This rectangular montage features the faces of the departed persons in the associated blog post. L-R, they are Darylnn Washington, a middle-aged Black woman; Betty Szabó, a young blonde woman; and Jordan Coburn, a young Black man. See Credits in the article for sources.

Speaking for the Dead

August 13, 2025 WeirdnessManager

Recently, I’ve been fascinated by the ways in which new uses of technology are speaking for the dead. Some are more striking than others. But over the last few months I’ve been noticing, and collecting, what are for me some interesting and provocative examples. They also have directly inspired a scene early in my current work-in-progress, Bones for the Children.

In my last blog post I talked about the need to find out what happened to people who disappeared. This is an important issue, and there are overlaps with this post. Some of the people for whom technology has been speaking recently are unidentified murder victims. That was the case of Darylnn Washington, featured in the first mini-story below. In other cases, we may know who they are but not who killed them. That’s the problem in the case of Betty Szabó. Or there may be a different kind of urgency in speaking for the dead. The third mini-story, about Jordan Coburn, offers an example.

This post highlights three examples. In two of them, investigators have led the way. In the third, a family has worked with an advocacy group. What ties them together? In all three, the people telling their stories found novel ways to approach the idea of speaking for the dead.

This square design has a blue and brown background, and centers on a photo of a middle-aged Black woman’s face and shoulders. She wears her black hair straightened, and in an old-fashioned hairstyle, with a heather gray T-shirt and small-diameter silver hoop earrings. The black strap of what is probably a purse has been looped over her left (our right) shoulder. The words say: “’Doe’ no longer: Darylnn Washington gets her name back. Credit: Othram / DNASolves, via Forensic Magazine online.” — See Credits below.

Darylnn Finally Gets her Name Back

Police found the body of a murdered Black woman in an abandoned Detroit, Michigan house in 2006. They registered her case with NamUs (the US National Missing and Unidentified Person System), but found no match. They developed a forensic composite and released it to the public. But again they could not find anyone who could identify her.

They caught a serial killer in 2009. He admitted he killed her (she was the last of his seven known victims). Even then, they still couldn’t figure out who she was. He hadn’t bothered to find out, so police were back to square one again. They were not out of options even then, however. Recent developments in investigative genetic genealogy offered another. They reached out to a company in The Woodlands, Texas, called Othram. It is one of two major companies in the field. The other main one is Parabon Nanolabs. These two have been pioneering new techniques and cracking more and more cold cases in recent

in 2022, the Detroit Police Department and Othram began tusing Forensic Grade Genome Sequencing to develop a comprehensive DNA profile. After that Othram’s forensic genetic genealogy team began conducting genealogy research in search of her relatives. Once they discovered potential relatives they followed up. A lot of legwork later, they finally were able to discover that she was Darylnn Washington, born in 1956.

According to DNA Solves she’s one of 21 (and counting) cases solved via forensic genetic genealogy in Michigan. I found this story in Forensic Magazine. It is full of examples of investigations that often involve, to one extent or another, speaking for the dead.

This square design centers on a large photo of people looking at a store window in Amsterdam’s district for sex workers. In one vertical window a young blonde woman in a crop-top and hot pants stands in front of a tall black stool with a bright red backdrop. On either side of her describe her cold case in Dutch. Yellow caution tape marked with the repeating message “COLD CASE HELP US – COLD CASE HELP MEE” spans the display above and below the hologram. At upper left an inset detail shows how it looks as if she has written “HELP” in condensation on the window. The words say, “In the animated hologram, Bernadett “Betty” Szabó rises from a stool, waves, then appears to blow on the window and write “Help” in condensation from her breath. Police hope the hologram will jolt people’s memories. Photos courtesy of Amsterdam Police, via the New York Post. — See Credits below.

Hologram Betty Pleads for Clues

Can bringing an image of a victim “back to life” lead to justice? Amsterdam Police have projected a life-size, animated hologram of murder victim Bernadett “Betty” Szabó into a window in the neighborhood where she was murdered. In February 2009, two of her fellow workers realized they hadn’t seen Betty recently. They also hadn’t heard the music she liked to play. When they checked on her, they found her stabbed “dozens of times” and left in a pool of her own blood.

At the time of her death, Betty was a new mother. Her son would be in his late teens by now. All these years later, the case still had not been solved. But police were convinced that somebody, somewhere, must know something. So, they decided to try a novel technique – a new way of speaking for the dead.

In an interview quoted in Forensic Magazine online, Anne Dreijer-Heemskerk of the Cold Case Team put it this way. “Betty was murdered in one of the busiest areas in Amsterdam, maybe even in the Netherlands. It is really almost impossible that there are no people who saw or heard something unusual at the time. Or heard someone talk about the case, which doesn’t even have to have been in Amsterdam because, after all, the Red Light District gets visitors from all over the world.”

A Haunting Image. Will it Pay Off?

In the animated hologram, Betty Szabó is shown rising from a stool. She stands for a moment, allowing viewers to see her distinctive tattoos and a typical working outfit. She waves, then appears to blow on the window and write “Help” in condensation from her breath. You can see it in a video from The New York Post. It is fascinating and haunting. “We hope witnesses who may have been afraid before or kept silent for other reasons now have the courage to come forward,” Dreijer-Heemskerk said.

