Please see our “Did You Know?” section at the end of this issue.
Topic: Low Copy Number
The number of news stories involving DNA evidence and analysis, over the past two weeks, has been significant. Anywhere from the variety of issues caused by “The CSI Effect” - to DNA Authentication Services, using synthetic DNA strands to combat potential counterfeiting of Super Bowl footballs…go Steelers!- to four-legged genetics labs - and of course numerous cases covering assault, rape and murder suspects and exonerations.
I found so many of the stories interesting, yet to keep the information relevant, included are only those which I thought would be of most value to you.
In Tallahassee, after another release of a wrongfully imprisoned man, the Legislature is getting ready to allow any inmate the right to a DNA test, but opponents are slowing the measure.
The measure has broad support -- from the Florida Supreme Court, Gov. Jeb Bush, a future Senate president and prosecutors and public defenders -- but the Criminal Justice Committee of the Florida House decided to take things slowly by debating the bill without a vote.
The pressure to act increased Monday when the fifth person to be exonerated by DNA evidence in Florida, 45-year-old Alan Crotzer, was freed by a Tampa judge after spending 24 years wrongly imprisoned for a shotgun robbery and the rape of a girl and her mother.
OPPOSITION TO BILL
The Republican bill sponsors, Sen. Alex Villalobos of Miami and Rep. Ellyn Bogdanoff of Fort Lauderdale, said other representatives whom they wouldn't name oppose portions of the bill, in part because they don't want to appear soft on crime and don't want to allow inmates to tie up the court system with a new type of petition.
TESTING RIGHTS
The bill seeks to give any inmate -- even those who confessed to a crime -- the right to seek the testing.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational .com/email_newsletter/vol_11 _feb_06/vol11_ref01.html
States move to end deadlines for DNA tests
Florida - As prosecutors and legislators across the country become more accepting of DNA testing, they are moving to lift deadlines on when inmates can seek the tests.
The Christian Science Monitor reports that 12 of the 33 states with laws on post-conviction testing have sunsets or time limits. Those were adopted because state Legislatures feared that inmate appeals for testing would swamp the courts, something that has not happened.
In Florida, a law passed in 2001 originally set a deadline of 2003 for inmates to apply for DNA testing. That deadline has been extended to July 2006 and one state legislator -- who happens to be a former prosecutor -- is seeking to end it entirely.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational .com/email_newsletter/vol_11 _feb_06/vol11_ref02.html
In addition to the above ongoing debate, we have also seen a number of stories that involved the use of animal DNA, including evidence used to convict a dog of killing a cat – a story that made national news, and on another note, the use of animal DNA to catch criminals.
Here is a story from “Inside a four-legged genetics lab, where forensic scientists fight crime with tooth, claw--and DNA”.
In a higgledy-piggledy complex of tired-looking trailers parked alongside grain silos and stock pens, four white-coated scientists are investigating crimes with the tools of 21st century forensics. They're testing hairs found on a blanket wrapped around a victim of rape and murder, trying to match them to a suspect's dog. They're analyzing the DNA of two Pekingese killed during a robbery to determine if a suspect was at the scene of the crime. They're looking for a match between stray hairs left at a murder scene and DNA taken from the suspect's cat.
In its first year of operation, the lab helped prosecutors win a tricky sexual-assault conviction in Iowa in which the key clue was dog urine (the victim was unable to identify the suspect, but her dog had relieved itself on his truck during the assault). "Once we had the DNA to connect him to the crime scene, he pled guilty," says acting lab director Beth Wictum.
"Police labs are only set up to do human work, and they were overwhelmed with that," Wictum says. "If they had animal evidence, they would just set it aside."
Yet animal DNA can sometimes mean the difference between a conviction and an unsolved crime.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational .com/email_newsletter/vol_11 _feb_06/vol11_ref03.html
News stories involving recent cases and case results include:
Texas - DNA evidence has exonerated a man who spent 18 years in prison in Texas for sexual assault.
DNA testing wasn't available at Arthur Mumphrey's trial back in 1986 for the rape of a 13-year-old girl. Recent tests have shown that blood and saliva samples did not match evidence used in the conviction.
Prosecutors in Conroe have apologized to Mumphrey, who had been sentenced to 35 years in prison. Mumphrey's brother confessed to the rape this week while serving time in jail for unauthorized use of a motor vehicle. But he's unlikely to face charges in the sexual assault because the statute of limitations has expired.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational .com/email_newsletter/vol_11 _feb_06/vol11_ref04.html
New York - The miracle of DNA matching tied 23-year-old Raymon McGill to two unsolved murders and a rape last year while he was behind bars, hundreds of miles away, at the Altoona Correctional Facility, serving time for another crime.
