Volume 32 , November 28, 2006

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

Topic: University of Iowa scientists explore function of 'junk DNA' 

For events and conferences please go to the end of this issue. Again, if there are any events you would like for us to mention, please send me the name and dates with a website link for further details. 

In the news, controversy continues over the use of familial DNA to identify criminals. “Critics wonder whether extending genetic surveillance from individuals already associated with crime to their families will help catch enough criminals to outweigh its likely intrusion on privacy and civil liberties.” 

In Wisconsin, the “attempt at the death penalty has been taken off the legislative agenda.” The death penalty would affect cases of first-degree intentional homicide where DNA evidence is involved. Another article discusses the fact that many DNA matches are not acted upon. “A DNA match a crime "solved" by the FBI's database does not mean that an arrest was made, that a criminal was prosecuted or even that detectives considered a case closed.” 

Following these stories we are including a number of new and ongoing cases involving the use of DNA evidence.  

Families become suspects as rules on DNA matches relax 

If a sibling or other close relation of yours ever went to prison for more than a year, suspicion of criminal behavior now extends to you. The Federal Bureau of Investigation recently opened its forensic DNA database of felony offenders and certain other arrestees to allow states to share information that does not exactly match blood, semen or other crime scene evidence but may come close enough to finger a relative. Critics fear, however, that partial matches intrude on privacy and cast suspicion far too widely.

The FBI originally created the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) in 1990 to help investigators search among convicted sex offenders and other violent criminals for matches to evidence from unsolved crimes. Over the years, its use has rapidly widened to include other types of felons, juvenile offenders and some who committed misdemeanors. Five states can collect DNA from some arrests, whereas federal authorities may acquire biological samples from those who are arrested as well as from non citizens who are detained. Nationally officials have compiled more than 3.6 million profiles based on 13 regions, or loci, of the human genome that vary among individual people.

When labs can show a match is close enough to indicate a likely relative--that is, when at least one of the two versions (alleles) of the gene segment at each locus matches up--and there are no other leads, a new interim plan allows states to disclose identifying information on FBI approval. This expansion follows a paper in the June 2 Science that outlined the power of indirectly detecting suspects through the database. If only 5 percent of criminals had biological relatives in CODIS, then "cold hit" matches could increase by thousands, the authors of the paper estimated. They pointed to U.S. Department of Justice findings that 46 percent of jailed inmates had an incarcerated relative. "We don't venture whether genetic, social environment, socioeconomic, demographics or whether law enforcement practices account for it," says the lead author, medical geneticist Frederick Bieber of Harvard University. "In a way, it doesn't matter."

By widening its net, law enforcement can move more quickly and potentially head off future crimes, Bieber points out. Critics wonder, however, whether extending genetic surveillance from individuals already associated with crime to their families will help catch enough criminals to outweigh its likely intrusion on privacy and civil liberties. "We're talking about innocent people by proxy being included in this database," objects Tania Simoncelli, science adviser for the American Civil Liberties Union.

Princeton University sociologist Bruce Western questions the premise that familial searches will offer up strong leads, particularly as the databases expand under new laws to include more arrests, detentions and convictions for less serious crimes. In these categories, black and Latino young men are disproportionately pursued and become overrepresented in comparison to their actual share of offenses committed, he explains, and familial searches would magnify these racial and ethnic disparities. In a study of California's largest counties, half of felony charges were later dismissed.

Although family members do tend to share criminal behavior, investigators could use other social patterns of crime to make a comparable argument for searching other groups of DNA profiles--for instance, among males age 16 to 24, people with low levels of schooling, or, for the most violent crimes, people related to the victim. The database operates on a premise that Western says is severely at odds with criminological research--that of criminality as a permanent trait.

"We're kind of blundering ahead with this technology," worries William Thompson, a criminologist at the University of California, Irvine, who would like to see the government open up the database for independent scrutiny and statistical analysis. He is especially concerned about reports of faked test results and poor-quality lab work such as cross-contamination and sample mix-ups.

Also, statistical probabilities for unique matches and assumptions about the database population have recently come into question. Arizona compared felons already in its database and reported 20 "hits" between offenders where both alleles matched at 10 loci. Only three would be expected based on established calculations. The extras could be relatives or even entirely coincidental matches.

