Family Twist Episode 18: Private Investigator Detects DNA Family History and Drama

Our guest this episode is Christine Burke, a retired detective sergeant and current private investigator. Christine also trains law enforcement on how to find "bad guys" and the deceased by using DNA technology. Christine's personal family history exploded when she discovered her father wasn't really her birth father and her maternal grandfather wasn't either. Christine juggles personal drama and professional drama, all DNA-related, while discovering new family members "like a slot machine" every time she logs onto Ancestry.com - such as the three half-siblings her birth mother "gave away."

Trauma and stress

Christine: I went through about five years of trauma and stress and "why me?" and just a miserable existence. And then one day the light bulb went off because I am a law enforcement trainer. And I said, 'Law enforcement really needs to use this. And I'm the person that can bring it to them.' In June 2021, I launched my first course and started reaching out. It's been going gangbusters ever since.

DNA drama

My last name is Burke and mom told me about Burke, but Burke didn't wanna be a part of my life. And I never knew him. And, and that was just the story. And so it was always just mom and I. And when I was real young, she told me that she had given other children away. It wasn't anything she was gonna talk about. She felt guilty and all that. And I respected that, but at the same time I wanted more family. And in 2013 I took a 23 and Me test for some medical reasons. My maternal grandmother had breast cancer, and I wanted to know about that again.

I found out that my dad wasn't my dad, my mother's dad wasn't her dad. I found three half siblings. I found that my mom's father who my grandfather, not only did he cheat with my grandmother, but there's two other half siblings to my mother. And I like to joke because that it seems like every time I go on Ancestry, it's like a slot machine.

Passion for crime fighting with DNA

The crime fighting has never been far; it's always been a passion of mine, whether I've been actively working or not. And the closest that I came to it after retiring was being a private investigator. And when I first found out with the DNA, I really struggled in trying to get answers.

Who was I and where do I go? And I was coming up short and. When I finally figured it out, I'm, I'm telling you the light bulb went on. I always knew the DNA was accurate. There's never been any doubt in my mind, but I will tell you one of the things when I realized that my father, right, I'm a (non-paternity event) NPE. So is my mom.

Training law enforcement to use DNA

I'm trying to be cost effective and get it to as many agencies as possible. There's about 18,000 agencies in the United States. And my goal is to train at least one officer per agency. We work examples from my family, and we work their cases if they have. it's still my gut. I feel like I get on a trail and then I work it and. That's just the way the police work goes.

It's kind of a double edge sword for me because I didn't have a father in my life. And I can tell you when I realized I, I literally woke up in the middle of the night. I was in bed and I sat straight up and I said, 'I have a dad, right. I have a dad that wants me.' This is so exciting to be on the journey to find him. I'm this big, bad cop, right? I'm supposed to be this tough person that doesn't have any emotions and I'm supposed to be able to solve anything. But at the same time I have this huge hole in me. That I try to explain to people that I don't want to feel this way, and I have this incessant need to get all the information.

Reaching out to the mothers

I also wanna be an advocate to speak to these family members. You think about the moms, like my mom with the adoption, she felt it wasn't narcissism. I don't think that's a fair thing, but she didn't wanna feel guilty. She didn't wanna revisit that. But at the same time, I believe as a parent, you have a responsibility to put the child first. And it really bothers me. I don't like liars. Having been a cop, I don't like liars to begin with.

Connect with Christine:

www.GeneticGenealogyForLawEnforcement.com

www.warrantedstore.com

www.NationalCertifiedGeneticGenealogist.com

Join the Family Twist family here!

Listen, Rate & Subscribe

Apple

Amazon

Google

Spotify

[00:00:13] Kendall: and I'm Kendall. And we've been partners for over 16 years.

[00:00:27] He does the regular nine to five thing. And I've got a lot more flexibility in my time, but I'd like to welcome Christine to the podcast today. Thank you for joining us.

[00:00:38] Corey: So I'm excited to get into this because I'm sort of, my big question is sort of like the chicken and the egg question, because I know you have been involved in helping law enforcement with DNA gey related cases.

