Please see our “Did You Know?” section toward the end of this issue.
Topic: New DNA technique could ID bomb-makers
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In the news we are seeing that the use of DNA evidence in burglary cases is at an increase. There are a number of stories listed here, and there are initiatives to make this a more common practice, as individuals who commit property crimes have a higher recidivism rate than those who commit other types of offenses, and their crimes tend to escalate. But too often, the limited number of forensic analysts to analyze thousands of cases and huge backlogs of DNA requests in violent crimes, cause difficulty in making great strides in burglary cases.
Following this story we are including a number of new and ongoing cases involving the use of DNA evidence.
DNA evidence: Gotcha!
What burglars leave behind may seal their fate
The burglar rifled through the North Hollywood apartment, taking a moment to smoke a hand-rolled cigarette before fleeing with a laptop computer, a video camera and some beer.
With no witnesses and few other clues, police were hard-pressed to find the culprit. But the cigarette butt left on the kitchen counter gave them the break they needed, providing a source of DNA that led them to arrest suspect Daniel Bone, 32.
"He should be called `Bonehead' for leaving that cigarette butt," prosecutor James Falco said.
"Criminals are not the brightest of people. And DNA evidence is a powerful effective tool to identify and prosecute perpetrators of crime. The beauty of DNA is that you are talking about frequency levels like one in 3 trillion - that's how powerful it is.
"It eliminates everyone else in the world (as a suspect)."
Best known for its ability to help identify suspects in murder and rape cases, DNA evidence is increasingly being used by law enforcement to solve burglaries.
A $500,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice is providing the Los Angeles Police Department with the resources to analyze the saliva, blood and other body fluids that suspects leave at the scene of burglaries in the San Fernando Valley.
Bone, who has pleaded not guilty and has another hearing scheduled this month in Van Nuys Superior Court, was the first burglary suspect in Los Angeles to be prosecuted based on DNA evidence. Nineteen others have since been identified.
"It's an important step for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, Los Angeles city and the LAPD to be using DNA banking in property crime," said Lisa Kahn, forensic sciences adviser for the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.
"This really enhances our ability to solve residential and commercial burglaries."
She noted that the United Kingdom has been able to solve 40 percent of its property crimes using DNA technology.
And in Denver, where a similar program was launched, police used DNA to capture a suspect in a series of burglaries.
The Valley's pilot program - and five others taking place nationwide - are part of a study on the use of DNA evidence in solving property crimes.
Since February 2006, the LAPD has collected 548 DNA samples from 233 burglary scenes.
DNA evidence is a crucial issue in California, where state officials are working on a massive expansion of the genetic data bank.
Four months after the apartment burglary in North Hollywood, police identified Bone using the DNA on the cigarette. He'd had to give a saliva swab while being booked into the Los Angeles County Jail for violating parole on an earlier robbery conviction, officials said. It was that DNA sample that provided the match.
Limited resources
Los Angeles residents reported about 20,000 burglaries in 2006, including 7,529 in the Valley.
Police estimate they've closed 15 percent of last year's burglary cases in the Valley, a smaller percentage than the closure rate for murders and rapes in which DNA evidence is regularly used.
But with only 19 forensic analysts to analyze thousands of cases a year and a backlog of 380 DNA requests in violent crimes, officials say they're able to take on the burglary cases only by using the grant to contract with outside analysts.
A Sheriff Department's official said that agency faces similar personnel shortages. Using DNA in all burglary cases would double the lab's caseload, so the department has to limit DNA evidence to investigate only serial burglaries.
"We do have limited resources. We apply them to more violent crimes and, prior to this study, nobody knew how effective using DNA on burglaries would be," said Greg Matheson, director of the LAPD's criminalist laboratory. "But I think we have shown there is some value."
Under the grant, the LAPD can send 1,000 DNA samples to Orchid Cellmark in Texas for processing. The samples are then returned and run through federal and state DNA banks for analysis at a cost of about $400 each.
Specific markers
There are 23 sets of chromosomes that carry the genetic markers that determine the makeup of every individual - from gender to brain size. The LAPD looks at 13 specific markers, which are run through the state and federal DNA systems.
