Please see our “Did You Know?” section at the end of this issue.
From the news so far, it is clear that 2006 will bring continuing developments in the area of DNA testing and the use of DNA evidence as it applies to our criminal justice system. Efforts are directed at reviewing old evidence on cases of persons wrongfully convicted, DNA evidence is obtained from a variety of sources not widely used in the past, the national and state databases continue to expand and there is increasing “support for a strong national reporting system for missing persons”.
[In Virginia] a remarkable, high-tech forensic investigation has started in the warrens of a massive records storage building in eastern Henrico County.
Instead of catching wrongdoers, the $1.4 million, 1½- to two-year project aims to clear people wrongfully convicted of rape or other serious crimes as long as 30 years ago.
Findings thus far have documented the fallibility of the criminal-justice system and kept a spotlight on former state serologist Mary Jane Burton, whose evidence files have exonerated five men, including Anderson, and made the current investigation possible.
This month, Gov. Mark R. Warner announced that two more men had been cleared by DNA testing of evidence found in 31 randomly selected old rape cases -- virtually all of them handled by Burton.
The two most recent exonerations prompted Warner earlier this month to order all files with evidence suitable for DNA testing -- testing that could shed light on guilt or innocence -- be found and tested.
Ferrara estimates 300 or more such cases are buried among 165,000 files stored in 660 boxes. He and other forensics experts said they were not aware of any similar study ever conducted elsewhere.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_9_jan_06/vol9_ref01.html
Pennsylvania - In 1993 The Johnson County medical examiner's office did what it could, determining that the remains belonged to a young woman, between 16 and 27 years old, anywhere from 5 feet 4 to 5 feet 9 inches tall.
"We theorized she'd been out there about 10 years," said Sgt. David Cole, lead homicide investigator for the Johnson County Sheriff's Office.
There were no further clues to the woman's identity, and Johnson County had no missing-person reports that matched the bones.
The skeleton was kept at the medical examiner's office until a visiting fire inspector declared the bones a bio-hazard, and ordered them destroyed.
Instead, one of the nurses hid them in a box and stuck it under a cabinet in a storage area.
In mid-2004, DNA research and a fledgling national database of DNA profiles made it possible to link the Alvarado bones to a 19-year-old Texas woman who had disappeared in 1982, more than a decade before her skeleton was discovered.
Authorities believe the same technology could help Philadelphia and other jurisdictions deal with some of their longest-running mysteries - thousands of unidentified human remains and tens of thousands of missing-person cases that have kept families in limbo for years.
National authorities say there are similar problems throughout the country. To deal with them, support is developing for a strong national reporting system for missing persons, coupled with a national database of DNA profiles, covering unidentified remains, missing persons and their relatives.
One component of "The President's DNA Initiative," announced in March 2003, is to "ensure that DNA forensic technology is used to its full potential to solve missing-persons cases and identify human remains."
A national DNA database, initially created by the FBI in 1998 to handle DNA samples from convicted criminals and crime scenes, has been expanded to include DNA profiles from unidentified remains, missing persons and relatives of missing persons.
So far, the expansion into missing-person cases has been slow.
The FBI has collected DNA profiles from 2.7 million convicted offenders and from 125,000 crime scenes, but as of this week the database includes DNA data from only 244 missing persons, 319 unidentified remains and 719 relatives of missing persons.
"The missing-persons part of the database is really in its infancy," said Dr. Tom Callaghan, the molecular biologist who is official "custodian" of the FBI's National DNA Index System.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_9_jan_06/vol9_ref02.html
Since President Bush announced a national push to advance justice through DNA testing in 2003 — backing it with the promise of $1 billion over five years — Colorado investigators have identified 100 genetic profiles of crime suspects.
Not all of those have been tied to names — some have — but those findings are being compared to the national database of DNA profiles in an effort to solve homicides and rape cases long unsolved. Without money from the president’s DNA initiative, state and local investigators would not have been able to identify specific suspects, pull homicide and rape cases out of the cold case drawer and work on arresting the culprits.
With federal money intended to improve DNA crime labs and $2.4 million from the state for a laboratory robotics system, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation has reduced the backlog of casework, as well. CBI can now turn around information on a DNA sample in 120 or fewer days.
But perhaps the most important thing that the president’s initiative to improve DNA crime labs and as a result solve thousands of cold cases nationwide has done is to revive interest in “unsolvable” cases.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_9_jan_06/vol9_ref03.html
Detectives across Oklahoma hope the New Year brings with it an expanded DNA database. A new law starting in January requires all felons in Oklahoma to submit a blood or saliva sample for the statewide database. Only about 4,500 felons are tested each year. The new rules expand testing to 20,000 per year, which puts Oklahoma on the cutting edge of crime fighting, according to Oklahoma lawmakers.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_9_jan_06/vol9_ref04.html
USA Today - In 2003, Moreschi caught a rapist who had tried to void leaving evidence at a crime scene 1½ years earlier by wearing two condoms and gloves, and by forcing his victim to bathe in a swimming pool after he attacked her. Moreschi ordered DNA tests on a condom package found at the crime scene.
