saying
thank you for being cooperating You Know You're great and then I it said I I like
you mucho moss and I go okay this is really strange you know so came over I said did you show the place yesterday I
you you were in here and he says oh yeah I did you know didn't my office call you
and I said no you know and he said oh I'm so sorry about that let me take you to dinner I'm so sorry you know to
interrupt your life right now and I know it's busy so I said okay you know so and
he said let's go to the hot tubs and I said okay and he goes yeah you need to relax let's go run a hot tub they were
private uh we went in we're having a great time and then I made a comment I go oh I guess my waterproof mascara
isn't water uh proof and then he took the back of my neck and he dunked my head he goes well I could take care of
that and he dunked my head in the hot tub to where I mean then I didn't think it was funny I mean I was gagging water
and I said that's not funny what are you doing he goes oh I'm sorry I'm sorry I was just joking and I think I was crying
he goes I'm sorry come here and I said get the away from me and and he goes no please please don't walk home it's dark
out don't walk home it's not safe I will take you home and I said you're not taking me
anywhere Colleen Wilson's testimony paints a disturbing picture of Joseph Hol but where is Holt we find out next
on bloodline [Music] detectives now bloodline detectives are investigating two Cold Case murders and
they make a remarkable breakthrough the victims are two young women murdered 2 years apart way back in the 70s near
South Lake Tahoe Northern California the Breakthrough is thanks to the expertise
of parabon nanolabs whose scientists are experts in genetic genealogy using DNA left at the crime
scenes parabon Narrows the suspects down to a single family police then identify
Joseph Hol as the likely killer detectives then interview a former girlfriend of Holt who offers a shocking
account of their time together Colleen Wilson recalls Holt pushing her head underwater in a hot
tub I thought was he going to drown me there and put me in his truck and dump me somewhere I thought about that a lot
I called my friend who worked in surveillance at Harvey's and he said lock the doors I'll be
over he had an extra truck he parked it in front of my duplex and he came over and installed
some locks so I remember bolting every time I I went to sleep every little noise would wake me up is it him
creeping around the next day came with flowers again can't apologize you know I'm sorry I didn't you know I it got out
of hand I was just you know rough housing around and he said we need to go on a road trip we need to go on a road
trip go to the ocean get off the hill you know get down the sea level let me make it up to you I'm going to take you
to Santa Cruz we'll go to San Francisco wherever you want I almost went cuz he told me he would he goes how much do you
make it work I go well you never know what tips are going to go he goes I will pay you to take the weekend off
I said no I think it was like the second month just really odd things were happening I
could tell somebody was coming into my place while I was at work and I remember talking to my sister about it first she
thought it was funny and I didn't I said no he's starting to get really creepy and you know and I I I asked her
about the zip ties in his truck I go they were all over the floor floorboard and she says well he could use them for
his real estate signs and then I go okay all right and then he called and left a
pretty nasty message on my answering machine and said well you oh I see you've moved on you know how many guys
do you date you know I see you have overnight guests all the time I thought okay you know I I really need to put
some distance between he and I then he just kind of disappeared I remember seeing him I think it was in
1995 in ry's up here and I go oh my God that's Joseph hle and I went down the other eye I think I was about eight
months pregnant and I know he saw me cuz they looked and I I'm out of here with my basket I think I just left that stuff
there and went in the car in hindsight colen Wilson believes she had a very lucky escape from Joseph Holt Holt's on
Escape comes in a different and unexpected way after we identified Joseph Holt as a suspect we learned that
he had passed away in 2014 from a heart attack and first thing we do when we find out that someone is dead is we we
try to see if there were any tissue samples collected whether an autopsy was perform if there's any possibility that
there's something out there we can use to compare that deceased person's DNA with the DNA from the crime scene itself
and in the case of Joseph Holt there was nothing left so we had to move on to looking at his descendants in particular
we focus on male descendants who are going to carry the father's DNA and their own DNA Matrix I met with a son
told him that I believe that his dad may have known Carol Anderson and that I would like to get his DNA to eliminate
him and the son was uh Cooperative very Cooperative he told me that he had several things that belonged to his dad
that he had cleaned out his dad's house and had moved the things and that he had
access to those things so I asked him if he would bring me some things that may May belong to his dad that we might be
able to establish DNA from and he said he would be willing to do that and he said he didn't want me to go with him he
wanted to bring them to me and he brought me a jacket some eyeglasses a wallet a used qtip some I believe
scissors five harmonicas and a toothbrush I took them and packaged them up as evidence and I brought them back
to our office I conferred with Deanna Hayden and she said that she believed the toothbrush would be the most viable
to get DNA from that was transported to the DNA laboratory in Richmond and she did the testing on it and confirmed that
Joseph Holt was our perpetrator the story of Joseph Holt the South Lake tahoo Strangler doesn't quite
end there coold case detectives are certain he murdered Bren Rainey and Carol Anderson but they also suspect
Holt could be responsible for many other deadly crimes we find out more next on bloodline
[Music] detectives Lake Tahoe California 2022 bloodline detectives identify the killer of two young women in the late
70s the investigation is helped by parabon Nano Labs which specialize in investigative genetic
genealogy the Killer is Joseph Hol Holt now dead but investigators are convinced