"If we take a swab from a bottle or a doorknob, we may have 100 cells bearing DNA," said Harry Klann Jr., a criminalist at the LAPD lab. "We can perform hundreds of tests on the small amount of DNA."
Under Proposition 69, which voters approved in 2004, the DNA of all felony suspects will be collected and analyzed beginning in 2009. Samples from convicted felons and those arrested on suspicion of murder and rape are already being logged into the system.
By 2008, the state expects to have more than 1 million DNA profiles in its databank.
California has the country's largest DNA bank, with more than 730,000 genetic profiles and a backlog of 130,000. It generated 261 matches in January alone.
"As the data bank grows, our ability to solve all type of crimes where biological evidence can be found at the crime scene expands exponentially," said Nathan Barankin, a spokesman for the California Attorney General's Office.
"We are seeing a huge increase in the number of database entries," he said.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_39_mar_07/vol39_ref02.html
New and ongoing stories involving the use of DNA evidence include:
Colorado - The end of their vast spree came shortly after the burglars entered Mieke Thorson's Park Hill home in January of last year.
She and her husband, a schoolteacher, had "probably 300 to 400 CDs. They took the Peter Gabriel and the Bruce Springsteen CDs. They didn't take the whole thing. They were very picky burglars," she said.
They were also hungry, she said. They helped themselves to some food in her fridge.
"I figured they had to be high," Thorson said.
The bad guys did get away with some valuables - including a $15,000 ring and an inscribed watch that students had given to her husband, Scott.
Thorson said she told police that she was sure the two had come on foot because they hadn't tried to steal anything heavy, such as TVs.
She says a cop went to some nearby motels on East Colfax, looking for guest registrations. He searched for wanted parties, taking a stab in the dark.
It worked.
In one room were two men wanted in Ohio - John "Sweetie Pie" Priester, 39, and Michael Davis, 47.
By 10:30 p.m., police had recovered most of the stolen items, including the ring and watch.
Soon, police started tying the two to other burglaries in the area, and a new experimental program by the district attorney and Denver police provided critical DNA evidence.
In one case, Davis was identified as a suspect after a homeowner caught him in his home and hit him in the head, leaving behind blood. In another, police were investigating a burglary in the 200 block of Grant Street in December, 2005, when they noted that someone - not the owners - had taken a bite out of a piece of "gold coin candy."
In May, 2006, the lab matched the candy DNA to Davis.
The hungry burglars were soon pleading guilty to various cases. Davis was sent away for 21 years and Priester for 12.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_39_mar_07/vol39_ref04.html
Florida - A man who spent four months in prison on robbery charges was exonerated on DNA evidence, authorities said.
Cody Davis, 22, who was convicted in October of robbery and sentenced to three years in prison, spent more than four months incarcerated, but on Friday he walked out of Charlotte Correctional Institution a free man, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported.
Two witnesses to the robbery identified Davis, and a jury convicted him. DNA testing on a ski mask found at the scene was not done immediately because it was not worn by the burglar during the crime, Chief Assistant State Attorney Al Johnson.
Test results came back with DNA matching another man in the DNA database and a Palm Beach County Sheriff's detective noticed Davis and the other man had similar characteristics.
Investigators visited the other man in prison where he confessed to three robberies, Johnson said. Prosecutors immediately asked to have Davis released.
Authorities said the other man has not yet been charged.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_39_mar_07/vol39_ref05.html
Connecticut - A DNA match resulted in an arrest Friday in the 5-year-old unsolved rape of a Rhode Island woman at the city's train station.
Jose Binet, 46, of Dover Street, was taken into custody by detectives of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
He was charged with first-degree sexual assault.
Binet was later ordered held in lieu of $500,000 bond by Superior Court Judge Earl Richards.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_39_mar_07/vol39_ref06.html
Maryland - More than 20 years after a young nursing apprentice at a U.S. Army base in Germany was raped and murdered, DNA evidence has led to the arrest of a suspect in Baltimore.
Robert L. Brown Jr., 46, of Baltimore, a former U.S. soldier, was linked to the killing through a comparison of trace evidence with DNA from the suspect's daughter in Germany - a country he left soon after the 1984 killing, authorities said.
Later, he boasted about raping and strangling the 19-year- old apprentice to a fellow inmate at a Pennsylvania prison where he served time in the mid-1980s, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court in Baltimore.
