Talk:Othram

Ruth Marie Terry AKA "Lady of the Dunes"

Othram helped identify Ruth Marie Terry aka Lady of the Dunes, according to Terry's article. I think this should be listed in this article. CriticalMaster95 (talk) 22:14, 4 November 2022 (UTC)

WikiProject assessment

I have assessed this article as a C-class article on account of the massive case list. However, I suspect I am being too generous to even give it that rating, but I want to run the B-class checklist over the article. As an article about the company, the Lead section is little more than a stub about what the company does. It does not summarize the article, which is essentially a list of cases. Please remember Wikipedia is for readers. What I think Wikipedia readers want to know about this company is what it can do for their situation and how it does what it does, how long it has been around, the technology it uses, and its success rate. While the cases that the company has assisted with might be portrayed as success stories on the company's website, for marketing purposes, these are not crimes the company is perpetrating. Wikipedia should not be including a great amount of detail about those crimes in this article if the cases themselves are not notable enough to have their own separate articles. The coverage in this article should be limited to the extent of the company's involvement in these cases, not provide a detailed case analysis. Wikipedia's purpose is to be an encyclopedia, not an indiscriminate collection of cases. - Cameron Dewe (talk) 02:13, 1 January 2023 (UTC)

Gwenn Story AKA "Sahara Sue"

She was recently identified as Gwenn Marie Story on December 19th, 2023. It should be added as she was the oldest Las Vegas unidentified case. #bodyContent aFlag Creator { background-color: #ffa500; color: #ggggggg; font-weight: monoscope; } 16:13, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

Case summarization

I think one problem with this article is that it goes too indepth and off-topic for some cases, causing it to be unnescarily long. Each section should give a very brief description of the details of the case before getting into Othram's involvement. If we were focusing on making awareness of the case, then the main article would have that information. But for a list of Othram's cases, it should focus on the basics. For example, Vance Rodriguez's section...

"On July 23, 2018, a hiker was found dead in his tent near the Appalachian Trail in Big Cypress National Preserve in Florida; he appeared to have starved to death. He was estimated to be between 35 and 60 years old, was 5 feet 8 inches (1.73 m) tall and weighed 83 pounds (38 kg). He had graying dark brown hair, an unkempt gray and brown beard, and blue eyes. He also appeared to have a faint scar across his abdomen. Rodriguez was found wearing a beige shirt with neon green and gray accents, gray "Russel" brand shorts, "Performance" brand underwear, and a Columbia baseball cap. He was also found with various camping and hiking items. He had been seen alive various times previously, and went by the names "Mostly Harmless", "Ben Bilemy", and "Denim" to those he met, possibly referencing Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Othram Inc. was contacted in July 2020 to help identify "Mostly Harmless". On January 12, 2021, it was announced that "Mostly Harmless" had been identified as Vance John Rodriguez of Lafayette Parish, Louisiana, who had moved to Brooklyn, New York, after he was recognized by a former co-worker after seeing a flyer."

See how removing irrelevant information increases the focus on Othram and not just the case itself? Or the Christmas Tree Lady section...

"In December 1996, a groundskeeper at Pleasant Valley Memorial Park Cemetery in Annandale, Virginia, found a woman's body. She was found in a section designated for infant burials, but wasn't near a particular grave. The woman was estimated to be a white female with red or copper hair between the ages of 50–70 years old and was approximately 5 feet tall. The woman was found with a plastic bag over her head, along with two fifty dollar bills, one for the coroner and one for the cemetery. and a possible suicide note was next to her. was found with her body that stated: "Deceased by own hand...prefer no autopsy. Please order cremation with funds provided. Thank you. Jane Doe". The woman's autopsy report showed that she had alcohol and valium in her system when she died. Investigators suspected that the woman committed suicide and the official cause of death was determined to be suffocation. She was given the name of "Christmas Tree Lady" because of a small 8 inch Christmas tree that was found next to her.

Over the years, numerous missing person reports from the National Capital Region were compared to the decedent's physical description, but no matches were found. A colorized sketch of the decedent was made in 2000 in hopes that a friend or family member would recognize her, but no leads were produced. In January 2022, detectives of the Fairfax County Police Department sent physical evidence to Othram where its scientists created a genealogical profile for the decedent. In May 2022, investigative leads were returned to the detectives who used them to find a suspected family member which led to more family connections across the country. A DNA sample from a close relative confirmed a match eventually leading to the decedent's siblings.

On July 7, 2022, the "Christmas Tree Lady" was formally identified as 69-year-old Joyce Marilyn Meyer Sommers. Meyer was born in July 1927, the eldest of 5 siblings and was raised on a farm outside of Davenport, Iowa. Family members believe she moved to Virginia sometime after the mid-1980's. Meyer wasn't reported missing at the time of her death, but family members spent years looking for her and even hired a private detective at one point. It was determined that Meyer never had children."

The point is, I feel if each section were to be truncated more, it would help this article feel less clunky. Ninesevenpotatoes (talk) 23:30, 15 June 2025 (UTC)

References

CrimeCon

Othram's company motto is "Your DNA. Their Justice." Othram is run by a husband and wife team of, David & Kristen Mittleman, who yearly attend CrimeCon to stage TED-type talks and do meet and greets with attendees. Rubbing elbows with Nancy Grace and Ice T, lol.

The FBI is sending their DNA samples to Othram for IGG investigations, without search warrants. Income taxes are paying to run one lab they arent using (the best in the world too, right?), and also paying private retail contracting rates to publicly run for profit companies to solve crimes. They are violating the constitution with a level of double jeopardy that needs awareness brought to it. Even though really, its too late.

Ramapoco College of IGG helps train Othram techs. CourtJester911 (talk) 07:42, 14 August 2025 (UTC)