Hannigan cleared his throat, leaning forward and clasping his hands in front of him. ‘Liz, we know we’ve intruded into your life but we really need to bring this killer to justice. As I’m sure you’ve probably seen on the news by now, we’re fairly confident we have connected the two missing young women from Boston to TSK. They weren’t initially identified as his most recent victims due to the fact that they didn’t fit in his established pattern. Not only had they gone missing from outside the Tri-State Area but there was a six-year gap since he abducted the pair before them, rather than his usual two-year pattern. We’d initially assumed he was dead or possibly dormant. But after getting your DNA match, which was the first new connection we’ve had in a long time, more agents were added to our task force and resources were increased in order to trace all the branches of your family tree. We also widened the search parameters outside his normal hunting grounds in case he’d moved and actually hadn’t been dormant for the past six years. That’s when one of our investigators discovered the similarities in TSK’s abduction tactics within the Boston case file.’

‘I did see that in the news, but besides the same break-in method, what other similarities are there that make you so sure Addie and Zoey are his latest victims?’ I asked, my stomach turning at the thought of the two girls being held captive right now by someone who shared my genes.

‘When we examined their case file, we found that a needle was recovered from under Zoey’s bed with traces of ketamine inside. There were signs of a struggle, so our guess is, it fell and in the chaos the killer left it behind. While we can’t prove with 100 percent certainty that it’s the work of TSK without the bodies or further evidence, we certainly can’t dismiss the coincidences.’

I gulped, agreeing with their assessment. If I’d never uploaded my DNA to GEDMatch would that connection ever have been made? Would those women have been lost forever?

‘With the knowledge that we may have missing victims that need to be rescued, we have to accelerate our efforts. We’ve decided it’s time we shared more about the case with you to see if it connects with anything you’ve seen or heard. Normally, we wouldn’t be so open but we fear we are running out of time to save those two women and you and your family are the only solid lead we have.’

‘I know but I don’t believe my grand uncle could have done this. He hasn’t said or done anything to me since the last time we spoke that seemed dangerous.’