FBI agents arrested Brown about 12:30 p.m. yesterday in the management office of Wellington Gate apartments in Northeast Baltimore, where he works as a maintenance man. He lives at the complex in a $755 per month rental unit.
Hours later at the federal courthouse, Brown faced Magistrate Judge Susan K. Gauvey in his first appearance in what could be a lengthy extradition process to send him to Germany for trial. She ordered that he be held in federal custody.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_39_mar_07/vol39_ref07.html
Texas - A DNA database established a decade ago has helped Texas law enforcement officials crack their 1,000th cold case within the state, the Texas Department of Public Safety said Thursday.
Case number 1,000 is a sexual assault in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, but DPS spokesman Tom Vinger declined to provide more specifics because the case was still open.
The Combined DNA Index System is a nationwide system used to match the DNA of convicted criminals with evidence from other unsolved crimes.
The Texas CODIS lab in Austin has helped solve 113 homicides, 536 sexual assaults, 410 burglaries and 61 robberies within the state and around the country.
“Many of the offenders were not incarcerated or were about to be released when the database matches took place,” said DPS Director Col. Thomas A. Davis Jr.
In some cases, the DNA helped exonerate wrongly convicted people.
Texas established its database in 1996 and currently has records for 282,000 offenders. All registered sex offenders, felons in the Texas prison system and Texas Youth Commission juveniles must provide a DNA sample.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_39_mar_07/vol39_ref08.html
Florida - DNA evidence again has landed a West Palm Beach man in jail for the killing of a 33-year-old woman and her son, the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office said.
Kerwayne Anthony Bradbery, 29, was booked into the Palm Beach County Jail on Monday on two counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary.
It wasn't the first time.
Investigators arrested Bradbery shortly after the Jan. 20, 1996 slayings of Marie Loriston and her son Christian Demesmin, 14, after his clothes were found to have blood from both victims.
An autopsy showed Demesmin, an eighth-grader at Jefferson Davis Middle School, had a fractured skull and had been kicked or punched in the rib cage.
Loriston had been shot three times in the head outside her son's bedroom door.
A witness also told detectives that Bradbery asked him to call Loriston's apartment because he wanted to know when she would be home.
Murder charges against Bradbery were dropped in 1997 after a judge ruled investigators had seized his clothes illegally. Detectives could not prove Bradbery agreed to hand over his clothes. Although investigators said Bradbery gave them oral permission, that conversation was not part of five hours of recorded interviews.
But in January, the sheriff's Cold Case Squad asked the crime lab to test material left at the crime scene for DNA evidence and again they had evidence to charge him with the crime.
A sheriff's spokesman declined to detail the evidence because information in the case is sealed by court order.
Bradbery was arrested outside his apartment Monday is being held at the County Jail without bond. He was expected to appear before a judge today. "It's been a long time coming," sheriff's spokesman Paul Miller said. "He never thought he'd be arrested again for the same crime, probably."
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_39_mar_07/vol39_ref09.html
Massachusetts - A DNA match has led police to a Brockton man who now faces charges in connection with a 2002 break-in.
The link — identifying Richard L. Phillips, 44, of 111 Oak Way, apt. 8, Brockton, as the suspect — resulted from the state's DNA data bank that compares DNA samples taken from incarcerated felons with DNA evidence from crimes, according to Police Chief David Majenski.
According to the chief, the suspect broke a window at the gas station and entered and exited the building through that opening. Taken in that theft were more than 100 cartons of cigarettes, valued at more than $4,000.
Police found blood on the glass, an indication the suspect had suffered cuts as he passed through the broken window, the chief said. When fingerprints taken from the scene proved inconclusive, investigators from the Plymouth County Sheriff Department's Bureau of Criminal Investigation sent blood samples to the state police crime laboratory for DNA testing.
The results came back last week, and police obtained a complaint charging Phillips with breaking and entering in the night with intent to commit a felony, destruction of property over $250 and larceny from a building, the chief said.
Phillips is being summoned to court to answer the charges, Majenski added.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_39_mar_07/vol39_ref11.html
Florida - Forensics experts testified Monday about fingerprint and DNA evidence in the trial of the man accused of raping 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford and then burying her alive in a plastic bag that she apparently tried to claw her way out of.
