Volume 18, May 16, 2006

Please see our “Did You Know?” section toward the end of this issue.

Topic: National Institute of Justice's Expert Systems Testbed (NEST) Project

Stories over the past two weeks include the possibility of kinship analysis, analyzing the DNA of a relative, which may in turn lead authorities to the actual criminal. Researchers noted that “46 percent of jail inmates have at least one relative who has also been in prison”. This topic, of course, also raises controversy based on ethical and legal issues.

In New York, Mayor Bloomberg continues to working toward approval of the nation’s most extensive DNA databank, “collecting genetic material from anyone convicted of a felony or misdemeanor”. In Vermont, a judge ruled at least part of their DNA registry as being unconstitutional – arguments on this ruling continue.

In Missouri legislation has been given approval that will force Drug dealers to pay double the amount charged to other felons to extend the state's DNA testing program. “The bill also would make a few more people exonerated by DNA evidence eligible to receive compensation from the state.”

Many ongoing and new cases involving DNA evidence can also be found in this issue.

Washington - Searching DNA records has become a common practice in criminal investigations. Researchers now suggest this could be taken a step further by looking for close DNA matches that might lead police to a criminal through a relative.

They note that 46 percent of jail inmates have at least one relative who has also been in prison.

But the idea also raises questions of privacy and other ethical and legal concerns.

Researchers led by Frederick R. Bieber of Harvard Medical School estimate that in a case where there is a 10 percent chance of finding a criminal through a DNA search, expanding the search to suspects' near relatives could raise the chances to 14 percent.

That could represent an increase of thousands of identifications in the United States, where there have been 30,000 identifications through DNA searches, the researchers said in a paper in Thursday's online edition of the journal Science.

They cite the case of a murder in Britain in which the search of that country's DNA database found a 14-year-old boy was a near match to DNA collected as evidence. That led police to the boy's uncle, who confessed to the crime.

In a similar North Carolina case, a search of the state's offender DNA database led to a near but not perfect match. When police followed up, the brother of the individual located through DNA confessed, the researchers reported.

But while there is potential for catching more criminals, the researchers stressed the need to address ethical issues.

The use of familial searching would effectively place a new category of people under lifetime surveillance, they noted.

"Kinship analysis, as with any investigative technique, may lead to the investigation of the innocent," co-author David Lazer of Harvard University said in a statement. "But it would also provide decisive leads in cases that would otherwise go unsolved."

Moses Schanfield, a professor of forensic science at George Washington University, said familial searching is a potentially useful tool, but added that he would expect only a small increase in the number of "hits," referring to finding people in a database.

It "will only be fully effective if every one in jail or charged with a felony has a DNA sample on file, so that your ascertainment is nearly complete. Until then it will be useful in a limited number of cases," said Schanfield, who was not a co-author of the paper.

The paper was co-authored by Bieber, Lazer and Charles H. Brenner of the University of California, Berkeley.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_18_may_06/vol_18_ref_01.html

In New York, standing alongside the city's police commissioner and all five district attorneys, Mayor Bloomberg pressed Albany Democrats to approve plans for collecting DNA from all convicted criminals.

Mr. Bloomberg wants New York to create the nation's most extensive DNA data bank, collecting genetic material from anyone convicted of a felony or misdemeanor. People convicted of noncriminal violations - like disorderly conduct and open container citations - could keep their DNA to themselves.

With DNA replacing fingerprints as the definitive tool for linking suspects to crimes, Mr. Bloomberg said a more comprehensive DNA database is long overdue. Under current state law, which Mr. Bloomberg called "one of the weakest in the nation," only some felons must submit DNA samples.

"Most sex offenders and murderers are not specialists. They get convicted of every crime in the book, including minor offenses like petty larceny and trespassing, and each time that happens is an opportunity for us to stop career criminals in their tracks," Mr. Bloomberg said. "As long as we're lagging behind, make no mistake about it, people are being murdered and raped by people who should already be behind bars."

Legislation to expand the DNA database has already passed in the Republican-controlled state Senate, but has been stalled in the Democrat-led Assembly. It would expand the existing database by an estimated 80,000 DNA profiles.

In January, Mr. Pataki ordered an expansion of the database, saying he could no longer wait for the Assembly to take action.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_18_may_06/vol_18_ref_03.html

In Vermont, at least a part of the DNA registry that helped crack two murder cases has been ruled unconstitutional by a Vermont judge. It's an issue that pits the privacy rights of some criminals against police power to preserve potential evidence.

