19-year-old Brianna Denison was a college student who was abducted in the early morning of January 20, 2008, from her friend's house in Reno, Nevada.

On February 15th, a civilian discovered Brianna's body and two pairs of women's underwear in a field not far from her home, she had been raped and strangled.

Image: The location where her body was found(bottom)

 

Months later, a young woman reported that her friend confided in her about several pairs of underwear she had found in her boyfriend's truck. This girlfriend actually allowed investigators to test their son's DNA, and it ended up being a match the DNA found at the crime scene.

It was that of 27-year-old James Biela, and it didn't just match the strange DNA found in room where Denison was abducted. Police were able to connect him to a series of unsolved sexual assaults in the area, and although he argued he did it because he was abused as a child, he was ultimately sentenced to death in 2010.

https://vocal.media/criminal/the-power-of-dna-evidence-in-brianna-denison-s-murder-investigation-and-trial