The Mayflower Murder Mystery

The first convicted murderer in Plymouth Colony (and hence in America) was Mayflower passenger John Billington, who, for reasons now lost to history, shot a man in the woods.

Nearly four hundred years later comes news out of Seattle of a Mayflower connection to a cold case, the chilling 1991 murder of a 16 year old girl.  A forensic genealogist--who knew there even was such a thing--found that the DNA left behind by the presumed killer links him to two Mayflower passengers named Fuller. The police are quoted as saying they don't know how helpful this might be, but I imagine it could eventually lead to the killer.  Most families know if they have Mayflower ancestry and are deservedly proud of it.  If the murder suspect is in fact named Fuller, or if a family member or friend knows that he is descended from the Fullers, that could be all it takes to find him.

It's long been a sore spot in my family that we have been unable to turn up any Mayflower ancestors.  Instead, we were on the leaky companion ship that didn't make it here, the Speedwell. (Hence the title of my family memoir.) My grandmother used to sniff that the Mayflower passengers were "riffraff" and the better sort came later... conveniently forgetting that we were all supposed to arrive together. 

The murder suspect's DNA shows descent from Robert Fuller, who came over from England later, but whose uncles were on the storied ship. Samuel Fuller was a physician and church deacon.  He was accompanied on the voyage by his brother Edward.  But guess what? Samuel was originally supposed to come over on the Speedwell instead.  (Ah, maybe my grandmother was onto something, after all.)  As a doctor, he would have been considered vital to the journey, and hence was one of those former Speedwell ticket holders who crowded onto the Mayflower instead.

As for forensic genealogy, I'm intrigued.  Instead of just helping people get into fusty old societies such as the Daughters of the American Revolution, genealogists are now potential superheros fighting crime. For the sake of the young Seattle murder victim's family, I very much hope this is the case.