rae-venter's initial involvement with using publicly available genetic databases and family trees to contribute to criminal investigations started in 2015, when she was asked to assist investigators in identifying the true identity of a woman who had been kidnapped when she was an infant. in addition to searching for family members which matched the woman's genetic profile on publicly available websites, rae-venter suggested the woman submit her sample to closed databases in the hopes of finding more family members. this case evolved to require 20,000 hours of work and a significant number of volunteers, but they were able to identify the woman's birth name, and put her in contact with one of her grandfathers. in addition to identifying the woman's family and birth name, rae-venter and her team identified the birth mother of a relative found during the search, which allowed for them to meet. the identification of this woman led authorities to link her kidnapper to a series of murders in new hampshire, known as the bear brook murders. rae-venter contributed to the eventual identification of the suspect's true identity, terry peder rasmussen, using dna obtained from his autopsy after his death in prison. rasmussen had been imprisoned for another murder under the name larry vanner. in 2019, three of the victims of the bear brook murders were identified as 24 year-old marlyse elizabeth honeychurch, and her daughters, marie elizabeth vaughn (6 years old) and sarah lynn mcwaters (1 year old).