The After Show: Home Alone

20/20

Host Deborah Roberts interviews Othram founders David and Kristen Middleman about how advanced forensic DNA technology is revolutionizing cold case investigations. The conversation centers on the

Key takeaways

David and Kristen Middleman founded Othram after realizing police lacked access to basic consumer-level DNA resolution tools for crime scenes.
The Allison Feldman murder case was solved using familial DNA matching, which connected crime scene evidence to the suspect's brother in a database.

Main topics

Forensic genetic genealogy
CODIS vs. advanced DNA profiling

Notable quotes

"DNA is one of those biometrics you cannot conceal."

Conclusion

The episode highlights how cutting-edge genetic mapping transforms see

Transcript preview

Speaker 5 (0:00) On October 19th, 2025, the Louvre became the backdrop of something straight out of a heist movie. In this series, I'll take you inside the events of that day, through the eyes of the people who lived them. Then, I'll join the international hunt for the Louvre jewels. Heist at the Louvre, a new series from ABC Audio. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or your favourite podcast app. or subscribe to 2020 True Crime Plus on Apple Podcasts to listen ad-free. Speaker 1 (0:34) Hi, everybody. Welcome to 2020 The After Show. I'm Deborah Roberts. And as always, it's so good to have you with us. And I got to tell you, you are in for a special treat today because we have brought in with us two groundbreaking scientists who have had a huge impact in the world of true crime. And if those of you who are true crime followers follow groundbreaking technology, you'll want to hear about this one. As always, we take a closer look at one of our most recent 2020 episodes and this one was called home alone and this one is the story where dna technology became a game changer for investigators it all centers around 31 year old allison feldman who was in the prime of her life a new homeowner in scottsdale arizona it was a place that she loved she was a successful medical supply sales rep she worked with burn victims and by all accounts, she was a caring and dedicated person, a bright light in the world. And then on February 17th, 2015, Allison was murdered in her own home. Her boyfriend found her body after this brutal attack, and there were few clues about who killed her. He was initially looked at as a suspect, but then was eventually excluded. So Allison's murder went unsolved for years until... until a DNA breakthrough led to an arrest. Now, as those of you out there who follow this kind of stuff, you know, DNA has factored often into cold cases that we cover on 2020. So today we thought we'd take a look at. how it all works with the help of two people who are just doing incredible work in the field, David and Kristen Middleman. Their company, Authrum, uses cutting-edge technology to build DNA profiles that have been critical in solving some of the most infamous crimes all across this country. So David and Kristen, welcome. Thank you for having us. Oh Speaker 3 (2:23) my gosh. Speaker 1 (2:23) It's such an honor. Good to have you both here. And I got to tell you, first of all, I mean, the work that you do, and you know that we have... look to your work a lot at 2020. You've taken part in some of our episodes, one of them called the Code Breakers, where you helped solve a couple of cases. In fact, we were just talking, Kristen, 6,000 cases. Over 6,000. More than 6,000 cases you've been involved in. So we all know that, and we've heard, DNA technology makes a big difference. It's all about genetics and matching and all of that. But before we get to talking about this case, let's talk about kind of what you do and how This works. How it matters. I mean, Kristen, in the simplest way that you can kind of help people understand why it's a game changer. Why? DNA is Speaker 3 (3:09) the most powerful biometric, in my opinion, when a crime scene happens because you can't change it. People can change their appearance. If they were caught on camera, they can look different. They can change their name. They can do something to. They can even burn their hands and conceal fingerprints. I mean, people tend to get away with being able to hide biometrics. DNA is one of those biometrics you cannot conceal. Speaker 1 (3:34) And Speaker 3 (3:35) so I think it's one of the most powerful biometrics. And I think that up until now in investigations, people have used DNA at the end. of an investigation to confirm that the suspect does match the dna fund at the crime scene or in the codis database that's the database run by the fbi in the united states of known perpetrators to see if the person has committed multiple crimes if they are a repeat offender but that was the limit of dna up until authrum started to exist a few years ago and up until we started to create new technologies. Well, Speaker 1 (4:13) before we get deeper into the DNA and this particular episode, I want to talk about you two, first of all, because what's so intriguing is you're not just scientists, but you're a couple. You met in the science lab, essentially, right, at Baylor College. And was it just the science? Was that the mutual attraction, Kristen? Speaker 3 (4:33) We were both one of six students that were scholarshiped. And so we got put together pretty early on in seminars, David was by far the smartest person in the room. I mean, two questions and I knew he understood science better than anyone I had ever been exposed to. And I had been exposed to a lot of Nobel Prize winners and scientists. So we started to talk about my project. I was working on gene therapies in blind mice. And he actually built the treatments to cure the blind mice. What? At that point, I thought, if he can cure blind mice, he can fix anything. I break a lot of things. I'm taken with Speaker 1 (5:11) him. Speaker 3 (5:11) Yeah. I'm sticking with this guy. No, we've been inseparable ever since. We are probably the true epitome of opposites attract. We're nothing alike. Speaker 1 (5:23) I know what that's like. We're better together. Well, David, how do you go from science and curing blind mice to solving crimes? Because you were really intrigued by cold cases and the idea that there were cases out there that just were not being solved and science could play a part. Speaker 2 (5:42) Yeah, we spent years working in biomedicine. It's kind of a byproduct of training at a medical school. We were at Baylor College of Medicine, so we learn about cancer and disease. But as I continued in the university and doing just general research in biomedical science, I was really interested in high-impact problems that don't have a lot of solutions or a lot of people working on them. There's a lot of smart people working on cancer, on any disease you can imagine. And I became exposed to this problem in which there are tens of thousands of people that have been unidentified for years in this country. Over 300,000 violent crimes sex assaults homicides that have never been resolved. There's evidence available and and nothing's really been done Since those cases have been unsolved to try to move them into a solved state And so the idea that you could take DNA technology which had grown and advanced quite substantially in other industries Like medicine and bring it into this area that felt really high impact and it felt like no one was working on that and just to really Just to really kind of drill in on that, you know, you can take a consumer DNA test at one of those companies and