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

The topic of DNA is currently big in Virginia, as the state has reached its 5000th DNA database hit. In addition, they are busy preparing to send letters to approximately 400 felons convicted in the 1970s and 1980s notifying them that genetic evidence in their cases has been reviewed.

 

In Kansas, there is rising concern over a lack of requirements to preserve DNA evidence.

 

In addition to these stories you will find brief summaries of new and ongoing cases involving the use of DNA analysis. Every story is followed by a link to its original source, which you can follow for more details.

In The News

Va. reaches 5,000th DNA databank hit

 

Governor Tim Kaine says Virginia has reached a milestone with its 5,000th hit to the state DNA databank.

A hit occurs when DNA recovered from a crime scene is matched to a sample from an individual or a case already in the databank.

The governor's office says the 5,000th hit involved evidence retrieved from an April 2008 burglary in northern Virginia. The sample matched one submitted to the databank in the mid-1990s from a female with several prior burglary and larceny convictions.

All convicted felons must submit a DNA sample for the database under Virginia law. The number of distinct samples in the state databank exceeds 277,000.

 

Source: www.dailypress.com

 

Letters to Inform 400 Felons Of DNA Evidence Retesting

 

Virginia is preparing to send letters to about 400 felons convicted in the 1970s and 1980s notifying them that genetic evidence in their cases has been reviewed, including eight cases in which defendants' DNA did not match crime samples.

The Virginia Forensic Science Board voted yesterday to send letters explaining that evidence in their cases, some decades-old, has been retested using DNA technology that was not available at the time of conviction. No determination has been made about whether any of the felons are innocent, and the letter will explain that they can seek further information about the test results.

 

Source: www.washingtonpost.com

 

DNA technology: Vital evidence

 

Tests on preserved material have been used to free the innocent and help solve cold cases

Two recent stories from two different media sources about DNA evidence provide cause for concern in Kansas.

 

The first story came from Dallas, where a judge Tuesday recommended clearing the record of a man who had spent 25 years in prison on convictions for a series of sex crimes. The recommendation came about a year after the man was cleared by DNA testing.

 

On Wednesday morning, USA Today published a front-page story identifying Kansas as one of 25 states nationwide that lack requirements to preserve DNA evidence.

 

Supporters of retaining such evidence said the lack of requirements is unsettling for a couple of reasons.

First, as the case from Dallas points out, DNA tests are increasingly revealing wrongful convictions.

 

The second reason is that preserving DNA also has helped law enforcement officials solve cases.

 

The downsides to maintaining DNA include that storing biological material is expensive. There also have been disagreements about how long and under what conditions to keep the material.

 

Source: www.cjonline.com

New and Ongoing Stories Involving the Use of DNA Evidence

Michigan - A 38-year-old murder mystery on the campus of Michigan State University has been solved with a DNA match, campus police say, but there will be no arrest because the killer has been dead for a decade.

 

Several years ago, campus police submitted to a federal database DNA that had been found in semen during investigation of the case. Other suspects were ruled out one-by-one, and police soon learned that Carl Finch had killed himself out of state years ago. They were able to obtain DNA samples from authorities there and contracted with two private labs to test the samples against the DNA in Jackson's case.

 

On Tuesday, police learned that the match was definite.

 

Source: www.freep.com

 

South Dakota - The first time Randy Swaney emerged as a suspect in Carrie Nelson’s murder was April 2007, when a search of a DNA database matched him to a wristwatch found at the scene.

Swaney, 37, was arrested the following month for the May 2001 killing at Blue Mound State Park.

Swaney was in the South Dakota State Penitentiary for an unrelated crime when the DNA match was made.

 

Source: www.argusleader.com

 

Iowa - Iowa City Police arrested a Williamsburg man Wednesday for allegedly sexually assaulting a 21-year-old woman in her Iowa City apartment in April.

 

Officers arrested Jonathan Ryan Schiefer, 32, on Wednesday after an investigation and earlier arrest allowed investigators to build a case against him using DNA evidence.

 

Source: www.press-citizen.com

 

Tennessee - After recently reanalyzing some old evidence and with advances in new technology, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation was able to link a man who is in prison in South Carolina to the Christmas Eve 1990 rape and beating death of a 74-year-old Brownsville woman.

 

DNA analysis played a major role in solving the murder case, according to John Mehr, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation special agent in charge in Jackson.

 

The victim, Bessie Shores, later died from injuries sustained during the beating.

 

Daniel McFarland, 38, was indicted on a charge of felony murder, according to a press release.

 

Source: www.jacksonsun.com

 

Florida - Casey Marie Anthony, 22, was charged with one felony and one misdemeanor offense, in addition to the child neglect charge she already faced. She will be arraigned on the criminal charges.

 

Also Tuesday, test results from DNA samples taken from a car driven by Anthony came in and were turned over to investigators.

 

The evidence was gathered from the trunk of a vehicle that Anthony was using when her 2-year-old daughter Caylee Marie Anthony vanished in mid-June.

 

Other DNA samples were taken from the backyard of Anthony's parents' house, where she lived with her little daughter until about the time the girl disappeared.

