Forensic genealogy unmasks cold case suspect as strangler, sexual predator decades later: officials

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Years after DNA evidence linked a 1991 killing and a 1993 rape in Massachusetts, forensic genetic genealogy helped investigators identify the man authorities say was responsible for both cold cases.

Evidence from the killing of Cherie Bishop in 1991 and the rape of Donna Bell in 1993 was uploaded to the Combined DNA Index System, Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz said Thursday.

“For decades, the Bishop and Bell families were deprived of the full story of what happened to their loved ones,” Cruz said. “They carried these tragedies across lifetimes.”

Investigators said Bishop, 28, was found strangled in a wooded area near her Brockton apartment in June 1991. Bell was raped in Brockton in 1993.

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Bishop was found dead in nearby Mulberry Park, wearing only socks and a diamond earring, Cruz said. Her cause of death was ruled to be mechanical asphyxiation, and the manner of death was homicide.

Investigators collected DNA evidence through a rape kit and analyzed it at the time, but no suspect was identified. The evidence was later retested as forensic genealogy techniques continued to advance.

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A rape kit was also collected in Bell’s case.

Cruz said Bell was abducted from the street and sexually assaulted by a man in a vehicle, who threatened to strangle her if she resisted.

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She managed to escape after, authorities said, she seized a sharp object. Bell died in 2021.

Cruz said investigators had known since 2016 that the cases were connected, but available DNA evidence did not identify a suspect until advances in forensic genetic genealogy provided a breakthrough.

“Their exhaustive investigative work, combined with a DNA sample match, identified Robert Carey as the perpetrator,” Cruz said.

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The district attorney’s office said Othram, a Texas forensic genealogy lab, identified a likely relative of the suspect, helping investigators ultimately identify Carey.

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Carey, who died of natural causes in June 2025 at 64, lived at the Brockton Veterans Administration Medical Center, about 1.5 miles from both crime scenes, the district attorney’s office said.

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“None of this would have been possible without the tremendous effort and devoted work of the Massachusetts State Police, Brockton Police, the State Police Crime Lab, Trooper Joe Collett, Assistant District Attorneys Samantha Mullin and Jennifer Sprague, as well as Forensic Scientist Krista Lundgren,” Cruz said.

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