For the Chandler case, the challenge was the state of the preserved tissue. The sample had spent approximately fifteen years embedded in paraffin — a standard preservation method that protects tissue for pathological study but is not ideal for the longer-term stability of DNA. When researchers extracted DNA from the sample, they found that only approximately seven percent of the genome remained usable. Entire chromosomes were absent from the recoverable data.
Standard forensic genealogy methods, developed for cases with better-preserved samples, could not function on this level of degradation. The case would require new approaches.
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## Identifinders and the Surname Lead
In 2016, the U.S. Marshals brought in Dr. Colleen Fitzpatrick, founder of Identifinders International, a forensic genealogy company that specialized in applying DNA analysis to cold cases. Fitzpatrick worked on the Chandler case using Y-STR analysis — a technique that examines short tandem repeats on the Y chromosome, which is passed from father to son in an essentially unbroken line.
Y-STR analysis is useful for establishing paternal lineage because the Y chromosome changes very slowly over generations. Comparing an unknown individual’s Y-STR profile against public Y-DNA genealogy databases — databases maintained by genealogical research organizations rather than law enforcement, containing profiles submitted voluntarily by people researching their family histories — can identify a surname associated with the unknown person’s patrilineal ancestry.
The comparison of the Chandler profile against available databases suggested that the unknown man’s surname was Nicholas or a variation — most likely Nichols. This was a significant narrowing of the search space, but it was not an identification. Nichols is a common surname, and knowing that the deceased’s paternal ancestry traced to a Nichols line did not by itself identify which Nichols he was or where he had lived.