The experts told the jury about a stained mattress and fingerprints from a pizza box linking the girl to John Evander Couey.
Wesley Zackery said positive matches were made of prints of Jessica's left thumb and Couey's two index fingers on the pizza box. Similar matches were found on a glass tabletop in the room.
Zackery is with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement crime lab in Tampa.
An FDLE expert on DNA, Roshale Gaytmenn, testified that Jessica's blood and Couey's semen were found on his mattress, including a mixture of the two in one spot. Gaytmenn said similar DNA matches for Jessica and Couey were found on pillows recovered from the room.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_39_mar_07/vol39_ref14.html
Missouri - Prosecutors in Kansas City, Missouri, say D-N-A evidence links a man described by neighbors as mild-mannered and friendly to the serial killings of women and girls in the Kansas City area.
Lorenzo Gilyard is suspected of killing 13 women and girls whose strangled, shoeless bodies were found in secluded spots around the city, between 1977 and 1993. Most of the victims were prostitutes.
Gilyard is being tried for seven of the killings. Prosecutors dropped the other six counts today, but those charges could be refiled later.
If convicted on even one count of first-degree murder, the former trash company supervisor's only possible sentence would be life without parole. Prosecutors agreed in January not seek the death penalty as long as Gilyard's attorneys agreed to a trial before a judge without a jury.
Gilyard's attorney says his client "did not kill anyone."
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_39_mar_07/vol39_ref15.html
Michigan - A retired state police trooper struck a blow for justice on Nov. 14, 2005, but it took until Friday for his punch to register a legal impact.
The alleged thief whose nose Steve Robinson bloodied while trying to halt the theft of his snowblower -- tracked down for more than a year through DNA -- was finally arraigned Friday in 35th District Court in Plymouth.
Timothy John Hynes, 41, of Northville Township, faces charges of first-degree home invasion, unarmed robbery and being a four-time habitual offender.
A DNA match of blood samples taken from Robinson's coat and the driveway at his Northville Township home languished as a low priority in the state police forensic science laboratory among requests for tests that could solve murders and rapes.
But eventual analysis on the FBI's computerized Combined DNA Index System registered a hit in December. It turned out Hynes was in prison, serving time for car theft.
The FBI has maintained a nationwide DNA registry since 1990. Since 1996, Michigan law has required DNA identification profiling of all adults and juveniles convicted of sex offenses, murder, assault and kidnapping. Samples are taken by swabbing the inside of offenders' cheeks.
Hynes has prior convictions for larceny, breaking and entering and receiving stolen property.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_39_mar_07/vol39_ref16.html
Minnesota - Prosecutors charged a 16-year-old boy today in connection with two St. Paul rapes, including a New Year's Day stranger attack in the city's Payne-Phalen neighborhood.
Joshua Lamar Smith, of St. Paul, is charged with two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct in Ramsey County juvenile court.
Authorities said DNA links Smith to the New Year's Day attack, one of two assaults in January that prompted a sizable police investigation and alarmed the neighborhood.
Smith had voluntarily given St. Paul police a DNA sample in September, as officers investigated the rape of a 17-year-old girl, according to a criminal complaint.
The girl told police she had gone to the home of Smith, whom she had known the previous school year, on Sept. 8, the complaint said. He took her to the basement, kicked her in the head and raped her, the complaint said.
Smith denied having sexual contact with the girl when police interviewed him.
On Thursday, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension contacted St. Paul police and told them Smith's DNA matched evidence found on the girl's clothing, the complaint said.
The BCA also ran Smith's DNA sample in a state database and discovered it matched evidence from a Jan. 1 rape.
Smith is being held in a juvenile detention facility in Racine, Wis., pending extradition to Minnesota.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_39_mar_07/vol39_ref17.html
North Carolina - DNA evidence has helped the Rowan County Sheriff's Office make an arrest in connection with an unsolved homicide case, the sheriff announced Thursday.
Jimmie Musselwhite, 62, was found dead in November inside his home in the Bostian Heights community of Rowan County. Using DNA evidence gathered at the crime scene, authorities were able to track down a suspect, 23-year-old Bradley Blymer, in Kentucky.
