Jayann Sepich’s daughter, Katie, was a twenty-two-year-old graduate student when she was brutally raped and murdered. The only evidence found was DNA, but no match resulted in the national forensic DNA database. As a result, Jayann and her family have made it their mission to advocate for the expansion of DNA evidence and databases in the United States, and internationally.

Ms. Sepich has testified more than fifty times before state legislative committees in the US, as well as twice before the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary. She has also advocated for the expansion of DNA databases in Thailand, Brazil, Argentina, and Chile. To date thirty-one US states have passed legislation to mandate arrestee DNA testing. Partly as a result of her advocacy, the United States Congress passed “The Katie Sepich Enhanced DNA Collection Act” in 2012 to help fund DNA databases.

The Sepich family established DNA Saves, a non-profit organization dedicated to educating policy makers and the public about the power of DNA databases and evidence. DNA Saves has submitted amicus briefs in four US court cases, including Maryland v King, which was heard by the United States Supreme Court, upholding the constitutionality of arrestee DNA databases.

Katie’s story, along with the Sepich family fight for “Katie’s Law” has been chronicled on Anderson Cooper on CNN, NBC Dateline, America’s Most Wanted with John Walsh, as well as on the Discovery Channel and other US national television networks.

As a result of Jayann’s work to see DNA legislation passed, she has been honored by the Governor of her home state of New Mexico as an Outstanding New Mexico Woman, inducted into the New Mexico Women’s Hall of Fame, and given the Redbook Magazine “Strength and Spirit” Award. In 2020 USA Today named Jayann one of the ten “Outstanding Women of the Century” in New Mexico.

Ms. Sepich passionately believes that through the power of DNA crimes will be solved sooner, crimes will be prevented, lives will be saved, and families will be spared the pain of burying a much loved child.

Jennifer Degner is a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) with a passion for victim advocacy and education. Throughout her career she has created comprehensive response guidelines for survivors of sexual assault where specialized care is not available and shared these with a national healthcare corporation as well as the Regional Advisory Council that encompasses the 22 county region in which she resides. She has begun speaking publicly to offer insight into the role of a SANE in hopes of improving patient care and outcomes for survivors.

Jennifer has also shared her experiences as a SANE with Senators in Washington D.C. in order to help shape legislation to better serve nurses in the community. Most importantly, she continues to care for survivors each day and strives to create an environment where they can feel empowered to continue their journey through the criminal justice system and begin to heal from their trauma.

In 1986 Theresa’s 13-year-old sister Jennifer never returned from her bike ride in Pt. Defiance Park in Tacoma, WA. Theresa was just 15 at the time. Police and volunteers combed the 700+ acre park for weeks searching for Jennifer but found no sign of her. After 24 days, Jennifer’s body was found. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled to death. Despite thousands of leads, her killer was never found, and the case grew cold. But with every year that passed, DNA technology advanced.

In May 2018, Theresa received a phone call from cold case detective Lindsey Wade saying simply, “We got him.” After 32 years, an arrest had been made due to genealogical DNA evidence. Robert Washburn pled guilty to killing Jennifer in 2020 and was sentenced to 27 years in prison.

After Jennifer’s case was closed, Theresa and her mom Pattie began advocating for expanded DNA legislation which has resulted in stronger laws in Washington, where HB 1326 “Jennifer and Michella’s Law” requires DNA samples to be collected from anyone arrested for a felony or indecent exposure. In Texas Theresa testified on behalf of HB 1399, the “Krystal Jean Baker Act”, which mandates the DNA collection for many types of felony arrests. Within the first year of this bill becoming law, 236 crimes including murders, sexual assaults, prostitution, and robbery were solved as a direct result of DNA matches from samples that would otherwise have not been collected.

Theresa has appeared on Dateline, On the Case with Paula Zahn, Cold Case Files, and many local news outlets in Washington and Texas. She has recently completed Defiance, a memoir about her sister’s murder being solved. She owns a real estate brokerage in Austin, Texas and is the proud mom to her son, a United State Marine, and her daughter, who is studying criminology and pre-law.