LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — When he first started in his business, Fayette County Coroner Gary Ginn said he worked with paper and a typewriter. 48 years later, he was sitting in a conference room inside his office discussing “Forensic Grade Genome Sequencing” and how it helped him solve an old homicide.
“If we hadn’t had this technology, I believe this case would be with me for many, many years,” Ginn said.
Ginn spent $500 to partner with Othram, a laboratory in Texas, which specializes in genetic genealogy as part of its DNA tracing. They’re able to match a person to family members, when the victim, or perhaps a suspect, has no other way of being identified.
“They go deep into the genealogy pool, and they gave me the gentleman’s name, and they gave me three different people that were possible relatives of this individual,” Ginn explained of the result he got from Othram.
The victim, 40-year-old Jimmy Lawrence Medlock, was found deceased on Cambridge Drive in Lexington roughly one year after allegedly being stabbed. So, in addition to finally identifying this man, Ginn accomplished two more tasks.
“Police made an arrest and got a confession,” he said of their apprehension of 35-year-old Jennifer Kashuba.
And Medlock’s family members got some closure.
“I think everybody should know that because there’s always that worry for the rest of their life if they don’t know that their loved one has died,” Ginn said.
The Genome Sequencing is new technology, but Ginn’s gamble paid off. Further cooperation between Othram and the Fayette County Coroner seems likely as needed, but future cases could cost more than $500, so future expenditures will have to be considered. But Ginn said it was worth it this time.
“No. Would not have solved this (without Othram’s technology),” Ginn stated in no uncertain terms.
