Colleen Fitzpatrick (forensic genealogist)
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Colleen Fitzpatrick, Ph.D, FSPIE (b. April 25, 1955, New Orleans, Louisiana) is an American forensic genealogist for major military and civilian organizations.
Fitzpatrick received her BA in physics (1976) from Rice University, and her MA (1983) and PhD in nuclear physics (1983) from Duke University, and has 25 years experience working in the field of high resolution optical measurement techniques. She is a Fellow of the Society of Photoinstrumentation Engineers (SPIE) optical society. She is the group administrator for the Fitzpatrick DNA study, which she founded in 2000.
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[edit] Recent cases
- Fitzpatrick has been a key member of the AFDIL team on the identification of the remains found in the wreckage of Northwest Flight 4422 that crashed in Alaska in 1948; the identification was featured worldwide in the print media and on MSNBC.
- Fitzpatrick was the key member of the team who identified the remains of the Unknown Child of the RMS Titanic. She also worked with Sharon Sergeant on the Misha Defonseca case, in which the author of the international bestseller Misha: A Mémoire of the Holocaust Years (known in Europe as Surviving with Wolves) was exposed as a hoax.
- She also worked with Sergeant on the Herman Rosenblat, Angel at the Fence fraud. The possibility that the story that had been circulating as a chain email letter for several years was implausible was initially aired by Deborah Lipstadt on her Holocaust studies blog. Holocaust expert Kenneth Waltzer, director of Jewish studies at Michigan State University, also joined the informal team of experts that Fitzpatrick had assembled. Initial suspicion had been raised by Professor Lipstadt on December 2, 2007.
- Fitzpatrick was the only person to locate a family member who could serve as a DNA reference for Fred Noonan, Amelia Earhart's navigator who vanished with her over the Pacific Ocean in 1937. A DNA sample from this relative could be compared against DNA extracted from any remains suspected of being those of Noonan, to solve the mystery of what happened to Earhart and Noonan.
[edit] Case histories
- 2008–Present, Forensic Genealogist, Identifinders, Huntington Beach, California
- Misha Defonseca Holocaust fraud case: With Sharon Sergeant, exposed the Belgian-born author of the international best-seller Surviving with Wolves as a fraud. Led to current legal efforts to overturn a $33M judgment Defonseca won against the US publisher for breach of contract. Investigation required hard to access records from World War II Belgium.
- Herman Rosenblat Holocaust fraud case: With Sharon Sergeant and an informal team of experts and reporters on three continents, helped expose Rosenblat's Holocaust "memoir", Angel at the Fence as a fraud. Fitzpatrick and Sergeant discovered apparent discrepancies in Rosenblat's backstory, and worked with Kenneth Waltzer, Professor of Holocaust Studies at The Michigan State University to prove that the story was a literary fraud. They showed that while Roma Radzicki was supposedly supplying the food that kept Rosenblat alive, she was hiding under false papers in Allach, Germany, about 200 miles away.
- Amelia Earhart Project: Worked with the non-profit group The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, located family member of Fred Noonan, Amelia Earhart's navigator, to use as a DNA reference for identifying remains found on Gardner Island in the Pacific Ocean.
- Benjaman Kyle Amnesia Case: Assisting on the identification of Benjaman Kyle, a victim of retrograde amnesia, found in Richmond Hill, Georgia in 2004.
- The Mascot Holocaust fraud case: Working with a team of Holocaust experts and private individuals to investigate the truth behind the best selling book The Mascot, published by Penguin Books.
- 2005–present, Yeiser & Associates, Huntington Beach, California.
- Forensic Genealogist, United States Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory, Rockville, Maryland: International location of family references for DNA matching; highly multi-lingual.
- Northwest Flight 4422 Project: Located mtDNA and Y-DNA reference enabling DNA identification of remains of serviceman who died in Alaskan plane crash in 1948; Required extensive research of Irish genealogical materials back to circa 1800.[why?]
- Unknown Child on The Titanic Identification: Located Y-reference for Sidney Leslie Goodwin. Required extensive genealogical research of England, New Zealand and Australia back to 1820.
- Forensic Genealogist, Summit County, Ohio Medical Examiner's Office. After the medical examiner exhausted all avenues of research, located family members of deceased individual in Germany to determine disposition of remains. Deceased had not had contact with her family in over 50 years.
- Forensic Genealogist , Hebron Investments, Scottsdale, Arizona
- Unclaimed Property: Located owners of unclaimed property on every continent based on contact information sometimes over 20 years old.
[edit] Bibliography
[edit] Books
- Forensic Genealogy, ISBN 0-9767160-0-3, Rice Book Press, 2005. ISBN 0-9767160-0-3
- DNA & Genealogy, Rice Book Press, 2005. ISBN 0-9767160-1-1
- The Dead Horse Investigation: Forensic Photo Analysis for Everyone, Rice Book Press, 2008. ISBN 0-9767160-5-4
[edit] Book chapters
- "The Key is the Camera". The Desperate Genealogist's Idea Book: Creative Ways to Outsmart Your Elusive Ancestors. DeadFred.com. 2006. ISBN 1424302099.
[edit] Awards
- September 2007 US Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory Service Medal for success in identifying the remains of a serviceman found in the wreckage of the 1948 Alaskan plane crash of Northwest Flight 4422
- Spring 2007 Fellow, Society of Photoinstrumentation Engineers (SPIE)
- Spring 2007 International Society of Family History Writers and Editors (ISFHWE) First Place, Article Category,
- Spring 2006 International Society of Family History Writers and Editors (ISFHWE) Second Place, Article Category 2006,
