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Rochester police hope “familial DNA” testing — a process that can locate relatives with similar genetic profiles — can help solve the 1984 Thanksgiving day rape and fatal beating of a 14-year-old girl.

Wendy Jerome left a friend’s house the evening of Thanksgiving 1984, but never reached home. Her body was found hours later in an alcove of Schools 33 and 11 near Webster Avenue.

“Wendy was fully dressed, her pants were undone, and she had a coat covering her face — her own coat,” Sgt. Gus Venosa, who is working on the 35-year-old “cold case,” said of the discovery of the teenager’s body.

Police learned last week that the state crime lab will use DNA from the crime scene for familial DNA testing. With that process, a DNA sample is compared to those in criminal data bases to see whether there is a relative.

Earlier testing of the DNA did not find a specific match of an individual in the criminal databases.

“It’s a long shot that there is (a relative) in the system,” said Investigator John Brennan, who is working with Venosa on the case. “But obviously we want a chance.”

‘It’s just been a long road’

In recent months, the city police have been trying to get an answer from state officials about just where the Wendy Jerome case was in the queue for familial comparison testing. Last week, after inquiries from the Democrat and Chronicle and WHEC-TV (Channel 10) about the status, state officials told the police that the testing will be done within the next six months.

The DNA sample was, in fact, one of the first submitted to the state after the crime lab began familial comparisons in 2017. However, lab officials told the police that the sample did not meet the testing requirements. In April 2019 police submitted a sample that the state said it could test.

“It’s just been a long road,” Venosa said.

Marlene Jerome, Wendy’s mother, said last week that she’s hopeful the testing can give the police leads of value. There have been past suspects, whom police have been able to rule out.

“I’ve worked with so many detectives and officers and I know their heart is in it,” she said. “They’re not going to ease up on this at all.”

“My husband passed away in 2011 and he didn’t get to know” who the killer was, she said.

The state Division of Criminal Justice Services has approved 23 familial comparisons statewide. Twelve are now awaiting completion, state officials say.

‘I want to know who did this to her’

For police, the DNA test, if any matches are found, could help them narrow down a list of suspects.

“I have so many names” to investigate for possible connections, Venosa said. With a match, “if it were the same surname as someone we have, I would know it immediately.”

Wendy Jerome’s homicide was the focus of a 2012 Democrat and Chronicle series about unsolved cold cases. In that story, Marlene Jerome recalled how her daughter went to her friend’s home on Alexis Street — a few blocks from the Jerome household — on Nov. 22, 1984.

“She left about 7 p.m. and she had a curfew, 8 p.m.,” Marlene remembered. “About 8 p.m. I woke up and came running down the stairs: ‘Where’s Wendy?’ I knew something was wrong.”

They called the home of Wendy’s friend, but she had left there. Hours later the family heard from police that Wendy’s body had been found in the schoolyard by a man who was walking by.

There is a chance, of course, that no relatives will be found, or that the killer may now be deceased. But Marlene Jerome said she is not giving up.

“I want to know who did this to her,” she said. “I may never know the why. I understand that. I want to know who.

“Does he have a family? Is he dead? I don’t have the answers that I need.”

GCRAIG@Gannett.com

Contact Gary Craig at gcraig@gannett.com or at 585-258-2479. Follow him on Twitter at gcraig1. This coverage is only possible with support from readers. Sign up today for a digital subscription.

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