But had a sample of his genetic code been taken at his first misdemeanor conviction in 1999, at least one of the killings the Albany man admitted carrying out might have been avoided, a prosecutor said Monday.
McGill pleaded guilty in December to raping a 78-year-old woman with dementia in January 2000. He also admitted to the brutal killings of 50-year-old state worker Martha Montalvo that March and 68-year-old George Young in January 2004.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational .com/email_newsletter/vol_11 _feb_06/vol11_ref05.html
Forensic Expert Investigates Cruise Ship Disappearance - Family Believes Man Was Murdered Aboard Ship
Florida - A world-renowned forensic expert who has joined the investigation into the disappearance of a cruise ship passenger said the chances of finding out what happened to him are 50-50.
Dr. Henry Lee boarded the Brilliance of the Seas, the Royal Caribbean ship from which George Smith disappeared in July 2005.
Lee, who was hired by Smith's wife and her family, said blood stains found on a canopy will be at the center of his investigation.
Lee said he was able to conduct three of five experiments, and Royal Caribbean said there would be more.
"We did not have the opportunity to examine the carpet and padding. That will probably yield much more evidence. Of course, we did plan to conduct a mannequin experiment. That wasn't conducted," Lee said.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational .com/email_newsletter/vol_11 _feb_06/vol11_ref06.html
Georgia - After more than 30 years of not knowing, the family of Michael Akey finally gets some closure. Akey disappeared from Beaufort in 1972 when he was only 13 years old. Six years later, investigators found skeletal remains on Lady's Island.
Last August, investigators exhumed those remains from Beaufort National Cemetery for new DNA tests. This week, those results came back, positively matching the remains to Akey.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational .com/email_newsletter/vol_11 _feb_06/vol11_ref07.html
Indiana - A headscarf left at the scene of an armed robbery may have helped solved the case that, given another couple of months, could have forever remained a mystery.
Charges were presented Monday to the Lake County prosecutor's office against Jason Armstrong , 24, of Harvey, and John Coleman , 26, of Ford Heights, relating to the 2001 robbery of a Dyer Burger King. The men face two counts of felony confinement, and one count each of felony robbery and felony battery, according to Dyer Detective Ken Croft.
A bandana left at the restaurant was sent to the Indiana State Police lab for DNA analysis.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational .com/email_newsletter/vol_11 _feb_06/vol11_ref08.html
Michigan - St. Joseph County Prosecutor Douglas Fisher Thursday submitted a laboratory report on DNA testing done in a criminal sexual conduct and abduction case.
Results will be used at a preliminary hearing for Sean Lee Lucas on Feb. 9. Lucas is charged with kidnapping, first-degree criminal sexual conduct, home invasion, second-degree criminal sexual conduct and assault with a dangerous weapon for the abduction and assault of a 10-year-old Sturgis boy on July 16.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational .com/email_newsletter/vol_11 _feb_06/vol11_ref09.html
Florida - DNA samples found in 13-year-old Sarah Lunde's mobile home don't match the sex offender who reportedly confessed to killing her last spring, but semen from her brother's 16-year-old friend was found on her comforter, newly released documents show.
Investigators couldn't find anyone else's DNA after taking swabs from Sarah's partly clad body, according to an analysis by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement that was among court documents released Friday. But her body had started to decompose when found in a fish pond near her home April 16, which could have made it difficult to find DNA evidence.
David Onstott , a 37-year-old registered sex offender, has pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder and attempted sexual battery. According to court records, Onstott told detectives he choked Sarah and said: "I did it. I'm guilty of murder." An autopsy found that Sarah died from crushing blows to the head.
Authorities also found blood on a sweatshirt, a bath towel and a baseball hat taken from Onstott's vehicle, though all matched Onstott's DNA. His DNA was also on a metal level investigators seized as a possible weapon.
No blood was found on two pieces of Sarah's fitted bedsheet or on the mobile home kitchen floor, and no foreign DNA was discovered on her fingernails. Andrew's DNA was found on one piece of the sheet, but the FDLE report does not specify the substance it came from.
On the other piece of the sheet, analysts found DNA from a male and a female. They could not identify the female, but concluded the male DNA does not match Onstott, Andrew's friend or any of Sarah's three brothers.
Authorities have never said publicly whether they think Onstott attempted to rape Sarah inside the mobile home.
Andrew told investigators Onstott showed up at their trailer in rural Ruskin between 4 a.m. and 5 a.m. and asked for Sarah's mother, Kelly May, whom he previously dated.
