When 10 YO Solves a Murder Case
from MAKEUP & TRUE CRIME Hosted by MAKEUP & TRUE CRIME
"He didn't find a clue. He didn't stumble upon a body. He did something even more unexpected—he spent years building a family tree so detailed that when police gave him a killer's DNA, he handed them a name within months." In this fascinating true crime episode, we investigate the case of Eric Schubert—a 10-year-old who began tracing his own family tree as a hobby, memorizing license plates and solving historical puzzles for fun. By 21, he had cracked a 57-year-old cold case that had stumped over 250 Pennsylvania State Police investigators for decades: the 1964 murder of 9-year-old Marise Chiverella [citation:5]. We analyze how Schubert's childhood passion for genealogy (picked up at age 8, turned into a serious pursuit by 10) evolved into a weapon for justice. Using public DNA databases and old-fashioned family tree research, he narrowed thousands of genetic matches down to one suspect: James Forte, a local bartender who died in 1980. Forte's body was exhumed, DNA confirmed—and a case that had haunted Pennsylvania for nearly six decades was finally solved. Featuring forensic genealogists, cold case investigators, and Schubert's own reflections on how a 10-year-old's hobby became a detective's superpower. Press play for the story where childhood curiosity caught what the system couldn't.
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