Sheriff George Wilhelm said Blymer used to live in Rowan County and had been arrested before for assault and breaking and entering. It was because of those previous arrests that Blymer's DNA was on file with the SBI.
The sheriff’s office has not released how Musselwhite was killed, but Wilhelm did say it was a gruesome crime scene.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_39_mar_07/vol39_ref19.html
Michigan - A forensic doctor testified that DNA samples from suspected serial killer Shelly Brooks were a match for evidence taken from three prostitutes he is accused of killing.
Kathy Carr, who works in the Detroit police department's crime lab, said Brooks’ DNA matched the evidence sample swabs taken from the body of Pamela Greer. Brooks, 38, is accused of first-degree murder in connection with Greer’s February 2002 death on Detroit’s east side.
In all, Brooks is accused of killing seven prostitutes on the east side between 1999-2005.
He was arrested last August after a prostitute fought off his attack and later identified him, prosecutors said. That woman, Marsha May, is expected to testify this afternoon about the attack.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_39_mar_07/vol39_ref20.html
Texas - DNA evidence has landed a man in jail on charges of manslaughter.
Roger Ramirez, 42, didn't have any comments as police moved him in handcuffs Monday night. But police say what he did left them speechless in November.
"It was hard for us to handle the scene because of the emotions of the family," said Sgt. Carlos Delgado of the San Antonio Police Department.
It was in broad daylight, when a pick-up truck left a road on San Antonio's far North Side and struck Ryan Stevens while he was trimming trees. Stevens was killed. The pick-up was stolen, police said; it was speeding and there was not even an attempt to hit the breaks. The pick-up eventually crashed and the driver took off running, but he left behind just a little bit of DNA on the airbag.
"[It's] fair to say without the DNA evidence, we would not have a case tonight," said SAPD Police Chief William McManus.
Police couldn't find Ramirez because he's essentially homeless. They got a lucky break when he reported to his parole officer Monday.
Ramirez denied he was at the wheel, but police said his own DNA will prove otherwise.
Of course, DNA can't prove whether Ramirez was drunk or whether he stole the truck, only that he was there.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_39_mar_07/vol39_ref21.html
Washington - Police used DNA evidence to make an arrest Monday in the rape of an 11-year-old girl -- a crime in which a man previously arrested was cleared by DNA.
The 24-year-old Parkland man was arrested shortly before 7 p.m. as he returned to his parents' Olympia house a few blocks from the rape scene, Olympia police said in a news release.
Olympia Police Commander Tor Bjornstad said detectives collected the suspect's DNA recently after he spit on the street, and the sample was analyzed by a lab.
The DNA profile from the saliva matched DNA evidence collected from the victim, the news release said.
Detectives identified the man as a person of interest in the case after learning he had been at the victim's home in the last six or seven months, during an event to help her and her family after her father died, a newspaper reported.
He was booked for investigation of first-degree rape of a child, second-degree assault and first-degree burglary.
Last week, a DNA test cleared David Lukas Lynch, 23, of rape charges. Lynch, who police said had been living in an elaborate underground bunker, is currently at Western State Hospital under a civil commitment that is separate from the criminal case.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_39_mar_07/vol39_ref22.html
California - A man accused in a 2001 home invasion and rape is being held at the county jail in Indio on one million dollars bail.
Palm Springs Police arrested 26-year-old Jorge Vargas at his Desert Hot Springs home on Monday. Detectives say they connected Vargas to the 2001 "cold case" using his DNA, saying he had to submit a sample following an arrest for domestic violence back in 2004.
In December, investigators determined his DNA matched that of the evidence from the rape. Earlier this month, detectives met up with the 58-year-old victim, who identified Vargas as her attacker.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_39_mar_07/vol39_ref25.html
Kentucky - A death row inmate won the right for the DNA testing of some evidence stemming from an old murder, the second time a condemned prisoner in Kentucky has won such a request.
A Fayette County Circuit judge on Friday granted a request by Thomas Clyde Bowling, 54, to test a jacket, hat and thermos that were gathered after the 1990 slayings of a husband and wife in Lexington.
The judge rejected an attempt to take DNA samples from a car used as a getaway vehicle, saying too many people could have driven or been passengers in the car, making any test results unreliable.