When Onstott learned May wasn't home, he took a beer bottle and left, Andrew said. Andrew said the beer bottle wasn't there earlier, when Andrew left to get food for Sarah, and concluded Onstott must have been there while he and his friend were out.
Prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty for Onstott. His next court hearing is scheduled for Feb. 27.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational .com/email_newsletter/vol_11 _feb_06/vol11_ref10.html
Iowa - Roger Bentley was found guilty of kidnapping and killing Jetseta Gage.
The seven woman, five man jury deliberated for a little more than two hours before finding Bentley guilty of first-degree kidnapping and first-degree murder. He faces mandatory life prison terms on both counts.
Prosecutor J. Patrick White argued during the two-day trial that overwhelming evidence — DNA, blood samples, witness statements — linked Bentley to the gruesome, high-profile crime.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational .com/email_newsletter/vol_11 _feb_06/vol11_ref11.html
Minnesota - Minneapolis Police believe they have solved the murder and sexual assault of an elderly woman through DNA testing.
May Mary Pelto was found murdered in her Maple Grove, Minn. townhouse in 2002. Investigators said they found a DNA match because of a new law that requires all convicted felons to give a DNA sample.
Officials did not release the name of the suspect because he has not yet been charged in Pelto's murder, but Hennepin County Attorney Amy Klobuchar said she plans to seek first-degree murder charges.
"This case highlights how useful DNA is, what a new tool it is offered for law enforcement," Klobuchar said. "This is just one example. We have had dozens of cold cases that we've prosecuted."
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational .com/email_newsletter/vol_11 _feb_06/vol11_ref12.html
Alabama - DNA has identified a suspect in a 13-year-old case involving the rape and murder of a 74-year-old woman, authorities announced Friday.
Edna Reeves was found dead inside her home in the Springfield community in August 1993. Authorities had been unable to identify a suspect until DNA from the crime scene matched a profile in the FBI's National DNA Database.
"We now feel certain we can prove the identity of the person responsible," said Pike County Sheriff Russell Thomas, who refused to identify the suspect.
A DNA sample from the suspect still is needed to confirm the match, said Angelo Della Manna, the department's chief of Forensic Biology & DNA.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational .com/email_newsletter/vol_11 _feb_06/vol11_ref13.html
Pennsylvania - Police have concluded that three violent sexual attacks in Southwest Philadelphia from July 2004 to May were the work of one man, a serial rapist who approached his victims on the street.
Based on a match of DNA recovered from all three crime scenes and on file, police have issued an arrest warrant for Charles Stanley Onley , 35.
The match was made possible by CODIS, the Combined DNA Index System program.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational .com/email_newsletter/vol_11 _feb_06/vol11_ref14.html
New Jersey - The New Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division on Monday upheld a lower court's decision to require a 14-year-old Cumberland County boy to submit a DNA sample to a state database under a 2003 law.
The boy violated a six-month period of probation after being adjudicated delinquent of a crime that would have been considered a third-degree offense if he was an adult, making him eligible for the state DNA database law, which went into effect in September 2003, according to the Family Court judge who originally sentenced him.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational .com/email_newsletter/vol_11 _feb_06/vol11_ref15.html
South Carolina - A man charged with raping four women claims he raped 11 others during a one-year period, and Richland County investigators are trying to locate victims.
Andrew Hingleton was arrested Jan. 20 and charged with four counts of sexual assault. Since then, five more women have come forward.
On Jan. 19, SLED confirmed the DNA matched Hingleton's. At 10:30 the next morning, deputies were at Hingleton's house on West Campanella Drive to arrest him.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational .com/email_newsletter/vol_11 _feb_06/vol11_ref16.html
Colorado - Claudia Lambert no longer scans men's faces, wondering if she's looking at the one who raped her.
She did that for more than four years after a masked man kicked in the door of her Green Mountain Falls home in July 2001, blindfolded her and raped her. She didn't know if the attacker was a neighbor, a co-worker, a stranger.
El Paso County sheriff's investigators think they know who the attacker is: Daniel Hayes , a convicted rapist serving 21 years in Kentucky.
Until recently, detectives had the rapist's DNA profile but no name. Then the profile hit a match in a national database, identifying Hayes.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational .com/email_newsletter/vol_11 _feb_06/vol11_ref17.html
Florida - DNA evidence has confirmed that a man accused of kidnapping and raping an 11-year-old girl is the person for whom police were looking, authorities said.