Bieber cited two high-profile cases in which investigators used partial matches to narrow in on a perpetrator who was a brother or uncle. But unless the shared alleles are quite rare or the matches are extremely close, this approach can be very inefficient. So Bieber suggested the type of kinship analysis and weighted allele probabilities used to connect family members with loved ones lost in the World Trade Center attacks. CODIS software does not allow for such sophisticated searches at the moment, but Bieber predicts an upgrade as soon as investigators see the potential and define clear statistical thresholds that must be met.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_32_nov_06/vol32_ref01.html

A majority of voters in Wisconsin back the death penalty. 
 
But Senator Alan Lasee says it won't be enough to make it a law after Democrats made gains in the Legislature. 
 
Democrats will take over the Wisconsin Senate and narrowed the gap in the Assembly. 
 
The Republican senator has been a longtime supporter of the death penalty. More than 55% of voters in last week's election approved the advisory referendum. It imposes the death penalty for first-degree intentional homicide in cases for which there is DNA evidence. Wisconsin was the first state in the union to abolish the death penalty in 1854. There hasn't been the death penalty in the state since. 
 
Lasee says the vote is a good first step, but he's not sure where it's going. However, incoming Democratic senate leaders say the death penalty will not be on the docket in the upcoming legislative session.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_32_nov_06/vol32_ref02.html

Many DNA matches aren't acted on

In a March 2003 speech arguing for $1 billion in new spending on DNA-based crime fighting, then-attorney general John Ashcroft singled out the FBI's DNA database for its many successes.

In Virginia, for example, he said authorities "have been able to solve 90 homicides and 196 non-homicide sexual assaults" by matching the DNA left at crime scenes to the DNA of prior offenders.

What Ashcroft didn't explain was that a DNA match a crime "solved" by the FBI's database does not mean that an arrest was made, that a criminal was prosecuted or even that detectives considered a case closed. Just how many DNA matches lead to an arrest isn't known; no government agency keeps track.

But a USA TODAY investigation found almost three dozen cases during the past five years — including a rape in Virginia — in which investigators failed to pursue potential suspects whose DNA matched evidence found at crime scenes.

For more details on this story, please go to the link below:

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_32_nov_06/vol32_ref03.html

New and ongoing cases involving the use of DNA evidence include:

California - San Francisco police arrested a parolee Tuesday in the 22-year-old mutilation slaying of a woman who was attacked while she slept overnight at the auto-painting shop where she worked.

Dwight Culton, 57, is being held without bail in the April 6, 1984, killing of Joan Baldwin, 43. She was killed in what at the time was an Earl Scheib paint shop at 555 Bryant St.

Culton has an extensive criminal record, and most recently was living in a federal halfway house on Taylor Street after his release on parole for bank robbery, authorities said.

The suspected killer's blood was found on Baldwin's body, and a recent DNA test led authorities to Culton. His DNA was in a state database because he was a convicted felon.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_32_nov_06/vol32_ref04.html

Washington - DNA testing has led to more evidence against a man accused of stabbing two women and two children and setting their Kirkland home ablaze, according to court documents filed Tuesday.

Conner Schierman's genetic profile was found in various places inside the house, including on the futon where two women were found stabbed to death, and on a pair of boxer shorts found inside the master bathroom, King County prosecutors said. The man's DNA -- which can come from skin cells, blood or other bodily fluids -- also was found on a baseboard and in a storage room in the home, according to court papers.

Scientists also determined that blood found on a tennis shoe in Schierman's bedroom, in a duplex across the street from the victims' house, was from at least two of the victims.

Schierman, 25, is charged with four counts of aggravated murder and one count of arson for the July 17 deaths of Olga Milkin, 28; her sister, Lyubov Botvina, 24; and Milkin's two sons, Justin, 5, and Andrew, 3. A motive remains unclear.

A trial is tentatively set for March 26. King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng is expected to decide early next year whether he will seek the death penalty.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_32_nov_06/vol32_ref05.html

California - An 80-year-old former taxi driver was convicted of murder Monday after police did DNA testing on saliva from his coffee cup and linked it to a woman found strangled to death almost 34 years ago.