Eight years ago, Vermont became the last state to enact a law that requires felons convicted of violent crimes to provide a DNA sample for storage in the FBI's national databank. Last year, the legislature expanded the law to include DNA collection from non-violent felons, such as burglars, drug dealers and chronic drunk drivers. But a judge has now ruled that the expanded DNA law is illegal.

"Well we were surprised with Judge Levitt's ruling given the weight of cases around the country," said Bill Sorrell, D-Vt. Attorney General.

DNA matches with convicted violent felons stored in the FBI databank led to the arrests of suspects in two Vermont murders where police had no leads-- one in Burlington last year-- the other the rape and murder of Patricia Scoville in Stowe that had been unsolved for fourteen years.

But in her ruling issued on April 24 District Court Judge Linda Levitt writes: " ... the suspicion less collection and banking of DNA samples ... violates the reasonable expectation of privacy guaranteed ... under the Vermont Constitution ...”

"It's basically the search and seizure portion of the Vermont Constitution," said Matthew Valerio, Vermont Defender General.

Lawyers from Valerio's filed the challenge to the DNA law on behalf of nine non-violent convicted felons.

"There is no connection between the legislative intent to catch violent felons and the statutory requirement to collect from everybody including non-violent felons. People who are charged with DUI-3, or false pretenses, a whole group of non-violent crimes," said Valerio.

Sorrell disagrees. He argues that the DNA collection has been upheld in every state and should apply all felons.

"These are convicted felons. Who is to say someone who is selling drugs might not then, or in the future, be involved in other serious criminal conduct in which DNA evidence would be linking the person to the offense."

Both sides have appealed to the Vermont Supreme Court. Pending a ruling which may not come until next year, officials say the collection of DNA samples from non-violent convicts in Chittenden County is suspended.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_18_may_06/vol_18_ref_05.html

In Missouri drug dealers will pay double the amount charged to other felons under legislation given final approval Thursday to extend the state's DNA testing program.

The bill also would make a few more people exonerated by DNA evidence eligible to receive compensation from the state.

Since January 2005, Missouri has charged $30 to felons and $15 to those convicted of misdemeanors as a way to fund the mandatory DNA sampling of all felons before they are released from prison.

The DNA samples are put into a databank that can be used by law enforcement to solve other crimes. The fees also can be used to make payments to those exonerated by DNA evidence at a rate of $50 for each day they were incarcerated.

Legislation given final approval by a 34-0 Senate vote would double that fee to $60 for many drug dealers - while leaving it unchanged for others - and extend the fee's expiration date to Aug. 28, 2013, instead of Aug. 28 of this year.

House members passed the bill 153-0 on Wednesday, meaning it now goes to Gov. Matt Blunt.

The legislation also changes the way exoneration payments are made - tapping into general tax revenues, instead of the fund containing the fees charged to offenders.

The bill removes language that had prevented people exonerated before Aug. 28., 2003, from being eligible for the payments. The result would make a few more people eligible for the money.

This year's legislation also states that a DNA exoneration payment can be made only to the wrongly convicted person and cannot be sought by family members or passed onto heirs.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_18_may_06/vol_18_ref_06.html

Cases involving DNA evidence include:

North Carolina - Defense attorneys in the Duke lacrosse case say a second round of DNA tests shows no conclusive match between any of the school's players and a woman who says she was raped at a team party.

Defense lawyer Joseph Chesire says the tests showed genetic material from a ``single male source'' was found on a vaginal swab taken from the accuser.

He said that material did not match any of the players.

But ABC News has learned that the DNA obtained from the swab of the 27-year-old accuser is from her boyfriend

He was brought in for a cheek swab on May 3 presumably to provide a DNA sample.

The accuser, a student at North Carolina Central University, told police she was raped and beaten by three members of the Duke University Lacrosse Team at a party.

Two members of the team have been charged with raping a stripper hired to perform at the March 13 house party.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_18_may_06/vol_18_ref_07.html

Ohio - A priest was convicted Thursday of stabbing a Roman Catholic nun to death as she prepared for Easter services at a hospital 26 years ago, a murder prosecutors say was steeped in religious ritual.

Sister Margaret Ann Pahl was stabbed 31 times through an altar cloth, with the punctures forming an upside down cross. Her killer then anointed her with a smudge of her blood on the forehead to humiliate her in death, prosecutors said.