Norman Ray Pickel was arrested in November on suspicion of burglary, kidnapping and sexual battery of a child under 13.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational .com/email_newsletter/vol_11 _feb_06/vol11_ref18.html
Connecticut - A Woodstock jogger killed in December was tied up in a similar fashion as the Plainfield woman raped at her home in 2004, court documents revealed this week.
Scott Deojay , 36, of Plainfield, has denied involvement in the June 18, 2004 rape, but has admitted to striking Judith Nilan, 44, of Woodstock, with his car while she was jogging on Dec. 12.
Deojay is charged with murder in Nilan's death and the police warrant affidavit unsealed Tuesday indicates that Nilan was sexually assaulted. Deojay, however, has not been charged with sexual assault in the case.
Police obtained a DNA profile from the rope used to tie up the rape victim. On Jan. 6, the state police forensic laboratory matched Deojay's DNA with a sample taken after his arrest in Nilan's death.
Deojay is charged with capital felony murder and first-degree kidnapping in connection with Nilan's death. He is charged with first-degree sexual assault, first-degree kidnapping and first-degree burglary in connection with the 2004 Plainfield rape case.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational .com/email_newsletter/vol_11 _feb_06/vol11_ref19.html
Did You Know?
Technology - Low Copy Number
The information below was taken from a report entitled: The Application of DNA Technology in England and Wales by Christopher H. Asplen, J.D.
The Forensic Science Service has pioneered a “super sensitive” form of DNA analysis called Low Copy Number or LCN. Using this technique, profiles can be developed “from very degraded material, very small stains and items that may contain skin cells such as jewelry or may have simply been touched by an offender.” Its foundational methods are based upon the AmpFLSTR® SGM Plus® PCR amplification kit but the added sensitivity of the technique is achieved by increasing the number of amplification cycles from 28 to 34 in the PCR reaction.
The significance of LCN is that it takes the advantages of PCR technology and the ability to develop profiles from small or degraded samples to another level. The technology enables profiles to be obtained from older crime scene evidence, smaller stains of blood and other body fluids as well as skins cells invisible to naked eye. As such, profiles can be developed from items which the offender has merely touched. This eliminates the necessity that he leave behind bodily fluids for DNA technology to be effective.
Therefore, the technology has the potential to open new offenses to the use of DNA as the primary investigation tool. Such cases might include auto thefts, which typically do not contain traditional forms of biological evidence such as hair or bodily fluid.
Low Copy Number technology however brings with it several concerns and is not currently being used in the United States. Two problematic issues arise when using the LCN technology: Secondary transfer and variable shedding.
• Secondary transfer refers to the fact that, through physical contact with other people, individuals can inadvertently carry and deposit other people's DNA onto objects of evidence. For example, two people shaking hands will transfer their own DNA to each others' hands. If each then goes on to touch another object such as a coffee mug, baseball bat, knife etc., they could transfer the other's skin cells to the object. If that object is a murder weapon, the identification of DNA through LCN could prove problematic and misleading.
• Variable shedding refers to the extent to which different people shed their skin cells in different quantities under different circumstances. Some people are more likely than others to leave behind their DNA in the form of skin cells. Through research at the FSS, it has been found that there are, for example, “heavy shedders,” “medium shedders,” and “light shedders.” Thus, the last person to touch a particular object may not leave the most DNA or strongest profile.
• The amount of DNA deposited can also be affected by certain actions taken by the individual. Washing of one's hands will, for a period of time, decrease the amount of skin cells a person deposits on other objects. Additionally, the amount of perspiration exerted at the time the object is being held may also affect the amount of skin cells that are deposited. Both of these scenarios could adversely affect results upon LCN-DNA analysis.
• Given the nature of variable shedding and secondary transfer, the risk of obtaining a mixture is increased when applying a technology with increased sensitivity such as LCN. It is impossible to amplify the “right” DNA profile because all of the DNA that is contained in a biological evidence sample will be amplified.
The concerns associated with Low Copy Number DNA testing require a perceptive approach to crime scene processing and evidence collection. Where possible, objects most likely belonging to the perpetrator, (for example, tools left behind by a burglar), receive priority. Thus, in a burglary scene in which a screwdriver and a home owner's mug are found, both believed to be used by the offender, the screwdriver would take priority for testing. Similarly, when examining stolen vehicles, priority items for swabbing would include the steering column and ignition box because they are not often handled by the owner/driver, but often necessary to manipulate in order to steal a car.
For more information, please go to:
Source: NIJ: http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1 /nij/grants/203971.pdf
Again, please send us your questions or concerns and our expert will provide honest and candid feedback, expert@dnalabsinternational.com .
Editor: Karen Daurie
Karen.Daurie@DNALabsInternation al.com
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