The Los Angeles Superior Court jury deliberated a day before finding Adolph Theodore Laudenberg guilty of killing 43-year-old Lois "Bonnie" Petrie on Christmas Eve 1972.

Laudenberg, suspected of committing several other murders in the 1970s, was wheeled into court on a gurney to listen to the verdict.

He was due back in court for sentencing Jan. 8. He faces life in prison with the possibility of parole, said Deputy District Attorney Lowell Anger.

Laudenberg was arrested in 2003 after DNA evidence linked him to Petrie's killing.

During a conversation that year with detectives about an auto burglary, Laudenberg left behind a coffee cup. Detectives used it to provide a DNA saliva sample linking him to Petrie's death.

Laudenberg, who was working in San Pedro around the time of Petrie's death, was initially questioned by authorities in 1975. At the time, there was no DNA, physical evidence or eyewitness accounts linking him to the killing.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_32_nov_06/vol32_ref06.html

Ohio - An empty bottle pilfered from a suspect's trash led police to a Delhi Township man who is charged with sexually attacking nine men - one as young as 14 - over the last two years.

Suspicious that James Bohannon was the attacker, Cincinnati police picked up his garbage, rooted through it, found an empty bottle and matched his DNA to a 2004 attack, according to Hamilton County prosecutors.

Once they had the DNA, police returned to the victims who identified Bohannon.

Assistant Prosecutor Mike Bachman said that match to the rape of a 14-year-old boy in a Sedamsville park helped solve eight more attacks, seven of which were within one mile of Bohannon's home. Two attacks were near the University of Cincinnati.

A Hamilton County grand jury indicted Bohannon, 27, on 20 charges Monday, including rape, attempted rape, gross sexual imposition, kidnapping and aggravated robbery in eight separate attacks.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_32_nov_06/vol32_ref07.html 

Florida - A man convicted of killing his sister-in-law a dozen years ago returned to a Duval County courtroom on Monday seeking a new trial.

Chad Heins is serving a life sentence for the April 1994 murder of his sister-in-law, Tina Heins, who was pregnant at the time. 

Attorneys for The Innocence Project are asking a judge to consider new evidence that shows that DNA removed from under the victim's fingernails did not belong to Heins.

In the summer, defense attorneys filed an 89-page motion asking a judge to free Heins based on new evidence. 

"I really believe if they had this DNA evidence 12 years ago, Chad never would have gone to prison in the first place," said defense attorney Nina Morrison said shortly after the motion was filed. 

Assistant State Attorney Rich Manei said the new DNA testing done on old evidence doesn't prove Chad Heins didn't commit the crime. 

"We're not so much contesting the findings. I think it's the significance of the findings that's really open for dispute," Manei said in July. 

Monday's hearing was a status conference on the case. The next hearing will be held in January. 

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_32_nov_06/vol32_ref08.html 

Colorado - Greeley police said a DNA sample led to the arrest of a 50-year-old Evans man accused of raping a 78-year-old Greeley woman. 

Samuel Bradford, a registered sex offender in Weld County, was arrested Friday.

The victim, whose name was not released, said Bradford assaulted her in her home early on the morning of Sept. 27. 

While she was being examined at a Greeley hospital a DNA sample was taken and it was used to identify Bradford.

He is being held without bond.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_32_nov_06/vol32_ref10.html

New York - A DNA specimen in New York state's inmate database might finally solve the puzzle of a security guard's slaying in 1992.  
 
Christopher Salzarullo, 32, was making his rounds inside a radiator factory in Dunkirk early on the morning of Feb. 15, 1992, when he was shot twice in the head by a suspected burglar. With the plant closed for the President's Day weekend, his body wasn't discovered until three days later.  
 
While the investigation quickly went cold, the murder "hit close to home for all of us" because the victim's father, Officer Anthony Salzarullo, had just retired from the police force in Dunkirk, a small city on Lake Erie's eastern shore, police Chief David Ortolano said Friday.  
 
