Please see our “Did You Know?” section toward the end of this issue.
As we approach the end of the year, I would like to wish you a wonderful holiday season. This issue of the DNA Informant is the last for 2007, and we look forward to providing our newsletter in 2008.
As we have seen all year, headlines again focus on crime labs across the country and their struggle with the overflow of DNA samples. With a rise in the number of hits, as seen in Oregon, where the State Police Forensic Lab recorded its 2000th DNA database hit, and the number of exonerations going up, with the 209th person to be exonerated in Florida – the ongoing struggle is the increasing backlog.
Yet, we have also seen efforts from a number of angles, including monetary funding for some labs, and incredible technological advances that will hopefully make a positive difference in 2008.
In The News
Crime Labs Struggle with Flood of DNA Samples
Forensic DNA databanks have grown steadily in the last 20 years across the country. The first databases only included samples from convicted felons. Now some states and cities are taking DNA samples from arrestees and those convicted of misdemeanors. Although some studies have shown that larger databases correlate with greater numbers of DNA matches from crime scenes, there are also drawbacks to expanding a DNA database.
Backlogs of DNA crime scene evidence are a significant concern across the country. The Los Angeles Times recently reported that the L.A. Police Department has nearly 7,000 untested DNA samples from sexual assault cases in cold storage. A state audit said the LAPD would need more than $9 million to clear the backlog.
For more on this story, please go to:
Source: http://www.npr.org
Oregon State Police Forensics Unit Sees 2000th DNA Database Hit
Forensic evidence linking a convicted offender to a homicide became the 2000th DNA database hit reported by the Oregon State Police Forensic Laboratory DNA unit. The Oregon State Police Forensic Laboratory DNA unit recorded the 2000th DNA database hit November 20th. The first hit to the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) happened August 1st 1994. Twelve years later the 1000th hit was recorded on September 28th 2004. Now, less than two years later, the DNA unit recorded the 2000th hit.
Source: http://www.salem-news.com
New and Ongoing Stories Involving the Use of DNA Evidence
New York - The man suspected of being the Phoenix Baseline Killer has been sentenced to 438 years in prison for his September conviction of sexually assaulting two sisters near a city park. Mark Goudeau, 43, received the long sentence after prosecutors proved in court that Goudeau had prior convictions for violent crimes.
Goudeau was found guilty in September after a two-month trial for raping one woman and sexually assaulting her sister as they walked home from a park. During the trial DNA evidence was presented which linked Goudeau to the victims.
Source: http://crime.about.com
Georgia - A man freed from a Georgia prison by a DNA test after serving part of a life prison term for a rape nearly 30 years ago says he's just thankful the incident is behind him.
John Jerome White left prison Monday evening, as a result of DNA tests from hairs found at the scene of the 1979 rape.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com
Pennsylvania - Law enforcement officials said Thursday that there was strong evidence that the imprisoned rapist who confessed this week to murdering six women more than 25 years ago in Cape Girardeau, Mo., and Carbondale, Ill., also killed women in as many as three other jurisdictions.
The authorities in Pennsylvania said that they had used DNA evidence to tie Mr. Krajcir, 63, to the 1979 murder of Myrtle V. Rupp, 51, who was found strangled in her home near Reading.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com
Missouri - A man who was linked to a cold-case rape and murder through routine DNA testing has pleaded guilty and been sentenced to life in prison.
Currie Lindsey, 36, admitted that he raped and suffocated 74-year-old Arline Wiemann in her bed in the 4300 block of Nebraska Avenue in May of 1997.
Source: http://www.stltoday.com
New York - A few weeks ago, the state police lab was running a routine comparison that generated a "hit" between the DNA from a crime scene in Balmville- where an intruder shot Cosimo DiBrizzi to death - and the DNA of 58-year-old Dennis Sweeney.
This week, Sweeney was indicted on a murder charge. Police are still searching for a motive.
Source: http://www.recordonline.com
North Carolina – COLUMBIA, S.C. --
Police say DNA has helped them solve the death of a woman more than six years ago.
State agents recently matched DNA taken from the Columbia home where Angela Coleman was strangled in April 2001 to a man in a Daytona Beach, Fla., jail on an armed robbery charge.
Investigators say 30-year-old Clarence Myers admitted killing Coleman after he was confronted with the new evidence.
Source: http://www.charlotte.com
Pennsylvania - A New York State man is in jail, facing charges in the stabbing death of a Pennsylvania man 13 years ago.
State police say DNA tests taken from Rafael Jesus Rios Sr. matched blood taken from the scene of Leonard Wansley's killing near Harrisburg in 1994.
Source: http://www.timesleader.com
Florida –Chad Heins, who was convicted in 1996 of the 1994 murder of his sister-in-law despite a lack of evidence against him, was exonerated earlier this week when the Florida State Attorney in Jacksonville dismissed all charges against him.
The Innocence Project, which represents Heins, said he is the 209th person nationwide exonerated through DNA testing (and the ninth in Florida).
Source: http://www.northcountrygazette.org
Alabama - DNA records have identified a suspect in a five-year old rape case.
Capt. Loyd Baker, commander of the Tuscaloosa County Metro Homicide Unit, said Paul Gerard Gladney, 22, of Tuscaloosa, was arrested on charges of first-degree burglary and first-degree rape Tuesday. He is accused of breaking into a woman’s house and raping her in June 2003.
Source: http://www.tuscaloosanews.com
Georgia - DNA evidence links a Hampton man to the Halloween death of a Jonesboro woman whose body was discovered in her burning home, police said Wednesday.
Timothy Alan Boothe, 41, bound and gagged Geneva Strickland, 68, and set her Fayetteville Road home on fire, leaving her to die, police allege. An autopsy showed she was alive when the fire started and inhaled smoke before suffocating.
Source: http://www.ajc.com
Florida - Red with horns and fangs, a latex mask shown to jurors looked evil on the outside, and what was found inside could tie Jay Broxton to a terrible crime.
Deputy Kenny Bibbs found a devil’s mask minutes after receiving a call to be on the lookout for three men fleeing the scene of a fatal shooting. Bibbs said investigators told him the mask had nothing to do with the robbery and killing of James Edwards Jr., but Bibbs kept it anyway.
Investigators later tested it for evidence. What they found, DNA expert Robert O’Brien said, most likely was Broxton’s DNA.
Source: http://www.nwfdailynews.com
Did You Know?
Forensic Laboratory Software Application from Applied Biosystems Automates Data Analysis for Faster DNA Results
Applied Biosystems announced the availability of a new software application intended to help forensic laboratories deliver faster DNA results by automating routine DNA analysis and facilitating more efficient manual review of complex samples.
The new GeneMapper® ID-X software application provides computerized forensic expertise that streamlines the routine review of data required for DNA analysis, eliminating redundant tasks. By using this software application, forensic analysts are expected to be able to more rapidly interpret and report DNA results to assist in more criminal investigations.
This new software application from Applied Biosystems is intended to support the increasing use of DNA in forensic cases.
For more information about GeneMapper® ID-X Software, please visit http://idx.appliedbiosystems.com
Source: http://www.businesswire.com
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
Karen.Daurie@DNALabsInternational.com