The Rev. Gerald Robinson, now 68, had worked closely with Sister Pahl at the Mercy Hospital chapel, where her body was discovered on April 5, 1980.

He had been early suspect, but he wasn't charged until two years ago. His attorneys argued that the nun's underwear and fingernails had traces of DNA that that wasn't from Robinson, and that there were no witnesses to place Robinson at the crime.

Prosecutors suggested that Robinson had a strained relationship with the nun, a strict taskmaster, and that he had reached a breaking point with her that day.

The jury deliberated for six hours before finding him guilty of murder, and Judge Thomas Osowik immediately sentenced him to the mandatory term of 15 years to life in prison.

Robinson, who wore his priest's collar throughout the trial, had no visible reaction as the verdict was read.

The verdict came after nine days of testimony during which witnesses linked a sword-shaped letter opener found in Robinson's room with the nun's wounds and blood stains found on the altar cloth that covered her body.

The case relied heavily on forensic evidence because prosecutors presented no direct evidence that Robinson killed Sister Pahl, the caretaker of the hospital chapel.

Two forensic experts testified that a dime-sized medallion with the image of the U.S. Capitol on the letter opener appeared to be the source of a faint stain on the altar cloth.

In a videotaped interview with police just after he was arrested in April 2004, Robinson said he was stunned when he walked into the chapel and the hospital's other chaplain accused him of murder.

Jurors watched the tape during the trial and also saw how Robinson, left alone in a small room for a few minutes, fold his hands and began to whisper in a barely audible voice. He whispered the word ``sister'' and then prayed again with his head bowed, at one point saying, ``Oh my Jesus.''  

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_18_may_06/vol_18_ref_09.html

Missouri - Kansas City police said the crime lab has linked a 13th victim to a man prosecutors have called the state’s most prolific serial killer.

Lorenzo J. Gilyard is charged with strangling a dozen women between the ages of 15 and 36 - all but one a prostitute - between 1977 and 1993. He was arrested in April 2004 after the crime lab used money from a federal grant to begin DNA testing of evidence in the city’s cold case files.

Prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty.

No charges have been filed in the latest case.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_18_may_06/vol_18_ref_10.html

Maryland - An Ocean City man identified as the suspect in a two-year-old resort rape case by DNA evidence found on cigarette butts at the crime scene was convicted of second-degree rape in February and last week was sentenced to 20 years in jail, the maximum allowed under sentencing guidelines.

Daine Olszewski, 34, of Ocean City, was in Circuit Court last Friday for a sentencing hearing during which he was sent to jail for 20 years. In February, he pleaded guilty to second-degree after being charged in a resort rape incident that dated back to 2003.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_18_may_06/vol_18_ref_11.html

Virginia - On Nov. 2, 1991, around 4:15 a.m., a 19-year-old woman had just arrived home at the Shenandoah Crossing Apartments in Chantilly when two men grabbed her. They forced her back into her car, drove her to an unknown location and raped her.

She reported the crime to police and DNA evidence was obtained from her person. However, police had no suspects and the case went cold. But it heated up again after a positive DNA match in February 2005 led to an arrest. And now, 14 1/2 years after the crime, justice has finally been served.  
 
On May 3, in Fairfax County Circuit Court, a jury of four men and eight women found Donald Harmon Roper, 40, of Fredericksburg, guilty of rape, abduction with intent to defile, robbery and two counts of forcible sodomy.

The jurors then recommended he be sentenced to 120 years in prison. Co-defendant Troy D. Holland, 38, of West Virginia, is slated to stand trial in August.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_18_may_06/vol_18_ref_12.html

California - A San Mateo County grand jury has indicted a man on criminal charges in connection with a 1996 Daly City rape, solved using DNA technology, prosecutors said Tuesday.

It is the third "cold case" solved in San Mateo County by a DNA sample matched through the state's DNA Convicted Felon Databank.

Jermain Hollie, 35, will be arraigned on May 19 for rape and forced digital penetration, which together carry a prison term of up to 16 years.

Hollie was sent to state prison in May 2004 for an unrelated drug conviction out of Sacramento when he was required to give a cheek swab sample to the state.

In October, Hollie's sample tentatively matched a semen sample collected after a Daly City rape that was without a suspect for nearly 10 years. The sample was a confirmed match in late December.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_18_may_06/vol_18_ref_13.html

North Carolina – Police have made an arrest in a rape case that dates back to 1995.  
 
Michael Shmaruk, 31, is accused of breaking into a woman's home in southwest Charlotte and raping her. He is charged with first-degree burglary and six counts of second-degree rape.  
 