[00:01:05] Christine: Kind of both. Right. So I was a police officer, detective, and Sergeant and I retired before, before all this drama hit before the DNA came to the surface, so to speak.

[00:01:40] And in June of 2021, I launched my first course and started reaching out. It's been going gangbusters ever since. So I'm excited about, you know, just being able to continue my work that I, that I started back when I was a police officer, it's always close to my heart and being, being able to help these victims and get answers.

[00:02:11] My drama. Yeah. So I started in law enforcement when I was pretty young. I started out as a reserve officer I'm from south Florida, and then I, I.

[00:02:41] I started on patrol. I became a major case detective and then I was a Sergeant first female Sergeant in my depart. And I just have to say being in supervision is not the same as being on the road and actually, you know, working face to face with people I'd rather be investigating than managing. [00:03:00] And after that, I went into corporate America for a while, opened my own private investigation agency in 2008, which I've continued to do.

[00:03:38] And I had always asked her about. And she just, it wasn't anything she was gonna talk about. She felt guilty and all that. And I respected that, but at the same time I wanted more family. And in 2013 I took a 23 Amme test for some medical reasons. My maternal grandmother had breast cancer. [00:04:00] And I wanted to know about that again.

[00:04:25] So I found out that my dad wasn't my dad, my mother's dad. Wasn't her dad. I found, oh yeah, you're shaking your head. Yes, it's crazy. I found three half siblings. I found that my mom's father who my grandfather, not only did he cheat with my grandmother, but there's two other half siblings to my mother. And I like to joke because they're a hundred percent Irish that it seems like every time I go on ancestry, it's like a slot machine.

[00:05:10] Corey: So at this point, you know, you've already been a detective out in the field, started your own business. And what made you think about linking these two worlds together?

[00:05:40] How did it all work? And you know, who was I and where do I go? And I was coming up short and. When I finally figured it out, I'm, I'm telling you the light bulb went on. As soon as I got it, it's, it's very easy in my opinion, to figure it out. And I thought this shouldn't be so [00:06:00] stressful and everybody deserves to know the answers, but if I can find people's family this quick in a couple of hours, oh my goodness.

[00:06:24] Corey: of us even first became sort of familiar with DNA was watching G police shows law order. you know, see if we got some DNA over here.

[00:06:39] Christine: When I first started out, I was a paralegal. I actually started my career working for the public defender's office and I would, and I would go through the cases and, and we had what was called a secrete or a non-SEC.

[00:07:20] So is my mom. When I first realized it, it was because my, who I thought was my aunt tested. And she showed up as a first cousin and I said, the thumb's wrong here. Thumb's wrong. And, and my cousin, I reached out to my cousin and she said, as I'm sure many people have experience, my cousin says, no, no, no, no, no.

[00:08:06] Corey: sure.

[00:08:23] And me they're like, eh, you know, unfortunately, as you know, there are a lot of scammers out there and , I'm sure there are people trying to take advantage, but as we always say on this show, DNA does not lie.

[00:08:39] Corey: Wow. I know we're, we're jumping around a little bit, but can you talk a little bit about the education process beyond how you get into the, the whole DNA side of things and what you've learned since, you know, going on your own and, and retiring

[00:08:57] Corey: become educated on, on doing the, the DNA [00:09:00] research and being able to help law enforcement with the DNA cases?

[00:09:29] And that's when I decided, you know, when I really figured out the quickest way to get to where I needed to go, I call it my roadmap. Mm-hmm that? That's when I, you know, I called just down and dirty and I said, the police really need this because there's, there's a lot of different ways to look at this.

[00:09:58] Corey: Right. Just for clarification, the [00:10:00] CMS are

[00:10:14] The centimeters, but in DNA, it's the opposite. Right? So if you think of centimeters and Centor the, the, the bigger, the number, the more Centor the closer the relative. Gotcha.

[00:10:39] Christine: Well, what I've been mostly trying to do is, is train them, right. Obviously I can't get into specific cases, but my goal is to train them because right now they really don't have a resource they're relying on outside agencies and it's, it's costing thousands and thousands of dollars per case. And when I first thought of this [00:11:00] initiative, My goal was to bring it in, in house and to be able to help as many of them as possible.