A long-awaited breakthrough arrived in July when a DNA sample collected last year from a man who drew a six-month jail sentence for draining a fire hydrant in the village of Cassadaga near Dunkirk matched unspecified evidence recovered at Dunkirk Radiator Corp.  
 
After a four-month investigation by a police task force, Kevin Burlingame, 39, was charged Thursday with second-degree murder. If convicted, he could be sentenced to up to 25 years to life in prison.  
 
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_32_nov_06/vol32_ref11.html

Connecticut - Processing of DNA evidence was put on a fast track Thursday and police patrols around Bushnell Park remained beefed up as authorities worked to identify the man who raped a Waterbury woman in the popular downtown park earlier this week. 
 
State Police said DNA analysis would be finished within a day or two and immediately checked against a national directory of convicted sex offenders and an array of other criminal databases. 
 
State police scientists "are going as quickly as they can," said Lt. J. Paul Vance, a state police spokesman. "The minute they have answers, they will get them to Hartford police." 
 
Hartford police, meanwhile, were using their own database, trying to match the attacker's physical description to possible suspects. 
 
Police Chief Daryl K. Roberts said that with increased patrols, the public can feel secure around the park. "We will keep up those patrols down there until we catch this individual," Roberts said. "We want people to feel safe." 
 
The chief urged anyone who may have witnessed the incident to call Lt. Scott Sansom, commander of the major crimes division, at 860-527-7300, Ext. 5230. They also may call the department's tip line at 860-527-8477. 
 
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_32_nov_06/vol32_ref12.html

Illinois - An accused serial flasher from New Lenox was convicted Thursday evening of cornering and raping a woman in her husband's Orland Park office building.

A Cook County jury deliberated a little more than an hour before deciding that David F. Baller, 43, was the masked man who on Feb. 7, 2005, raped the now-53-year-old woman and made her perform two sex acts on him using lubricant he took from his pockets.

Judge David P. Sterba read aloud guilty verdicts in all seven felony charges, including aggravated criminal sexual assault and aggravated kidnapping.

Currently Baller faces between six and 60 years in prison and is not eligible for probation, Assistant State's Attorney Peter Troy said.

Forensic experts had testified Thursday morning that Baller's DNA was found on the front of the woman's jeans, in two places where she said Wednesday she had wiped her hands after two sex acts Baller made her perform.

Katherine Sullivan, a forensic biologist at the Illinois State Police crime lab, said the DNA found on the woman's pants matched a cheek swab police took from Baller. Even though no sperm was found in the stain, other cellular materials in the semen matched Baller's DNA, she testified.

Ward focused on single points along the DNA chains, arguing that sections could not have come from Baller but possibly from two other men Orland Park police took cheek swabs from for comparison in the rape case. He argued that the lubricant used on the victim's hands likely contaminated the samples.

Sullivan replied that no substance could change someone's DNA into Baller's.

Baller, a father of three, returns Dec. 22 for sentencing.

Meanwhile, Baller must also return to Cook County Circuit Court in Markham and Will County Criminal Court in two other pending cases.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_32_nov_06/vol32_ref13.html

Florida - A grand jury indicted a Pensacola man this week on charges relating to the death of a woman reported missing by her husband in April. 
 
John Homer Docherty is charged with first-degree homicide in the death of Sharon Martin, who was 55 years old when she disappeared April 2, the Escambia County Sheriff's Office reported. 
 
Martin's body still has not been found. 
 
"It's tough (to get an indictment) without a body," said Lee Tyree, who is the lead investigator in the case. "But we had blood evidence and a DNA match." 
 
Tyree declined to say more about the DNA evidence, citing the ongoing investigation. 
 
The indictment came after a seven-month investigation. 
 
"I feel satisfied to have gotten to this point," Tyree said. "It is my hope, and the family's hope, that we will find her body." 
 
Docherty initially was arrested in May and charged with one count of grand theft, one count of fraud, three counts of illegal use of credit cards and three counts of forgery. 
 
Each of those charges is a third-degree felony, punishable by a maximum of five years in prison. 
 
Docherty is being held at Escambia County Jail without bond. 
 