The Sexual Assault Cold Case Unit recently reopened the case after positively identifying the suspect by using DNA evidence.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_18_may_06/vol_18_ref_14.html

Maryland - For 19 months beginning in August 2002, residents feared a serial rapist was preying on women in the city.

In all, six rapes occurred during the span and police publicized likenesses of possible suspects in the attacks, hoping to catch the culprit.

One such assault on a Salisbury University student on Oct. 23, 2003, was one of the more chilling.

The student was walking to her home in University Square, the complex known to most as the old "Zoo," when an unknown male grabbed her and asked her for money.

"She thought that he had a weapon from the way he was acting at the time," said Elizabeth Ireland, assistant Wicomico state's attorney.

The suspect then dragged her behind a building and raped her, according to authorities. Aside from a description of wearing dark clothing, the victim was unable to identify her attacker.

"He kept telling her, 'Don't look at my face,' and he had a baseball cap on," Ireland said. They were left with no identification for the suspect except DNA.

The case, like the five other rapes, went unsolved until February 2005.

Ireland said when Ronald Archie Robinson, 57, of Salisbury robbed a convenience store in late 2004, his DNA was entered into a database following his conviction.

"We got a match, conclusively linking Mr. Robinson to the crime," Ireland said. "It's amazing that we found him considering how likely it is to obtain a match; it's one in 1.5 quadrillion. (Robinson) had an extensive criminal record, and had Maryland been collecting DNA from felons years earlier, he could have been caught earlier."

Robinson was convicted last week for the rape that, coupled with the others, had the community in a panic.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_18_may_06/vol_18_ref_15.html

Maine - Thanks to a DNA match, police have arrested a suspect in the murder of a 22-year-old Maine woman in California 34 years ago.

Police say John Puckett raped and killed Diana Sylvester, who had recently graduated from nursing school in Boston and moved to San Francisco. Puckett, now 72, was arrested last month in Stockton, California, and is in jail awaiting a preliminary hearing.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_18_may_06/vol_18_ref_16.html

Tennessee - The state of Tennessee is scheduled to execute Sedley Alley on May 17th, despite serious questions about the reliability of his conviction and the availability of DNA testing which could put all doubt to rest. The state has refused to release evidence for DNA testing. Alley was convicted of the 1985 murder and abduction of Suzanne Marie Collins. At the time of Alley’s initial trial, DNA testing was not available. However, the state currently possesses a number of articles of clothing both from Ms. Collins and her abductor, which could be subjected to DNA testing to establish with certainty whether or not Sedley Alley killed Suzanne Collins. The testing can be done at no cost to the state and without any delay in the execution, should the DNA match Alley’s. 

“If we can verify guilt or innocence with scientific certainty, we are obligated to do that with a human life at stake,” said Randy Tatel, the Executive Director of the Tennessee Coalition to Abolish State Killing (TCASK). “The people of Tennessee deserve to know absolutely if our state is executing the right person. 
 
Evidence that was previously withheld from the defense indicates that, according to the coroner, Ms. Collins died no earlier than 1:30 am. Police reports indicate that Alley was brought in for questioning at 12:10 am and was under surveillance thereafter. This new evidence casts doubt on Alley’s initial conviction. 
 
DNA testing could put such questions to rest. The state has so far refused to release the evidence in its possession, including the victim’s undergarments, running shorts, t-shirt, and shoes as well as a pair of underwear that presumably belonged to her attacker. Such evidence would almost certainly provide DNA samples that could be tested. 
 
“The DNA testing can be done quickly and at no cost to the state,” said Tatel. “Why would the state object to a test that provides decisive proof? What is Tennessee so afraid of?”

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_18_may_06/vol_18_ref_17.html

Virginia - Jurors awarded $2.25 million Friday to Earl Washington Jr., deciding that a State Police agent fabricated evidence and coached Washington’s confession that sent him to death row.

Washington, who turned 46 Wednesday, was convicted of the 1982 rape and murder of Rebecca Lynn Williams in Culpeper. In 2000, however, DNA evidence showed that Washington did not commit the crime. The DNA pointed to another man.