he's responsible for many other crimes people who commit random acts of violence particularly the ones that do
it repeatedly like Joseph Holan sometimes will document what they've done during the search we found some
interesting items we found some weapons a couple of them were illegal sought off
shotguns that type of thing stun gun handcuffs I did find a newspaper clipping from him that was from losgatos
and he had handwritten on it the date of January 30th 1975 and it referenced a burglary of a
vehicle that occurred and that one of the victims had been shot so they did a composite with the
victims of the suspect and if you look at that composite and you look at a picture of Joseph Hol don't think it
takes a seasoned investigator to see the similarities in in that composite we'll never really know how
Joseph Holt selected his victims we'll never really know how he came into contact with Brin Rainey similarly to
Brin Rainey we're really never going to know how Joseph Hol came into contact with Caroline ERS we know that he was
living near where the party took place and it's reasonable to suspect that he was passing by the party saw Carol
Anderson perhaps walking or hitchhiking away from the party trying to get home that evening and he offered her a
ride I was present when investigators met with uh Carol Anderson's family uh to to tell them what we had learned and
to share with them that we had identified uh Carol's killer uh but unfortunately he was dead and he was
beyond you know the reach of Justice Brin rainy's family was still primarily in Ohio and her brother lived in a very
rural part of Colorado so uh some of these contacts by necessity uh had to be made telephonically and one of the
investigators on the case and I called her brother and and broke the news to him and it
was it was very impactful for him to know finally what had happened to his sister and to have a better
understanding of everything that we had done in order to try to solve the case and to provide some degree of closure
and he was uh remarkably grateful for what we had done even though it wasn't going to result in a prosecution or a
conviction I think Joseph Holtz was a very sick individual and he has proven he was capable of incredible levels of
depravity and violence and evil and I don't know what makes a person like that I mean often times it's a bad
childhood some people just aren't good people and I don't know that we'll ever know the answer to that maybe something
traumatic happened to him when he was young but it doesn't sound like that something will ever
now ultimately the South Lake Tahoe strangler's identity is revealed through advanced science called investigative
genetic genealogy detectives and scientists alike use it to solve cases that are 30 40 even 50 years old I think
it was big news when we were able to put on social media that the case had been solved that both cases from the 70s had
been solved I think it was big news for the community to know that the task force that the agencies in the county
are still working on these cases that are that old was surely exciting for us as a task force having worked these
cases for 78 nine years to bring one to closure is always exciting for us to give the families of the victims closure
is really one of our biggest goals I think most of the time there's something left behind by the suspect in these
cases I think as science progresses we will be able to utilize the smaller pieces of evidence more and more as we
go we owe a huge debt of gratitude to those original crime scene investigators for
collecting this evidence there is no way they could have known way back in the 70s just how important this evidence
would be law enforcement wasn't even working with DNA yet at that time and then the agencies that were in charge of
storing this DNA for decades just did an incredible job and there's no way that this case could have been solved without
those original crime scene investigators and the agency that so carefully protected this DNA evidence for decades
I wish he were here today to face the families face the courts rot in jail he's evil gets pleasure off
a causing woman pain I don't think he ever changed I would not be surprised at all
if there were more victims I had no idea he was capable of what he did I thought
I am so lucky right now because I really started thinking about it and I said he
kept pressuring me to go on that road trip with him and I thought what if I didn't come back you know I what if he
threw me on the side of the road and my mother used to tell me it's the quiet ones you have to watch out for
and I I thought oh my mother you're right I mean she was right it's amazing when we realize that now so many
brutal Killers can never hide from their own DNA their own family tree or from the incredible science of investigative
genetic genealogy we can only imagine the look of shock on their faces when years later when they believe they've
gotten away with horrible crimes bloodline Detectives knock on their door I'm Nancy Grace thanks for joining us
here on bloodline Detectives [Music] [Music] [Music]

Sierra Nevada, 1977, horseback riders discover a woman’s body discarded amongst the scenery. Two years later, another woman's body is found nearby. In 2017, investigative genetic genealogy is used as a weapon against the South Tahoe Strangler.

Now in its fourth 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 DNA technology linked two cold case murders to killer Joseph Holt, who died before justice could be served.

Key points

The Discovery of Bren Rainey. In August 1977, horseback riders find the remains of Bren Rainey in a shallow grave.
Cold Case Reopened. In 2017, new evidence from a suspect's girlfriend reignites the investigation into Bren Rainey's murder.
DNA Match. Detectives discover a DNA match linking the murders of Bren Rainey and Carol Anderson.
Colleen Wilson's Disturbing Testimony. Colleen Wilson shares her chilling experience with Joseph Holt, revealing his violent tendencies.
The Identity of the South Lake Tahoe Strangler Revealed. Detectives identify Joseph Holt as the killer of two young women, but he is already dead.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

This is the story of the South Lake Tahoe Strangler.

Introduction to the case and its significance.

1:10WatchJun 14, 2024

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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