[00:11:28] and we work their cases if they have 'em and, and get 'em started. And we just, yeah, it's, it's, let's get moving. They, I wanna unleash the power of it and let them see what it can really do. And when, once, you know, you know, if you've been through it, once you see it, there's a lady in my town and she was asking me, she said, I don't know.

[00:12:09] And I, I said in my head, I'm like, oh boy. And she said, what? Cause she said, and she saw my eyes. And so then within literally a couple of hours, I had her whole family tree and everything. And. It's just amazing. I, I cannot I'm so effusive just about how amazing it is and they just need to be doing more of it.

[00:12:41] Christine: I have, in fact, I have one case now where the case has been cold. It's a lady's father. And from what she told me, they have DNA. And so I respectfully reached out to the agency.

[00:13:20] Corey: skills or tactics do.

[00:13:26] Christine: Oh my goodness. Well, I would have to say it's kind of automatic, so I, I would be hard pressed to figure out what, because I've, you know, I'm looking for, in some cases, bad guys, or I'm looking to identify a deceased person. I'm just looking for possibilities.

[00:14:08] But it, it, it's still my gut. It's still my gut. I, I feel like I get on a trail and then I work it and. I'm like, mm, okay. And then I, I go somewhere else and that's, that's just the way the police work goes.

[00:14:26] Christine: well, and I just wanna add to that point, you know, the cop in me is a skeptic, so I don't take anything at face value.

[00:14:48] Corey: back to your own DNA drama, are you approaching this as both a detective and as someone who's wanting to find out the history of their family or what, what's your approach as your, as you [00:15:00] start to make this discovery and what did you do with it?

[00:15:24] And this is so exciting. And then to be on the journey to find him, cuz I'm this big, bad cop, right? I'm supposed to be this tough person that doesn't have any emotions and I'm supposed to be able to solve anything. But at the same time I have this huge hole in me. That I try to explain to people that I don't want to feel this way, and I have this incessant need to get all the information.

[00:16:13] So I can't help myself investigating. I can spend hours and hours and hours. And I'm still because I've got so many people in my, I got so many people I'm looking for. It just doesn't stop. So there's, there's both sides. I'm in, in a sense, I'm my own victim. And then I'm being my cop. Right. so I'm doing.

[00:16:38] Christine: your history? Oh, absolutely. On my paternal grandfather's side, the family has been wonderful on the, I guess, first or second cousin side, but my half aunt, not so much, man. I blew her world apart when all of this came to light and then on my paternal grandmother side, [00:17:00] There's just a lot of lying.

[00:17:30] I thought I was one thing and now I'm totally something else. And I went to Germany a long time ago and now I wanna go back because I didn't go to the right place. And it's just been, it's been very rewarding and I'm out. Fifth eight cousins and yeah, I'm going as far back as I can go.

[00:17:51] Christine: you?

[00:18:13] Work is me. Right. They talk about how is some of that, you know, nature or nurture. So I don't know if, if the half siblings were looking for me per se, right. Obviously they were looking for my mom, but, but maybe they were looking to see if there were any other children out there. And are these, as

[00:18:37] Half siblings. Are they on your mom's side and your dad's side? Or how does that

[00:18:54] Corey: why your, your mom said your father was birth and it's snot Burke?[00:19:00]

[00:19:25] And I learned. Why she did what she did because she always used to say to me, I don't understand why my dad doesn't love me and he must have known. So I believe she was looking for that father figure or some type of whatever, and just got herself into situation. She, she was an alcoholic. It just made, it just made a lot of sense.

[00:20:11] I just found her father the other day. She doesn't even speak to her mom. She calls it her birthing person. And when we found this. It just made sense because she didn't understand why her mom wouldn't give her her dad's name and just the behavior. Like it really answers so many questions. So while it's really tough, I find it's also really helpful.

[00:20:37] Corey: to discuss any of this with your mother before she got.

