| Crime |
On July 4, 2017, Kelsey Burnette’s body was found a few days after her family reported her missing. An autopsy revealed that she had been sexually assaulted and was beaten to death. |
| Evidence |
Detectives collected an ‘out of place’ baseball bat from the home where the victim was last seen. |
| DNA |
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation produced DNA data from the bat handle. |
| Match |
Due to the limited profile and unknown number of contributors, the crime laboratory deemed the bat handle DNA data inconclusive. |
| TrueAllele |
TrueAllele statistically excluded Joseph Wielzen from the bat handle with a match statistic of one over 2.41 trillion. The computer calculated inclusionary match statistics between the bat handle and the victim, and generated uninformative match statistics when comparing the evidence to elimination references. |
| Cybergenetics |
On November 20, 2019, Cybergenetics analyst William Allan testified before a McMinn County jury about the TrueAllele DNA results. |
| Outcome |
On November 20, 2019, the jury convicted Mr. Wielzen of first-degree murder and aggravated rape. The next day, he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. |