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_32_nov_06/vol32_ref14.html

Florida - The three teenagers accused in the January murder of a Fort Lauderdale homeless man and the beating of two others appeared in Broward Circuit Court today morning for a hearing about DNA evidence.

The defendants -- Billy Ammons, Tom Daugherty and Brian Hooks -- sat far apart from one another, silently staring straight ahead as their attorneys argued over four DNA samples taken from blood found in Ammons' Chevy Blazer on the night of Jan. 12. That's the night that authorities contend the teens went on a violent spree that ended in the death of Norris Gaynor, 49, and sent two other homeless men to the hospital.

Prosecutors told defense attorneys earlier this year that they intended to test four samples of blood found in the Blazer and on a pair of sunglasses in the car. The DNA samples would be compared to the teens' and victims' DNA. The tests would use up the four samples and none of the original material would be left over after testing.

Defense attorneys for the accused teens asked Broward Circuit Judge Cynthia Imperato to have an expert of their own present at the test to ensure proper procedures are followed.

But George Duncan, a Broward Sheriff's Office DNA Unit supervisor, said allowing in an outside expert would violate lab protocol, putting his lab's accreditation at risk and possibly contaminating the minuscule samples.

Prosecutor Brian Cavanagh said that allowing an expert into the lab could affect many cases around the courthouse, because defense attorneys with cases involving DNA evidence could argue that the integrity of the lab was compromised by the outside expert, invalidating the samples in their cases.

Imperato sided with Duncan. ''I don't think that it's practical to have other experts in the lab,'' she said.

Mike Dutko, an attorney for Daugherty, asked Imperato to hold off on the tests while the defense explores an appeal. DNA testing was delayed until the teens return to court Jan. 5.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_32_nov_06/vol32_ref15.html

New York - DNA evidence has linked the death of a woman found strangled along a suburban bike path Oct. 1 with other unsolved rape and murder cases dating back 20 years, investigators said Thursday.  
 
Authorities now believe the suspect, known as the "bike path rapist," is responsible for 10 unsolved attacks since 1986, including two other homicides.  
 
Before Joan Diver, 45, went missing while jogging on a path in Newstead Sept. 29, the last known attack was in 1994.  
 
"Probably the biggest question that we have is what happened during the last 12 years," Erie County Sheriff Timothy Howard said.  
 
Investigators theorize the suspect may have been in prison, the military or out of town because of a job.  
 
The two previous homicides occurred in 1990 and 1992. A University at Buffalo student was killed on the Ellicott Creek bike path in suburban Amherst. The body of another woman was found on a Buffalo street two years later. Other attacks occurred in Buffalo's Delaware Park and the suburb of Hamburg.  
 
Authorities believe all of the victims were attacked from behind while alone in a remote area and strangled with a cord or clothesline.  
 
Unlike the previous nine cases, however, there was no evidence of sexual assault against Diver, a mother of four from Clarence. 

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_32_nov_06/vol32_ref16.html 

Minnesota - In May 1989, Dale Heinold's sister found him repeatedly stabbed and laying face up in his St. Paul apartment. His car was found in Ohio.  
 
The case soon turned cold, but the 55-year-old victim's sister never gave up hope of solving the murder.  
 
A fan of crime shows like Cold Case and CSI, Elaine Invie wondered if modern forensics might help catch the person who murdered her older brother.  
 
A few months ago, Invie visited the St. Paul Police Department where she met with Homicide Sgt. Tom Bergren. Bergen agreed to take a fresh look and submit blood evidence in the property room for forensic tests. 
 
The BCA Crime Lab was able to develop a DNA profile which Bergren entered into a national data base of criminal DNA.  
 
The entry soon revealed good news. It matched the DNA of a 60-year-old man behind bars near Columbus, Ohio for a similar killing.  
 
That killing happened in February 1989, just three months before Heinold's murder.  
 
Bergren and his partner, Sgt. Rich Munoz, flew to Ohio to question the suspect, Larry Brigman.  
 
"He said he was going through alcoholic blackouts during that time and he had big gaps in his memory that he didn't recall what he was doing," Bergren said.  
 
The St. Paul investigators also took a fresh DNA from Brigman to help them to put together their case against him.  
 
