Advanced DNA technology may help solve 24-year-old cold case out of Millcreek

MILLCREEK, Utah (KUTV) — A Millcreek woman seemingly vanished in January of 2001. Two decades later, police said it’s not a matter of if, but when, the case will be solved.

"You kind of know what happened, but you don’t really know what happened,” said Meghan Pritt, daughter of Janis Stavros.

Pritt hasn’t seen her mother in 23 years. On Jan. 2, 2001, Stavros and her then boyfriend Robert Butcher Junior came to the home of Pritt and her stepfather, Mike Stavros.

Mike Stavros and Janis were recently divorced but remained amicable. Pritt said the dinner didn’t end well.

Speaking about Butcher Jr. that night, Pritt said, “Mom was kind of embarrassed by his behavior, and he was starting to become confrontational at my stepdad‘s house.”

Pritt said by the next day, Stavros was gone.

“This case is something we are still actively working,” said Det. Ben Pender, full time cold case detective with the Unified Police Department.

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Pender said Stavros's case raises alarm bells due to her sudden disappearance during a time when she had future plans.

“It definitely is very unusual,” he added, “and we definitely feel there is some type of foul play involved here.”

Statistics show just 7% of police departments around the nation have a full time dedicated cold case unit, and Unified Police is one of them.

Pender said developing technology is a helpful tool to solve cases like Stavros.

"As time goes, on technology improves,” he said, “there are some things maybe in the past that we didn’t get something back from. Now that technology has changed and improved those are things that we are testing or considering retesting again.”

The newer technology includes genetic genealogy, an investigative tool used to solve Sherry Black’s case, a Utah woman murdered in 2010.

ALSO: Suspect identified in Uintah County cold case nearly 50 years later

The science tracks suspects through relatives who donate their DNA to public database.

Utah's Sherry Black Law allows residents to choose opting in to make their DNA searchable by police right away.

Another improvement is fingerprints. Palmprints were added into the investigative database several years ago, said Pender.

Cell phones also bring in information from social media and location tracking.

"So, things we couldn’t do maybe ten, fifteen 5 years ago we can do now,” said Pender.

These developments all add to the lingering hope Pritt said she has for answers, after all these years spent without her mother.

"My daughter is going to be 10 and it’s hard that she doesn’t have a grandma in her life,” she said, “sometimes life gets hard and you just need your parents, that was taken from me at 20 years old.”