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Genetic Genealogy, which uses DNA to trace family connections through the generations, has proven its worth in forensic science as demonstrated in the resolution of an Ozaukee County cold case.
According to Ozaukee County Sheriff Christy Knowles, the case involves discovery of a nearly complete human skeleton in a culvert on Davis road in the City of Mequon in 1959. The remains were initially suspected to belong to a 7-year-old adopted boy from Houghton County in Upper Michigan. The State was not able to make a case against the initial suspects, William and Hilja Jutila, who’d adopted the child, even though they’d admitted to fleeing Houghton for Chicago and dumping Markku in a Mequon ditch after Hilja confessed to physically beating her son to death. However, with a lack of a body there was no conviction and the case remained unsolved and lay idle until October of 2023. That’s when a skull kept in the Anthropology Department Laboratory at the UW-Oshkosh was scrutinized, and through radiographic comparison was determined to match the Mequon skeleton. With the assistance of Bode Technology Labs a DNA profile was entered into a search for a match this past May, but with no success. However, followup investigation located further evidence matching the case at the State Crime Lab in Madison. As most original documents had been lost to time, newspaper articles of the case revealed the likelihood that the remains were those of Markku Jutila, the adopted child whose given name was Chester Breiney. The skeletal remains were matched through DNA to his birth mother, Josephine Breiney who’d passed away in 2001 without any living relatives.
With a positive ID on the remains the State can now call the case “Closed”. Both suspect parents have since passed away and there will be no charges.
Chester Breiney’s remains will be laid to rest after funeral services on Friday, November 15th at St. John XXIII Parish – St. Peter of Alcantara Church in Port Washington, with burial at St. Mary’s Parish Cemetery on Beutel Road. Services were coordinated by the Eernissee Funeral Home, music will be provided by organist Tim Handle, the burial plot was donated by St. Mary’s Parish of Port Washington, the casket was donated by aLake Shore Burial Vaults in Lannon, and Miller monument Company of Jackson donated the headstone.
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