The detective's hunch — that the rapist had opened the package with his teeth — was correct. Inside a barely visible tooth print, analysts found a DNA sample from dried saliva that matched Sonny Brooks, 31, a burglar whose genetic profile was in Florida's database of convicted criminals' DNA.
The rape victim was thrilled to hear the news, Moreschi says. But she told Moreschi that she did not want to be involved in prosecuting Brooks. Testifying in court "would have brought back the nightmare of her rape all over again," Moreschi says.
That led prosecutors to pursue a plea bargain, rather than take the case to trial. Last year, Brooks pleaded guilty and agreed to a 25-year sentence. If he had been convicted at a trial, he could have received a life sentence.
The Brooks case illustrates both the opportunities and the drawbacks of DNA testing in long-unsolved rape cases at a time when the Bush administration is pushing a five-year, $755 million DNA initiative aimed at clearing tens of thousands of cold cases involving rapes, homicides and kidnappings. The plan aims to bring justice to victims, take violent criminals off the streets and identify cases in which a person may have been wrongly convicted.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_9_jan_06/vol9_ref05.html
Illinois - Authorities said Wednesday they plan to compare DNA from a Wilmington man charged with sexually assaulting a quadriplegic teenager against evidence from unsolved crimes in Will County, including the slaying of 3-year-old Riley Fox.
Lawrence Southwood, 68, was charged Sunday with three counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault for allegedly raping the teenage quadriplegic girl while baby-sitting her, according to the Will County State's Attorney's office.
A DNA swab from Southwood likely will be compared against DNA samples in all open cases of violent crime in Will County, including the June 6, 2004 slaying of Fox, Will County sheriff's spokesman Pat Barry said late Wednesday. The girl's father, Kevin Fox, of Wilmington, was charged with her murder but released June 17 when DNA evidence failed to link him to the slaying. The girl was also sexually assaulted.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_9_jan_06/vol9_ref06.html
California - A man arrested two weeks ago in connection with the sexual assault and murder of a 90-year-old Lafayette woman has been ruled out as a suspect by a DNA test, authorities said Friday.
Jeremy King of Moraga was named as a suspect and held for several days earlier this month in connection with the slaying of Anna Elizabeth Vuori, who was found dead in her Lafayette home Dec. 10.
King was released about 10 days ago after lab results showed that his DNA did not match DNA found at the scene, Parker said.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_9_jan_06/vol9_ref07.html
California - San Mateo County's first trial based on "cold hit" DNA evidence is under way with opening statements set to begin this week.
Former Menlo Park resident Jose Luis Villeda, 24, faces life in prison without the possibility of parole for allegedly raping a woman on Halloween in 1999 in Menlo Park.
The case remained unsolved until 2004, when the state's DNA data bank of genetic samples from convicted felons produced what is called a cold hit and matched Villeda to seminal fluid collected after the 1999 rape.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_9_jan_06/vol9_ref08.html
Florida - For eight years, police have had no leads and no suspects in the 1997 rape of a University of Florida student.
But that all changed two weeks ago after a positive DNA match led investigators to one man: Leo Price Jr.
Police arrested the 52-year-old Gainesville man Tuesday on charges of sexual battery, attempted murder and armed burglary in connection to the Nov. 20, 1997 incident in which a 19-year-old UF student was raped in her apartment, said Detective Patty Nixon with the Gainesville Police Department.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_9_jan_06/vol9_ref09.html
Ohio - Since 2002, Toledo police have been looking for the man or men responsible for four rapes and four attempted rapes in South Toledo.
Monday evening DNA evidence led to arrest. of 31-year-old Na'kia D. Witcher, who is now behind bars at the Lucas County Jail.
Witcher has been charged with rape, kidnapping, and assult.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_9_jan_06/vol9_ref10.html
Texas - DNA evidence cracked a cold case linking a convicted murderer to the 1987 slaying of an Arlington woman.
Linda Donahew was found dead in her home.
Police said she was sexually assaulted, then stabbed and strangled.
Almost 20 years later, police have charged Roger Fain Jr. with her murder.
Fain is already in prison serving a life sentence for murdering a Round Rock woman.
Police said there are several similarities between the two crimes.
Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_9_jan_06/vol9_ref11.html
Did You Know?
At a recent AFDAA meeting “David Young from the Texas Department of Public Safety reported on the validation of the ABI 7000 and the Quantifiler Kit. A "Salad Spinner" was converted into a centrifuge by securing two tray bases at an angle with epoxy into the inside of the bowl. This has proven to be a low cost solution (less than $20) for removing bubbles from the trays. It was noted that pipetting reproducibility was extremely important and that electronic pipettes helped in this matter. The internal PCR control (IPC) is used to monitor inhibition. Parameters validated by David included: precision, reproducibility, and sensitivity. His study concluded that the Quantifiler kit was more sensitive than the Quantiblot kit.”
Source: The Association of Forensic DNA Analysts and Administrators (AFDAA) – www.AFDAA.org
Again, please send us your questions or concerns and our expert will provide honest and candid feedback, expert@dnalabsinternational.com.
Editor: Karen Daurie
Karen.Daurie@DNALabsInternational.com
If you would like to be removed from our mailing list, please click on http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/remove_newsletter.html
