When homicide detectives called 31-year-old Jackie Vadurro at the end of January, claiming to have matched her 23andMe DNA test kit to a 36-year-old cold case murder she thought they were joking.
But, no — the cops were dead serious.
“I was so taken aback,” Vadurro, told The Post with a chuckle.
“I knew I hadn’t done anything wrong,” she said, “But when the police call you about a murder, you’re like, ‘Oh my goodness, what am I involved in?”
Vardurro soon found herself at the center of an official homicide investigation worthy of primetime, true crime television.
“I am living in my own ‘Dateline’ episode,” she said in a trending TikTok with over 347,000 views.
“I got a ‘No Caller ID’ call on my phone,” the brunette explained online. “It was a [cold case] homicide detective from San Diego.”
Vadurro, a content creator who lives in an RV around Palm Springs, Calif., went on to reveal that the detective said her DNA was a possible match to a 1986 cold case murder of a Jane Doe who’d been fatally shot and thrown off onto the side of a rural San Diego road.
“No one ever reported her missing,” said Vadurro in the video. “[The detectives] do not know who she is.”
“And now they think that I might be her family member because of my DNA that I uploaded on 23andMe,” she shrieked.
Customers of 23andMe are typically asked to provide a saliva sample which is mailed into the brand’s lab for testing. After 3 to 4 weeks, an online DNA report and record becomes available — usually information about family origin, distant relatives, health risks and more. Law enforcement can sometimes access such records for investigations.
After confirming that the murder probe was legitimate, Vadurro cooperated fully.
“Within, like, 30 minutes [detectives] had called me back and were like, ‘Jackie, thank you so much. This is the biggest break we’ve gotten in this case in a whole year,’” she announced in a subsequent post. “‘You are a DNA match to the Jane Doe victim.’”
Vadurro went on to explain that police had determined she was either a second or third cousin of their victim.
“[My family and I] still have no idea who she is or where she came from,” said the TikToker. “They think she was an illegitimate child, which is why no one’s reported her or anything.”
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Detectives were able to determine that Jane Doe was from Vadurro’s mom’s side of the family. Authorities believe the murder victim was the love child of her mother’s great grandfather.
“The detective was like, ‘Jackie, you could be the break in this case, and you’re basically Ground Zero in this case right now.’”
She added that the cops have linked her and their murder victim to another cousin in New York, who’s vowed to purchase Jane Doe a headstone and give her a proper burial once her identity is officially determined.
And although law enforcement hasn’t been able to sniff out the deceased’s name or her exact age, they have figured out she died.
“They said she was shot once in the chest,” Vadurro said. “They don’t think she was a hooker or a prostitute because she was dressed really nice in a nice skirt with nice sandals on.”
“She was a really pretty girl, well kept,” she continued. “She might have moved from Mexico to the United States, and just lost contact with her family … It’s so freaking sad.”
Vadurro is anxiously awaiting further updates on her relative’s case.
“Me and this Jane Doe share DNA, she’s part of me,” she said. “I’m glad that I’m able to bring her story to light, and hopefully [help] catch the horrible person who killed her.”
