The 35-Year Hunt for Reuben Smith

This transcript details the thirty-five-year investigation into the cold-case murders of Shannon Lloyd and Renee Cuevas in Orange County, California. Though the brutal killings occurred years apart in the late 1980s, forensic advancements eventually linked the crimes to a single perpetrator through matching DNA profiles. The breakthrough came decades later when Detective Terra Ramirez and forensic specialists utilized investigative genetic genealogy to identify Reuben Smith as the primary suspect. Although Smith committed suicide in 1998, authorities confirmed his guilt by comparing his archived biological samples to evidence preserved from the original crime scenes. This resolution provided long-awaited closure for the victims' families ...