"Even if touch DNA or mitochondrial DNA could be located 16 years later, there is no credible proof to establish the age of the DNA," judge Kim Bunnell wrote. "Thus, there would be no proof to connect the evidence to the time period of the crime."
Bowling is awaiting execution after being convicted of shooting Eddie and Tina Earley outside their Lexington dry cleaning store, Earley Bird Cleaners. The couple's son survived the attack.
Kentucky's law allows condemned inmates to request genetic testing of evidence in cases that predate the use of DNA testing.
Another death row inmate, 49-year-old Brian Keith Moore, has been granted a DNA test on evidence stemming from a 1979 murder.
Bowling's attorney, Assistant Public Advocate David Barron, said the DNA could point to another suspect who lived in the area and had a grudge against the Earleys. The thermos will be tested if it can be located and could prove valuable, Barron said.
The thermos was among the items found in the getaway car, but it wasn't introduced as evidence at trial and it's current location is unknown. But because someone likely drank from it around the time of the murder, it could provide evidence that someone else was in the getaway car at the time of the slayings, Barron said.
"If it's something somebody drinks from, you would think it wouldn't have sat there for months before the crime," Barron said.
Fayette County Commonwealth's Attorney Ray Larson called Bowling's requests part of a "never-ending appeal" and said he may appeal the decision.
"We don't have to make that decision immediately," Larson said.
Kentucky's law is similar to statutes in 39 other states. It allows death row inmates to request DNA testing on evidence so long as there haven't been previous tests and that they can convince a judge that the evidence would have affected the outcome of their trial.
Similar tests have resulted in more than a dozen people around the country being freed from death row. At least two other death row inmates in Kentucky have filed for DNA testing. Roger Epperson, convicted of the June 1985 slaying of Tammy Acker in Letcher County, and Victor D. Taylor, convicted of the September 1984 kidnapping, robbery and murder of two high school students in Louisville.
Bowling was originally scheduled for execution in November 2004 for the slayings. He has previously lost appeals claiming he is mentally retarded and that he is ineligible for execution because his mental age falls below 18.
Kentucky has executed two inmates since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_39_mar_07/vol39_ref26.html
Wisconsin - The latest twist in last month's triple homicide at a Janesville mobile-home park has left some neighbors with new fears a killer might still be on the loose, but others said they're still confident the right man is in custody.
The Rock County Sheriff's Department said James Koepp, 48, is still their sole suspect, but recently detectives have been gathering DNA samples from every male resident in the mobile-home park.
Rock County Sheriff Robert Spoden said the voluntary collection is a "pretty standard" investigation practice and that it doesn't indicate they're looking for additional murder suspects.
Still, some lawyers said the size of the sampling sweep is surprising, and they suggested that people seek legal advice before voluntarily giving DNA samples.
About 40 men and boys living near the victims' home have voluntarily turned over their DNA to authorities the last couple of weeks, WISC-TV reported.
The sheriff said that investigators want to identify and eliminate any DNA at the murder scene that might have come from people who visited the Lentz mobile home.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_39_mar_07/vol39_ref27.html
Did You Know?
Topic: New DNA technique could ID bomb-makers
A new technique for analyzing DNA could allow investigators to link a bomb with the person who made it, according to published reports.
The detonation of a homemade bomb produces very high temperatures, leading to highly degraded DNA and difficulty in obtaining a useable DNA fingerprint. Stefanie Kremer of Michigan State University and her colleagues presented a different approach at the American Academy of Forensic Sciences conference in San Antonio, Texas, this past week.
The Guardian reports that Kremer and her team created pipe bombs using sterilized items to destroy any surface DNA. They then had volunteers handle the casings for 30 seconds. The bombs were then detonated in a sealed room and analyzed.
Of the 38 samples, 18 were linked correctly to specific handlers, according to the Guardian. In seven other cases, 'suspects' were narrowed down to one of three.
Police are also interested in using the technique to try to link shootings committed by the same gunman.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_39_mar_07/vol39_ref28.html
Events and conferences for 2007 that may of interest to you include:
18th International Symposium on Human Identification - October 1-4, 2007
Renaissance Hollywood Hotel - Hollywood, California
Web site: www.promega.com/geneticsymp18/
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