"We know for sure, two confirmed cases now, very similar fashion," Bergren said. 
 
The investigators suspect Brigman could be involved in other unsolved killings, saying he was a drifter in Ohio and Pennsylvania before he came to Minnesota.  
 
Brigman also told the investigators that he was not really a serial killer. The investigators said Brigman said that out of the blue, and then laughed after he said it.  
 
The case will be presented to prosecutors for charges and the DNA will be entered in a FBI's VICAP (Violent Criminal Apprehension Program) database to see if Brigman could be connected to other unsolved killings. 
 
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_32_nov_06/vol32_ref17.html 

Arizona - A 29-year-old Tucson man was convicted of second-degree murder Wednesday in the shooting death of a man outside the Bum Steer nightclub.  

More than 250 people were gathered in the parking lot of the club, 1910 N. Stone Ave., on June 12, 2005, when several fights broke out for unknown reasons, according to court testimony.  

Francisco Arriaga, 25, was shot in the chest with a 9 mm gun and a second shot hit him in the right forearm and then traveled into his chest.  

After police received a tip that Vernon Bullock Jr. was the shooter, prosecutor Lewis Brandes said forensic experts discovered Bullock's DNA on a gun found at the scene and proved the gun was the one used in the shooting.  

Bullock was facing a first-degree murder charge, but his attorneys, Michael Rosenbluth and Monique Lyon, argued that Bullock fired the gun in self-defense after a bullet from an unknown person's gun passed through his pant leg from behind. They said he simply wheeled and fired indiscriminately.  

Bullock was arrested three months after the shooting and told authorities he'd thrown away the pants he was wearing that night, Brandes said.  

The jury either didn't believe the state proved "beyond a reasonable doubt" that Arriaga's death was premeditated or they thought Bullock's actions weren't premeditated.  

A person can be convicted of second-degree murder under three circumstances. The jury can find the person intentionally caused the death of another person or they can find that the defendant knew their conduct could cause the death of another and acted anyway.

Lastly, the jury can find that "under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to human life, the person recklessly engaged in conduct that created a grave risk of death and thereby caused the death of another person."  

Bullock is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 18 by Judge Hector Campoy of Pima County Superior Court.  

Because Bullock, a convicted armed robber, was on parole at the time of the shooting, he is facing between 16 and 22 years in prison instead of the normal 10 to 22 years.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_32_nov_06/vol32_ref18.html

Florida - The case against Fred Cooper in the deaths of Steven and Michelle Andrews could hinge on one key piece of forensic evidence obtained from Michelle's fingernail. NBC2 has obtained 68 pages of documents that include a statement by the first deputy on scene, results of DNA analysis and information on the type of gun possibly used in the murders.

A key piece of forensic evidence can potentially put Cooper inside the home where the murders occurred last December. The newly-released documents show experts found Cooper's DNA under a fingernail on Michelle's right hand. The same DNA test from a fingernail on Michelle's left hand was negative for Cooper's DNA.

Dr. David Lounsbury coordinates criminal forensics studies at Florida Gulf Coast University. He says it doesn't take much DNA to make a compelling case.

"DNA under one fingernail as long as there's a significant amount of DNA to be able to determine the alleles that match the donor or the suspect. Yes it's significant. It will work," said Lounsbury.

Lounsbury says if DNA is recovered from under a fingernail, most likely there was a struggle.

Prosecutors say Cooper shot Steven, then choked and beat Michelle to death. Evidence shows the possible motive in the case is a jealous rage. Cooper's ex-girlfriend Kellie Ballew was having an affair with her co-worker, Steven. Cooper and Ballew have a child together.

A few days after the killings, deputies took a camouflage jacket and the jacket's liner from Cooper. In separate tests conducted by DNA experts in Ohio and the sheriff's office, found no traces of blood on either the jacket or the liner.

In a letter from the sheriff's office to the DNA lab shows investigators believe Cooper may have worn the jacket during or after the killings and may have used a cleaning solution on it before deputies took it.

"Most garments can be cleaned sufficiently enough so that blood would not be detected," said Lounsbury.