 

Detectives reported smelling a strong odor of human decomposition in the car trunk after cadaver dogs led them there. They said they also found hair samples similar to those of Caylee Marie Anthony.

Authorities from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement were analyzing the DNA results, but the media was told Monday that they won't necessarily be guaranteed immediate access to the data.

 

Source: www.foxnews.com

 

Washington - DNA taken from the bodies of people killed in the 2001 anthrax attacks helped lead investigators to Bruce Ivins, who oversaw the highly specific type of germ in an Army lab, a government scientist said Sunday.

 

Using new genome technology to identify the type of Ames strain anthrax used in the attacks, the FBI began to focus on Ivins as its top suspect more than a year ago.

 

Ivins "was the primary suspect for some time," said the scientist, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to reporters.

 

"It had to do with the very specific characteristics in the DNA of the letters and what was in Bruce's labs," the scientist said. "They were cultures he was personally responsible for."

 

Source: ap.google.com

 

Illinois - After 27 years of hitting brick walls in their investigation of a murder, Aurora police said Friday it was a fresh DNA sample that helped them finally arrest a suspect.

 

Larry J. Galloway, 46, now faces two counts of first-degree murder in the 1981 death of 20-year-old Cheryl Lynn Hall.

 

Aurora police arrested Galloway late Thursday at the Ogilvie Transportation Center in Chicago, where he worked as a train conductor.

 

Undercover officers followed Galloway into a restaurant on Aurora's far west side and watched him eat his meal.

 

"(Galloway) has no idea he's being watched the entire time he's eating," Ferrelli said. "When he's done and gets up to leave, they go in the garbage and get the utensils he was eating with. That's how they got the DNA they needed."

 

Police then were able to match Galloway's DNA to some of the original evidence found at the crime scene, prompting Kane County State's Attorney John Barsanti to authorize the charges.

 

Source: www.dailyherald.com

 

Missouri - Kansas City police today arrested a convicted rapist in connection with an unsolved 2001 rape of a woman walking along a highway.

 

A DNA hit linked Aaron R. Gaston, 41, who was already in prison, to the 2001 crime, court records say.

 

Source: www.kansascity.com

 

Alabama -An Alabama prisoner who was spared execution for a third time was on Thursday moved from a waiting cell near the lethal injection chamber back to death row.

 

The Alabama Supreme Court postponed executing Thomas Arthur, 66, after arguments over DNA testing and an inmate's claim in a sworn statement to defense attorneys that he committed the murder that sent the Arthur to death row.

 

Arthur was scheduled to die Thursday, more than 26 years after he was convicted of killing Troy Wicker Jr. of Muscle Shoals.

 

Source: www.montgomeryadvertiser.com

 

International

Australia - Australian police will re-examine 7,000 crimes solved through DNA evidence after a mistake forced detectives to free a suspect wrongly accused of murder.

 

Police in the southern city of Melbourne withdrew charges against Russell John Gesah, accused in July of the 1984 murders of a 35-year-old mother and her nine-year-old daughter.

 

Gesah was arrested and faced court, but a later check found the DNA evidence used against him was taken elsewhere and mistakenly tested with samples from the Tapp murder scene.

 

"We need to refine our processes and our practices, and that is now happening as a result of this case," he said.

 

Source: uk.reuters.com

 

Guatemala - For 14 months, Ana Escobar studied the tiny fingers of every passing baby, searching for a girl with pinkies that curved gracefully outward, just like those of her missing daughter.

 

Then one day she saw her, in the arms of a foster mother processing her adoption by an Indiana couple: A straight-haired toddler who appeared to be a stranger, except for her unmistakable fingers.

 

DNA tests eventually proved what Escobar knew: The girl was her daughter, taken at gunpoint in March 2007 when she was 6 months old.

 

Esther Sulamita is the first stolen Guatemalan baby found through a challenge of the DNA test results that are supposed to guarantee the legitimacy of each adoption. She likely will not be the last.

 

Source: www.heraldtribune.com

 

Did You Know?

 

Anthrax case spurred field of germ-gene sleuthing

 

The anthrax killer spurred a whole new branch of science that could give the nation a head start in the next emergency — whether it's investigating more bioterrorism or even a food poisoning outbreak.

 

It's called microbial forensics, a way of using a germ's genetics to help exonerate or incriminate much as human DNA can today.

 

Microbes — whether bacteria like salmonella and E. coli, or viruses like HIV — have unique genetic signatures that can allow scientists to tell even the most closely related strains apart. The forensics side comes from adding crime-investigation techniques to this advanced microbiology used by disease detectives. Think CSI meets CDC.

 

With anthrax, that science led to a single flask of bacteria deemed the genetic parent of the spores grown for the 2001 attacks. It then took traditional gumshoe detective work for the FBI to finger the flask's owner, Dr. Bruce Ivins, as the alleged attacker while ruling out others who shared his Fort Detrick laboratory where that flask was stored.

 

If tracing a single vial of germs sounds impressive, consider: Research under way now might one day allow tracing where someone has recently traveled by the DNA of bacteria in the dirt on their shoes.

 

For more information, please go to:

 

Source: ap.google.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