In 1994, the Vidocq Society, a members-only Philadelphia crime club, created a forensic reconstruction of Todd’s face. But it wasn’t until 2002 that Bensalem police officially reopened her case and began considering forensic options for identifying her.
Todd’s DNA was sequenced in 2007, with no results. Seven years later, St. Mary’s Hospital in Bensalem performed a free CT scan of her skull, and the resulting updated 3D image was entered into the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Another DNA sequencing followed, this time for the fetal bones of Todd’s unborn child.
In 2020, Bensalem police contracted with a private company that extracted more DNA. And finally, early this year, a team headed by professional genealogist Yolanda McClary — who specializes in cold cases and has her own television series — built a family tree based on the DNA that pointed to two key relatives: Joseph and Linda Todd, who live in Philadelphia.
They confirmed that they had an older sister, Lisa, who was born in 1967, disappeared in 1985, and was never seen or heard from again.
Lisa Todd had briefly attended Frankford High School in Philadelphia, but police believe she dropped out around her freshman year. They estimated she would have been in the 1985 or 1986 graduating class.
Todd also had a son, who was two when she disappeared and now lives out of state.
“What makes this case so incredible is the utilization of the technology we have in 2021,” said Bensalem Public Safety Director Fred Harran, who was a brand new patrol officer when Todd’s body was first discovered. “The case really broke just two months ago. The genealogy now available to us is remarkable.”
Weintraub added that now, there is more work to do.
“Although we’re fortunate enough to be able to give the Todd family some peace of mind and some closure … there is certainly more to the story,” he said.
He encouraged anyone with information about Todd’s death or the days before her disappearance to contact the Bensalem Township Police Department or the Bucks County District Attorney’s office.