[00:20:57] Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

[00:21:03] Christine: father? Well, that's interesting that you say that because the first match that I had when we started trying to figure this out, she's been very uncooperative. And, and when, when I was able to determine that he was in fact, my mom's father, I was asking her for information, you know, just the things, not even medical, but like, was he funny?

[00:21:40] And I said, and I'm supposed to be just satisfied with looking at the date of birth and the date of death on a tombstone picture. And that's all I got. And so it's on my list. Right? It's as I mentioned, I I've got so many relatives. It's on it's on my list. [00:22:00] Yeah.

[00:22:04] Christine: to mind?

[00:22:25] But then as my mom went through this and as some things that have happened to me lately, they weren't there. Like I thought they should be. And some of my DNA family have been very receptive. Like I thought it was interesting about the moving, because I've thought of that. I, I. A lot of family in the Chicago and Wisconsin area.

[00:23:06] Yeah.

[00:23:25] And then we discovered, you know, this family on the east coast. I mean, I don't, I think we've both got good enough instincts. I wouldn't have said immediately, oh, we've gotta move there. So you can get to know your family. If there were like a ton of red flags and a lot of like, woo. So, I mean, is it for everybody?

[00:24:01] We're both busy with work and our critters. And I don't think I saw some of my extended family and stuff, even when we were living, you know, in St. Louis as much as you'd like to, but I think it's, it's comfortable for him to be here close to his dad. Now that his dad's not really well just to be physically close, like if something were to happen, that we could be there in a heartbeat, you know, but again, not necessarily for everybody.

[00:24:40] And then there's also the heartbreaking ones too,

[00:24:58] Right. And I'm essentially [00:25:00] by myself. So I think just knowing that somebody is there makes it easier. I also wanna talk about, you know, the things you're, you're mentioning the groups. And I tell people, I said, this is almost an epidemic. The numbers are just, you know, people say, oh, I know my family and this eyes out mm-hmm okay.

[00:25:44] Right. She didn't wanna revisit that. But at the same time, I I'm not a parent go figure. I'm not a. But I believe as a parent, you have a responsibility to put the child first. And it really bothers me. I don't like liars. Haven't been a [00:26:00] cop. I don't like liars to begin with. I was talking to a friend about Burke.

[00:26:24] You have a child here that it, it almost reverts you to a two year old. Like I said, you have this huge hole and you can help it. And the parents need to get it off themselves and just talk to the child and be cognizant of what the child needs because the child didn't sleep with anybody. The child didn't do this.

[00:26:55] Corey: preaching to the converted . Yeah. And yes, I [00:27:00] couldn't have said it any better. So thank you for saying that. And I think that, you know, we talked a little bit about before we started the episode, how, how important education is.

[00:27:20] Christine: journey? Oh man, there's a lot. Well, the first thing, if I could say like, as a public service announcement, and I know that there's some speculation about, I could get into a whole thing about privacy, right?

[00:27:54] And for the people that are just the DNA relatives, you know, that are lucky to not [00:28:00] have any drama again, please think of the poor person. That just wants the answers, the percentage of people that I've seen. Like, we just wanna know who we are and we just, you know, maybe need some medical. We just wanna confirm all this.

[00:28:37] This is your truth. And you need to speak your truth about what you need and feel comfortable in, in doing that. It's not your, you know, you're nobody. Nobody's secret. Right? So I, I don't care. I let everything loose and I'm not hiding anything cuz it's it's me. And it's my story to tell. Well, who does to

[00:29:09] You know, now that we've got this amazing technology and as you said, it's, it can save hundreds of, of the work hours, you know, and, and get to solving cases so much faster. So it's great to see that happening and, and you being a part of it.

[00:29:33] Corey: Absolutely. Yes. And we'll definitely be checking in to see how your journey is advancing. And, you know, maybe if we have a couple of interesting questions, we can pose them to you and you can share your expertise.

[00:29:47] Corey: Well, thank you so much for joining us, Christine. This has been a real pleasure.

[00:30:12] Family twist podcast.com. All our social media links are there as well.[00:31:00]