“We believe that Betty’s hologram may create a certain connection with her and thus convince a person to come forward. In this type of case, we always try to put a face to a victim so that informants know who they’re doing it for, and the hologram is a way of taking this a step further,” said Benjamin van Gogh, coordinator of the Amsterdam Wanted and Missing Persons Team, who is responsible for the campaign.

“We want to do justice to Betty, to her family and friends, and to the case,” he said. “Therefore, before deciding to use a hologram for the campaign, we brainstormed with different parties both within and outside the police on whether we should go ahead with this and how we should set it up.”

So far, it hasn’t brought in enough clues to solve the case. But Betty’s still in the window, still asking. I admire that the Amsterdam Police are persisting in speaking for the dead, here.

A screen-capture from a video recreates a scene of fentanyl victim Jordan Coburn, a young Black man in a maroon hoodie and white T-shirt, sitting at a kitchen table. He tells his story and pleads with viewers to understand that 7 out of every 10 illicit pills in the region contain fentanyl. This and two other videos with this message were made by the Kansas City, MO Government through the Unfinished Legacies Initiative. — See Credits below.

Jordan Coburn Speaks Out

Here’s another case in which a group worked closely with a bereaved family, to bring their loved one “back from the dead” via animation. This time, however they used AI, rather than a hologram. And the purpose of the video is not to identify a criminal, but to warn others.

Three families of Kansas City area fentanyl victims have agreed to allow their loved ones’ images to be recreated via AI. The objective is to deliver a message of awareness and caution to others. Will it help get the message across? Will it save lives? Would the message in the linked videos make you think twice?

They hope so. It’s the whole point of the Unfinished Legacies project. Jordan Coburn’s video is at the top of the list of several on the group’s website, and also available above the paywall, on a Kansas City Star article. Jordan didn’t even realize he was taking fentanyl until it was too late. The point of his video is “don’t accept a pill if you don’t know where it came from.”

It’s a Theme we’ve Heard Before

How many times have we heard a family member or friend say, “if it can help just one person, it’s worth [the awareness effort]” after a tragedy? I can only imagine how painful it might be, for Jordan’s family to watch that video. But, much like the Survivors Empowered people who have suffered the loss of a child in a mass shooting and now travel to help other survivors, it seems this is a way to make sense of an otherwise senseless tragedy.

Jordan Coburn can’t literally warn anyone about anything, anymore. But with some help and technology, his family and the others who participated in this project are speaking for the dead on behalf of the living.

In a darkened room, people seated in a semicircle around a large cylindrical “tank” observe an oversized image of two men in a tubelike room lined with circular hatches and small lights. ©2022 by Jose-Luis Segura. — This illustration, ©2022 by Jose-Luis Segura, is based on a scene in “Bone of Contention,” in which a crime scene is reconstructed using advanced imaging technology. In my new book, they’ll use this technology as a way of speaking for the dead. See Credits below.

Drawing from Fact for Fiction

I mentioned in the introduction that I had been directly inspired by these cases. My current work in progress is Bones for the Children. As a science fiction author I believe fiction must reflect things I and my readers recognize. How else can they be relatable? Moreover, the art of a science fiction novelist includes the need to extrapolate from contemporary science and technology. That includes social science and political science. We bring such ideas into a future scenario as a thought experiment. That’s been handled in many different ways by many different writers, to create an amazing range of visions.

At its core, the function of fiction is to tell stories that leave the reader with something that somehow enhances their life. Sometimes it’s a “brain break” to relieve stress (a deceptively “simple” distraction that many can mistake for mindlessness). But often it’s a new idea, a new viewpoint, or a vicarious look at an issue or situation that opens new insights.

I strive for the best of those outcomes, even while trying to make my stories as entertaining as I can. However, I cannot help but bring my own concerns and my own ideals into the stories I write. I care about human connections. That’s why I’m fascinated by stories about lost identities or relatives found. Tragedies transformed into outreach, and the bringing of – if not closure, at least greater understanding – mean a lot to me. And that’s how they find their way into my fiction.

Because I have no doubt that people will continue to meet with tragic mishaps. They’ll be killed, or in other ways present baffling mysteries. And those who survive them, now and in the future, will sometimes find that speaking for the dead opens an important way forward.

About the Author

Jan S. Gephardt is the author of the science fiction mystery XK9 saga. These books include the XK9 “Bones” Trilogy. They tell stories of a pack of uplifted police dogs who live on a space station and solve crimes (among other things). Her most recent novel in the series is Bone of Contention. She’s now hard at work on the next volume, Bones for the Children. She also is the Chief Cat-Herder and Art Director for Weird Sisters Publishing, and a creator of fine art paper sculpture.

IMAGE CREDITS

In the Header pictures of the three victims whose cases are profiled in this article are collected. Darylnn Washington’s reconstruction comes from Othram / DNASolves, via Forensic Magazine online. That goes for both in the header and in the first full image.

The second full image shows the hologram of Bernadett “Betty” Szabó. This Is how it appears in the Red Light District of Amsterdam. There’s also an inset photo from the animation. Jan used another in the header. All of them are courtesy of Amsterdam Police, via the New York Post.

The photo of Jordan Coburn is a screen-grab from the “Unfinished Legacies” video. See It reproduced on both the organization’s website and the linked Kansas City Star article. And the illustration shows a scene from my book Bone of Contention. It is ©2022 by Jose-Luis Segura and licensed for use by Weird Sisters Publishing LLC. Many thanks to all!