A critical piece of evidence in any murder case is the weapon. The whereabouts of the gun used to shoot Steven in the head remains a mystery. The documents include a list of guns that could have been used.

A status hearing in the murder trial is set for December 20. The state is seeking the death penalty against Cooper.

The trial is scheduled to begin February 26.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_32_nov_06/vol32_ref19.html 

Iowa - Pottawattamie County investigators said a body found earlier this year in a barrel solves a 23-year-old mystery. 

DNA analysis from an FBI lab showed that the remains were those of 28-year-old Lois Tomich, of Council Bluffs. Tomich was reported missing in November 1983 by her father. 

Mushroom hunters found the remains in a 55-gallon barrel north of Council Bluffs near the Pottawattamie County Jail in May. 

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_32_nov_06/vol32_ref20.html 

Ohio - A South Toledoan was arrested yesterday in the rape in 2004 of a girl at a south end park after authorities received a DNA match in a state crime lab database from collected evidence.  
 
Chad Bork, 33, of 150 Corinth St., was being held in the Lucas County jail on one count of rape pending arraignment today in Toledo Municipal Court. He was arrested without incident about 11 a.m. in South Toledo. 
 
Bork was charged in the sexual assault of an 11-year-old girl Aug. 12, 2004, at Danny Thomas Park in the 2200 block of Broadway. The girl was playing with her cousin when a man engaged them in a game, separated them, and assaulted her. 
 
The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation had a DNA match on evidence from a rape kit taken from the victim. Ohio began collecting DNA from inmates imprisoned on felony convictions in 1996. 
 
Bork twice served time in state prison, the most recent being August, 2005, to September of this year for aggravated riot. 

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_32_nov_06/vol32_ref21.html 

Texas - DNA confirms a 43-year-old man accused of sexually assaulting his daughter since she was 9 is the father of her 6-year-old son, a forensic analyst said during the man's trial.

The Corpus Christi man is accused of sexual assault and impregnating his 20-year-old daughter at 14.

Farah Plopper, a forensic analyst for the University of North Texas Health Science Center, said the probability that the man fathered his daughter's child is more than 99 percent.

He remained in the Nueces County Jail on Tuesday on a $100,000 bond, charged with four counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child, indecency with a child, and sexual assault of a child. He faces up to life in prison for the aggravated sexual assault of a child charges, and two to 20 years in prison for the remaining charges, according to prosecutor Sandra Eastwood. For the lesser charges he would be eligible for probation.

During cross-examination, Plopper said although it's not unusual for a grandfather to share some DNA traits with a grandchild, the defendant's DNA matched the child's in each category, which is unlikely unless he is the father.

Defense attorney Reynaldo Pena focused on Plopper's lack of experience.

Plopper has been a forensic analyst less than a year, and her tests were reviewed only by a fellow senior analyst, not an outside entity, Pena said.

The trial is expected to continue this morning, with testimony from the woman and her sister, who reported the crime.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_32_nov_06/vol32_ref22.html

Florida - Rudolph Holton spent 16 years on Florida's death row before DNA evidence set him free, but now Holton is back behind bars for choking his wife.

He married her just months after being released from death row in 2003. But later that year, he was charged with assaulting her ex-husband's son.

Four months after that, Holton was arrested for punching his wife and hitting her with a golf club. She went to the hospital. He went to prison for 14 months.

Now he's been sentenced to 20 years in prison for choking her. A judge ordered the stiff sentence because of Holton's eleven previous felony convictions.

Holton says his wife is to blame for his troubles - telling the judge he "married the wrong lady."

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_32_nov_06/vol32_ref25.html

California - Sacramento Police announced new details Tuesday about a man who, they said, has been repeatedly attacking women for years throughout Northern California -- including in the Bay Area. 
 
Authorities said the serial rapist, who has been attacking women since 1991, is at it again after a six-year break. 
 
In a press conference, police said the man who allegedly sexually assaulted two women in Sacramento recently has also been linked, through DNA and other forensic evidence, to seven other attacks occurring in Vallejo, Martinez, Davis, Chico and Rohnert Park over the last 15 years. Prior to the attacks in Sacramento, the last DNA link to the suspect was found in Davis in 2000. 
 
