A Match From a Profile Only Weeks Old

In July 2014, Reno authorities were notified of a match. The profile had only just been uploaded, and it belonged to Rodney Halbower. In 1986, Halbower had escaped from a Nevada prison, made it to Oregon and stabbed a woman in a parking lot there. After finishing his Nevada time, he was paroled in summer 2014 and handed to Oregon to serve his sentence for that attack. The transfer required a DNA sample. That sample went into the FBI database — and matched the cigarette butt.