The Spotlight

Just how long is the Long Arm of the Law? Again and again, criminals are finding out ? arrested for decades-old crimes thanks to a particular form of DNA evidence: Genetic Genealogy. Now, on the anniversary of the first-ever murder to test this technique in a court of law, the Spotlight talks with a Pulitzer Prize-winning author about the origins of genetic genealogy and where it goes from here ? there are other uses besides murder cases. Plus we show you the tool now being deployed in Washington state that?s finding evidence where none was thought to be present: just how does the M-VAC system work?

Chief Adrian Diaz says he understands these families need support-- not just from groups like the Parents of Murdered Children chapter in Washington state, but also from the Seattle Police Department.

A family is still searching for answers nearly seven months after a 23-year-old was shot and killed in Seattle?s Chinatown International District. Police say on April 20, Gibson Moore was shot and killed outside the Addison building near Main and Fourth, trying to break up a fight.

The cities of Seattle, Tacoma, and Everett expect to end 2022 with record or near-record numbers of homicides, even as they experience staff shortages. Too many families seeking tips from the public are left grieving with no answers on their loved ones' unsolved murders as we head into the holidays.

Conner Dassa-Holland and Adriel Webb were shot and killed just a month apart in 2020. Their mothers, friends Alicia and Shalonie, have turned their grief into action?forming the Washington State chapter of Parents of Murdered Children. It's a sisterhood with six members so far.

The parents of an Auburn man who was beaten to death while visiting Pacific County in 2015 say they can't sit back and wait for justice anymore. No arrests have been made, requests for information have been denied, and they say the sheriff's office has misled them, lied to them and even misplaced evidence?they say they're the victims now.

Mike Kersey, who has been clean and sober for 23 years, works every day to help others overcome obstacles to getting treatment for addiction through his relentless work as the president of Courage to Change Recovery Services in Everett.

In this episode, we shine The Spotlight on some people, places and things you might have missed?but need to know?in the never-ending parade of headlines focused on fentanyl. Lost in the shuffle of all the bloodshed, arrests and seizures are the faces of people experiencing heartbreak, and speaking plainly about the scope of this crisis. With fentanyl and meth equally stalking victims on the streets, we also found help, hope and possibly even a miracle cure.

Brenda West-Bresnahan is turning her grief into action. She's hoping to meet with state legislators to push them to make felony drug possession illegal again.

Surveillance video in Tacoma shows the lengths 35-year-old Samantha Eazor was willing to go to escape arrest.