When homicide detectives called Jackie Vaduro in late January, claiming to match her 23andMe DNA test to a 36-year-old cold case murder, she thought they were joking.
But, no — the cops were dead serious.
“They took me so far back,” Vanduro, 31, told The Post with a laugh.
“I knew I hadn’t done anything wrong,” he said, “But when the police call you about a murder, you’re like, ‘Oh my God, what am I doing?’
Varduro soon found herself at the center of an official homicide investigation worthy of true-crime television.
“I’m living in my own episode of ‘Dateline,'” she said in a popular TikTok with more than 347,000 views.
“I got a ‘No Caller ID’ call on my phone,” the brunette explained online. “It was a [cold case] homicide detectives from San Diego.”
Vadurro, a content creator who lives in an RV around Palm Springs, Calif., went on to reveal that the detective said her DNA was likely to match a 1986 cold case murder of a Jane Doe who was fatally shot and dumped. on the side of a rural San Diego road.
“No one ever reported her missing,” Vanduro said in the video. “[The detectives] I don’t know who she is.”
“And now they think I might be part of her family because of my DNA I uploaded to 23andMe,” she screamed.
23andMe customers are typically asked to provide a saliva sample that is mailed to the brand’s lab for testing. After three to four weeks, an online report and DNA record — usually information about family ancestry, distant relatives, health risks and more — becomes available. Law enforcement can sometimes access such records for investigations.
After confirming that the murder investigation was legitimate, Vanduro fully cooperated.
“Within 30 minutes [detectives] He had called me back and said, “Jackie, thank you so much. This is the biggest break we’ve had in this case in an entire year,” she announced in a follow-up post. “You are a DNA match to the Jane Doe victim.”
Vadurro went on to explain that police had determined she was either a second or third cousin of their victim.
“[My family and I] still have no idea who she is or where she’s from,” said the TikToker. “They think she was an illegitimate child, that’s why no one reported her or anything.”
Vanduro (far left) convinced her mom (center right) to provide a DNA sample to the police in order to determine Jane Doe’s lineage.
Vadurro has over 34 cousins on her mother’s side.
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Detectives were able to determine that Jane Doe was from Vadurro’s mother’s side of the family. Authorities believe the murder victim was her maternal great-grandfather’s love child.
“The detective was like, ‘Jackie, you could be the break on this case, and you’re basically Ground Zero on this case right now.’
She added that police have linked her and their murder victim to another cousin in New York, who has vowed to buy Jane Doe a headstone and give her a proper burial once she is officially identified.
And although law enforcement couldn’t sniff out the dead woman’s name or exact age, they did understand how she died.
“They said he was shot once in the chest,” Vadurro said. “They don’t think she was a whore or a prostitute because she was dressed very nicely in a nice skirt with nice sandals.”
“She was a really beautiful girl, neat,” he continued. “She may have moved from Mexico to the United States and just lost touch with her family… It’s so sad.”
Vadurro is anxiously awaiting further updates on her relative’s case.
“Me and this Jane Doe share DNA, she’s a part of me,” he said. “I’m glad I can bring her story to light, and I hope [help] catch the horrible person who killed her.’