In a lawsuit filed against the estate of Virginia State Police Special Agent Curtis Reese Wilmore, Washington’s attorneys said Wilmore fed Washington details about the crime to elicit a false confession from Washington, who is mildly mentally retarded.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_18_may_06/vol_18_ref_18.html

For more details on the case of Earl Washington Jr. please go to:

http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_18_may_06/vol_18_ref_19.html

California - A gang member serving life in prison without parole for a murder committed during a 1999 robbery will be arraigned June 2 in connection with a similar slaying four years earlier, a prosecutor said Friday.

Eloy Gonzalez is serving his term at Mule Creek State Prison in Amador County and will be brought to Santa Ana to face the new case.

Gonzalez, 29, was linked to the 1995 fatal shooting of Abel Chavira, 21, through DNA evidence, Deputy District Attorney Alison Gyves said.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_18_may_06/vol_18_ref_20.html

Indiana - A 31-year-old Seymour man was arrested on a burglary charge this week after DNA evidence from a crime scene matched his, police said.

Jason D. Black was taken into custody Monday by Seymour Police Det. Troy Munson and was charged with burglary, a Class C felony.

The arrest stems from a 2005 case involving a burglary of The Shoppes at Seymour, formerly called Tanger Outlet Mall.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_18_may_06/vol_18_ref_21.html

Ohio - A 50-year-old man was arrested Thursday and charged with rape and kidnapping after police said they matched his DNA to DNA evidence in a 1997 rape.

Charles Adams is to appear today in Dayton Municipal Court on single counts of rape and kidnapping as well as probation violations, according to the Montgomery County Jail.

Dayton police Sgt. Tom Flanders said the matching of the samples may lead to determining who raped a 16-year-old girl on Dec. 14, 1997.

A state law requiring prison inmates to give a DNA sample was a godsend to Dayton police Special Victim's Unit detectives, especially when it comes to cases where "there are victims that can't identify their attackers," Flanders said.

Adams was sent to prison in 1998 on a conviction for receiving stolen property and had been required to give a DNA sample. Detectives matched it to DNA evidence in the teen's rape, Flanders said.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_18_may_06/vol_18_ref_22.html 

Maryland - Police said a 16-year-old rape case is finally solved, and the person responsible was already behind bars.  

Police have been investigating the rape case since June 1990. According to the state's attorney for Baltimore City, new DNA evidence led them to a man already serving time for a different rape. 

On June 25, 1990, a man broke into a home in the 4800 block of Old York Road and raped a 40-year-old woman twice. According to court documents, the attacker repeatedly choked the woman and told her he would kill her if she called police. 

In March 2003, Maryland State Police officers ran a random DNA search through the statewide data base and made a startling discovery. They said an inmate, Kevin Hunter, 37, matched the DNA.  

Melser reported Hunter was already serving a 30-year sentence for first-degree rape, first-degree sex offense, and attempted first-degree murder for a rape that took place in 1991. On Wednesday, Hunter plead guilty to first-degree rape to the 16 year old crime.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_18_may_06/vol_18_ref_23.html 

Virginia - For 17 years, the nightmare that was Warren Fulton and Rachel Raver’s last hours of life had gone unsolved.

 
Last seen leaving a Washington, D.C. sports lounge around midnight on Dec. 2, 1988, the two George Washington University students, both 22, were found dead Dec. 6, 1988. Both were shot in the head. Raver had been raped. Investigators believed they had been abducted and forced to drive to the remote location, according to police.

 
With the help of DNA evidence, Alfredo R. Prieto, 40, a California death-row inmate, was linked to the murders and indicted last November on the capital murder and rape charges that had baffled investigators for years. 

The break in the case came last summer when DNA evidence linked Prieto to Raver’s death and that of Veronica Jefferson, a 24-year-old CIA finance officer who was raped and shot to death in Arlington County in May 1988, according to a police report.

 
For years, investigators believed the killings were unrelated, said Mary Mulrenan, a spokesperson for Fairfax County police. But in 2000 DNA evidence confirmed that the women had been killed by the same man, according to the police report.

 
Yet Prieto did not become a suspect until last year when DNA samples from California inmates were added to a national database, said Mulrenan. “His DNA was added and it matched,” said Mulrenan, adding that a DNA verification test was also performed.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_18_may_06/vol_18_ref_24.html

Texas - Tucked inside Robin Hobbs’ case file, green message sheets reflect the numerous times that the slain woman’s mother called the Fort Worth homicide unit, desperate for any information on her daughter’s case. 

For years, Detective Manny Reyes had nothing new to tell Linda Duvall. There were still no leads into who had raped and fatally beaten Hobbs, 33, in east Fort Worth in 1995.

