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Please see our “Did You Know?” section toward the end of this issue. In the news, Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo is addressing the use of DNA for immigration purposes. In Washington State Gov. Christine Gregoire is considering a number of recommendations to help track sex offenders, including the widespread use of DNA testing. And in the UK, almost one in ten persons is in the national DNA database. Following these stories you will find new and ongoing cases involving the use of DNA evidence.
Tancredo seeks to enhance immigration system with ‘DNA’ test Presidential candidate and Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo recently introduced legislation that would require DNA confirmation for aliens applying for visas based on a biological relationship with someone in the United States. Tancredo cited the sketchy and sometimes unreliable nature of foreign identity documents as justification for the new requirement. Tancredo has been relentless in his efforts to stop illegal immigration and secure the U.S. borders forcing both Republican and Democratic candidates running for president to address the issue. Source: USA Daily Panel proposes DNA tests to track all sex offenders Washington - Gov. Christine Gregoire is considering a sweeping list of recommendations aimed at broadening the state's ability to track sex offenders, including widespread use of DNA testing and electronic monitoring. The recommendations, which Gregoire announced Wednesday, were drawn up by a task force of police, lawyers and victims' advocates. The governor created the task force after convicted sex offender Terapon Adhahn was charged with the July 4 kidnapping and slaying of 12-year-old Zina Linnik of Tacoma. Source: The Seattle Times 'One in ten' on DNA database Almost one in ten Britons is on the national DNA database (NDNAD), it has emerged. Figures obtained by the Liberal Democrats show that there are 4,850,510 profiles on the database, cementing its status as the world's largest. Last year the Home Office predicted that the number of samples contained on the NDNAD would rise to 4.25 million, but not before 2008. The figures, disclosed as a result of a parliamentary question from Lib Dem MP Jenny Willott, show that in 1997/98 129,781 profiles were added to the database. But in 2006/2007, the database swelled with the addition of 722,464 new samples, an increase of 545 per cent. Source: inthenews.co.uk New and Ongoing Stories Involving the Use of DNA Evidence Indiana - A mixture of Michael Matuska's DNA and that of accused killer Michael Szarek was found on a jacket removed from Szarek at Saint Margaret Hospital after he crashed his mother's stolen car in Illinois. In addition, a DNA profile consistent with Matuska's was found on the outer edge of tennis shoes worn by Szarek. Ihnat testified during the third day of Szarek's trial on two counts of murder in the deaths of Matuska, 60, and Barbara Matuska, 71, his stepfather and mother. Szarek, 47, of Hammond, has pleaded not guilty. Source: Post-Tribune California - Christopher Melvin Holland, 52, was arrested Thursday morning, in connection with a 1983 homicide of a 17-year-old Campbell girl. DNA evidence is the main reason detectives linked Holland to Munoz’s slaying, David Tompkins. Source: NBC 11 Louisiana - Rudolph Wade eluded New Orleans police for 10 years after raping a woman he abducted at gunpoint, ordering her not to dare look at his face. On Friday, the woman arrived at Orleans Parish Criminal District Court to watch a judge send Wade to prison for 80 years for a 1996 case that grew cold until just recently, when investigators submitted a DNA sample recovered from the victim to a national database. Wade's name immediately came up. Source: The Times Picayune Texas - Prosecutors said that they intend to retry Clay Chabot for the 1986 slaying of Galua Crosby, even though DNA evidence shows that he did not rape her. The evidence used at his original trial – including the murder weapon and a bloody shirt – is missing. Mr. Chabot was found guilty in 1986 after his brother-in-law, Gerald Pabst, testified that Mr. Chabot raped and killed Ms. Crosby at her Garland home. She was shot in the head three times. Results from DNA tests, which were not available at trial, show that Mr. Pabst – not Mr. Chabot – raped Ms. Crosby. Mr. Pabst was arrested in Ohio in July and charged with capital murder and is awaiting trial. Source: The Dallas Morning News Illinois - Prosecutors have won an effort to test hairs they hope will bolster their case against Bloomington Police Sergeant Jeff Pelo who is accused of raping four women. Judge Bob Freitag agreed to allow prosecutors to do DNA testing on a cat hair found on a mask that belonged to Pelo to see if it matches hair from a victim's cat. Source: WJBC Michigan - The trial in the murder of Eastern Michigan University student Laura Dickinson moved into the world of microscopic forensics with an expert witness testifying that DNA testing on semen stains puts suspect Orange Taylor III at the scene of the sexual assault and murder in her college dorm room. Taylor’s DNA perfectly matches samples taken at the scene. Source: Detroit Free Press New York - Scientists with an FBI crime lab made a connection with a hair sample found on a bloody knife to the defendant accused of killing her mother last year in Ossining. As the trial of Anne Trovato headed into the final stages, forensic evidence presented by prosecutors aiming to convict her in the killing of her mother, Patricia Mery, took center stage in the White Plains courtroom. While the forensic experts could not conclusively say the hair found on the kitchen knife used in the killing was Trovato's, the DNA analysis carried out by the FBI analysts showed that the hair on the weapon "shared the same profile" as Trovato's. Source: Lower Hudson Online California - A 42-year-old man was charged with murder in the death of his 9-year-old sister two decades ago. Rosendo Lopez, of Santa Ana, was charged with one count of murder and was being held on $1 million bail in the 1987 killing of Patricia Lopez. His arraignment was postponed until Nov. 8. A spokeswoman for the district attorney's office said detectives from the Santa Ana police's cold case unit matched DNA samples to Rosendo Lopez using forensic techniques not available at the time. Source: The Mercury News Texas - Ronnie Taylor walked out of a Houston courtroom on Tuesday after prosecutors agreed that DNA testing had proven he didn’t commit the rape for which he had served 12 years in prison. After a Houston woman was raped in her home in 1993, she misidentified Taylor in a videotaped lineup and he was convicted by a jury in 1995. At his trial, an expert from the Houston Police crime lab said a sheet collected from the crime scene did not contain evidence from the crime. This was an error and DNA testing this year, conducted by the Innocence Project, proved that Taylor wasn’t the rapist. Source: North Country Gazette Minnesota - DNA evidence has linked a 27-year-old man to two unsolved Minneapolis rape cases. Dorian J. Olson has been charged with multiple counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct for an April 22, 1999, incident in south Minneapolis, and for a Feb. 24, 2004, incident on the city's North Side. Source: Star Tribune 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. Did you know? Research for Smithsonian Helps UNH Forensic Scientists Uncover Ground-Breaking DNA Extraction Method Dr. Heather Coyle and three forensic science graduate students at the University of New Haven have developed a new method for preparing certain skeletal remains for DNA extraction thanks to some 800-year-old mummies from Mongolia and the research the group is doing for the Smithsonian Institution. Obtaining DNA is often a crucial step in the identification of human remains. An assistant professor of forensic science at UNH, Coyle says that while DNA extraction is never an easy process it is sometimes impossible with bones and tissue that have been long buried. Coyle and her students have discovered that, in some cases, baking bones can aid in the extraction of DNA. For the complete article, please go to: Editor: Karen Daurie |