During the press conference, police also released new composite sketches and a photo of the man. They said the suspect uses force, and often uses a weapon to assault his victims. Detectives also noted that the suspect has been narrowing his attacks to Asian women and women of small stature. He allegedly stalks his victims before attacking them.  
 
Sacramento detectives are working alongside investigators from agencies where the suspect committed crimes in order to track him down. The suspect was reportedly last seen driving a white, Toyota 4-Runner with rear tinted windows and possibly a roof rack.  
 
Police believe there could be more victims.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_32_nov_06/vol32_ref26.html

Did You Know?

Topic: University of Iowa scientists explore function of 'junk DNA'

University of Iowa scientists have made a discovery that broadens understanding of a rapidly developing area of biology known as functional genomics and sheds more light on the mysterious, so-called "junk DNA" that makes up the majority of the human genome.

The team, led by Beverly Davidson, Ph.D., a Roy J. Carver Biomedical Research Chair in Internal Medicine and UI professor of internal medicine, physiology and biophysics, and neurology, have discovered a new mechanism for the expression of microRNAs -- short segments of RNA that do not give rise to a protein, but do play a role in regulating protein production. In their study, Davidson and colleagues not only discovered that microRNAs could be expressed in a different way than previously known, they also found that some of the junk DNA is not junk at all, but instead consists of sequences that can generate microRNAs.

Davidson and her colleagues, including Glen Borchert, a graduate student in her lab, investigated how a set of microRNAs in the human genome is turned on, or expressed. In contrast to original assertions, they discovered that the molecular machinery used to express these microRNAs is different than that used to express RNA that encodes proteins. Expression of the microRNAs required an enzyme called RNA Polymerase III (Pol III) rather than the RNA Polymerase II (Pol II), which mediates expression of RNA that encode proteins. The study is published in Nature Structural and Molecular Biology Advance Online Publication (AOP) on Nov. 12.

"MicroRNAs are being shown to play roles in cancer and in normal development, so learning how these microRNAs are expressed may give us insight into these critical biological processes," said Borchert, who is lead author of the study. "Up to now it's been understood that one enzyme controls their expression, and we now show that in some cases it's a completely different one."

Genes that code for proteins make up only a tiny fraction of the human genome. The function of the remaining non-coding sequence is just beginning to be unraveled. In fact, until very recently, much of the non-coding sequence was dismissed as junk DNA. In 1998, scientists discovered that some DNA produced small pieces of non-coding RNA that could turn off, or silence, genes. This discovery won Andrew Fire and Craig Mello the 2006 Nobel Prize for medicine or physiology. Since their discovery, the field has exploded and small, non-coding RNAs have been shown to play an important role in development and disease in ways that scientists are only just beginning to understand.

"Not so many years ago our understanding was that DNA was transcribed to RNA, which was then translated to protein. Now we know that the levels of control are much more varied and that many RNAs don't make protein, but instead regulate the expression of proteins," Davidson explained. "Non-coding RNA like microRNAs represent a set of refined control switches, and understanding how microRNAs work and how they are themselves controlled is likely to be very important in many areas of biology and medicine."

Over 450 microRNAs have been identified in the human genome. Learning how they are turned on and in what cells and what they do, may allow scientists to turn that knowledge to their advantage as a medical tool.

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In addition to Davidson and Borchert, William Lanier, a graduate student in the UI Department of Biological Sciences, was also part of the research team. The study was funded in part by the National Institutes of Health.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_32_nov_06/vol32_ref28.html 

Events and conferences for 2007 that may of interest to you include: 

AAFS – American Academy of Forensic Sciences – 59th Annual Meeting - February 19 through 24, 2007 in San Antonio, Texas

http://www.aafs.org/default.asp?section_id=meetings&page_id=aafs_annual_meeting

AFDAA - The Association of Forensic DNA Analysts and Administrators - January 25 and 26, 2007 in Austin, Texas. The AFDAA is currently looking for speakers. If you are interested in giving a presentation, please contact Joe Warren at jwarren@hsc.unt.edu. For more information on the AFDAA please go to www.AFDAA.org
 

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 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

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