In December, Reyes learned that through a DNA database, officials had established a preliminary link between a prison inmate and semen found on Hobbs’ body. 

More than a decade after Hobbs’ slaying, Reyes presented the case against Ronald Patrick Swearengin, 35, to the Tarrant County district attorney’s office for review.

Reyes said tests found semen from two different men on Hobbs’ body, indicating that two men were involved in the attack. 

DNA profiles extracted from the semen were entered into a database that compares a convicted offender’s DNA profile against biological evidence from unsolved crimes.

After the initial link was made to Swearengin in December, police obtained a search warrant to get a DNA sample from him to confirm the match. Reyes said he was notified on March 31 that a Dallas laboratory had confirmed the link.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_18_may_06/vol_18_ref_25.html 

Texas - A DNA sample volunteered by a suspect in two brutal Houston murders led to an arrest in the 16-year-old sexual assault and murder case of Kim Louise Wildman of Missouri City.

Edward George McGregor, 33, a driver for United Parcel Service, was driving his UPS truck on Monday evening when Houston and Missouri City police pulled him over.

“We arrested him right out of the truck without incident,” Missouri City Police Capt. John Bailey said. McGregor was charged with murder in the sexual assault, beating and stabbing death of 38-year-old Wildman, of Whispering Pines Drive in the Hunter’s Glen community.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_18_may_06/vol_18_ref_26.html

Pennsylvania - A man serving a life sentence for a 1988 killing was freed yesterday after charges were withdrawn because DNA evidence from clothing worn by the killer didn't match him.

Drew Whitley, 50, was convicted of second-degree murder in 1989 for the shooting death of Noreen Malloy, 22, outside the McDonald's restaurant she managed. DNA test results released last week showed that hairs said to be from the killer's hat did not match Whitley. An earlier test on a mask showed the same result.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_18_may_06/vol_18_ref_27.html

Pennsylvania - In the wee hours of a summer morning in 1997, a thief cut himself after smashing a display case at GDC Fine Jewelry.

The blood he left behind would give township police crucial DNA evidence needed to charge him with the crime nearly nine years later.

Anthony Billy Parrish allegedly got away with about $4,000 worth of rings, pendants, bracelets, money clips, cufflinks and tie tacks from the North Huntingdon Township jewelry store.

On July 26, 2006 police obtained a search warrant to draw blood from Parrish, who was in the Allegheny County Jail on unrelated charges. The findings of a forensic analysis showed Parrish's DNA matched two blood samples taken from the glass in 1997.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_18_may_06/vol_18_ref_28.html

Did You Know?

Topic: National Institute of Justice's Expert Systems Testbed (NEST) Project

The Marshall University Forensic Science Center (MUSFC) is the host site of the National Institute of Justice Expert Systems Testbed (NEST) Project to evaluate commercially available expert systems for the national forensic DNA community.  

Three expert systems are being evaluated by the NEST Project Implementation Team, comprised of NIJ and MUFSC personnel and under the guidance of the NEST Project Advisory Committee.  Current NEST Project evaluations are focused solely on single source samples, although it is anticipated that future evaluations will include mixtures. Phase One of the project will conclude a final report to be submitted to the NIJ in May 2006. 

Expert systems are software or a suite of software programs that are used to rapidly process DNA data and generate final DNA results.  Expert systems have the potential to reduce or eliminate backlogs of unanalyzed data, thereby streamlining DNA analysis and increasing the number of profiles available for import into CODIS. 

For more information on this project, you can visit: http://forensics.marshall.edu/NEST/NEST-Intro.html 
 

The DNA Informant is a free bi-weekly email newsletter, published by DNA Labs International. 

DNA Labs International is a private, ISO 17025 Accredited, Forensic Serology and DNA Identity Testing Laboratory, founded in 2004 by a Board Certified Fellow in Molecular Biology with over two decades of experience in Forensic Serology and DNA Analysis in United States Crime Labs.  Our primary mission is to help our clients identify and prosecute criminals within their jurisdiction by providing timely, accurate and cost effective DNA testing results.  To do this we created an organization based on industry best practices from over 20 State Crime Labs around the United States.  We are located in Deerfield Beach, Florida, just minutes from the Fort Lauderdale airport. 

DNA Labs International’s services are now available for individual cases and outsourcing contracts.  Please keep us in mind as you start to consider your outsourcing needs, regular and rush cases and DNA case review.   
 

Editor: Karen Daurie

Karen.Daurie@DNALabsInternational.com  

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