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

In Chicago police officers are opposing a new DNA policy under which they would have to provide samples of their DNA at crime scenes. Concerns are based on what will happen to the DNA once it leaves the lab.

 

In Colorado prosecutors and the state’s chief public defender disagree over how to enforce a new state law that mandates how long evidence that may contain DNA should be kept.

 

In Indiana officers will be trying out a new Trigger ID device to swab guns before they are moved, enhancing the chances for recovering 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

Police angry about DNA policy

 

Chicago's Fraternal Order of Police is opposing a new DNA policy under which officers will be asked to provide samples of their DNA at crime scenes - all this in the midst of negotiations over a new contract with the city.

 

Officers will be asked to submit DNA samples if they have touched a gun or other crime scene evidence, allowing investigators to rule out those officers from DNA gathered at the crime scene.

 

Although DNA from officers who sign the waivers will not be entered into a national DNA database, the DNA from those who don't volunteer to offer samples likely will be.

 

The union charges that there's no way to tell what will happen to an officer's DNA after it leaves the lab, and the union is urging officers not to sign a waiver to submit their DNA at crime scenes.

 

Source: www.southwestobserver.com

 

State DNA law divides prosecutors, defenders

 

Prosecutors and the state's chief public defender disagree over how to enforce a new state law that stipulates how long police must keep evidence that might contain DNA.

"The law is not written as well as it should be, but we're 100 percent behind the goal of the law," said Mark Hurlbert, 5th Judicial District Attorney and president of the Colorado District Attorneys Council.

That goal, considering that DNA "allows the criminal justice system to identify the perpetrator of a crime with a level of certainty not previously possible," is to preserve evidence for defendants and prosecutors, the law states.

But Hurlbert said the new law is somewhat vague about how to accomplish that goal and with what kind of crimes.

 

For more please go to:

Source: www.gazette.com

 

IMPD tries out DNA swabs on guns

Indianapolis metropolitan police will be testing a new tool that will allow officers to gather DNA from handguns at a crime scene.

 

During the next six months, officers will be using the Trigger ID device to swab guns before they are moved, enhancing the chances for recovering DNA evidence, according to a statement released by IMPD Lt. Jeff Duhamell.

 

"This device has the potential to increase arrests and the prosecution of individuals who commit gun crimes in our area," the statement said. "It will provide law enforcement officers with the latest technology so they can be as productive as possible when they're out on the streets fighting gun crime."

 

Source: www.indystar.com

New and Ongoing Stories Involving the Use of DNA Evidence

New Jersey - A suspect has been identified in a Higbee Beach parking lot sexual assault case that occurred in July 2000 after a man currently incarcerated in the Northern Nevada Correctional Center in Carson City, Nevada had his DNA entered into the CODIS criminal database, which returned a hit to the New Jersey case.

 

According to the Cape May County Herald, the DNA of Dylan Ravel, 33, matched DNA recovered from the July 2000 incident and labeled him as a possible suspect.

 

Source: www.nj.com

 

California - The DNA results of possible belongings of the Zodiac Killer may finally solve the mystery of the identity of the serial killer who terrorized Northern California's Bay Area in the 1960s and 1970s.

 

The evidence has been brought forward by a man who believes his stepfather was the zodiac killer. Dennis Kaufman told a local CBS affiliate that he is certain that the man who raised him since he was 5-years-old, Jack Tarrance, was the Zodiac Killer, and he claims he can prove it.

 

CBS confirmed with the FBI that DNA tests are being run on the hood. They are also trying to get Tarrance's DNA from postage stamps on old letters he'd sent.

 

Source: www.newcriminologist.com

 

New York - The wonders of DNA and fingerprint evidence — combined with the expanding database for convicted felons — have helped Town of Hamburg police solve a rash of burglaries involving the attempted thefts of safes from five Hamburg businesses in 2006.

 

The DNA match came from a swab of perspiration at one business, while the fingerprint was lifted off a screwdriver used to pry off the dial on a safe at another.

 

On Thursday, Detective Sgt. Thomas Best Jr. and Detective Angelo Butera traveled to Camp Hill, Pa., to bring back the suspect, Mark Manfredy, 44.

 

Source: www.buffalonews.com

 

California - A convicted sex offender was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole after DNA testing linked him to a rape-murder that went unsolved for nearly two decades.

 

Lynn Dean Johnson, 52, of Anaheim, was sentenced Friday in Orange County Superior Court for the 1985 killing of Bridgett Lamon.

 

Source: www.mercurynews.com

 

Ohio - A rape and a second murder have been linked to a lifelong criminal who died in 2006.

 

The two crimes bring to three the number of unsolved cases the Cuyahoga County Cold Case Squad connected to Elmore Bogan, who investigators say was in and out of jail much of his adult life on theft and robbery convictions.

 

Analysis of DNA evidence showed that Bogan was involved in the death of Darlene Williams, who was raped and strangled Feb. 27, 1988.

 

Source: www.cleveland.com

 

Michigan - Occasionally, DNA evidence collected at a crime scene matches a DNA profile already in a database.

 

That's what led to the arrest this week of a 20-year-old Muskegon man in connection with a 2007 home invasion, robbery and rape that police say was fueled by the suspect's need for crack cocaine.

 

Carlton Cleveland Beasley was arraigned Thursday.

 

Samples taken in what is called a "rape kit" were sent to the Michigan State Police crime lab for analysis shortly after the incident.

 

Source: www.mlive.com

 

California - A 32-year-old Santa Monica man already accused of attempted murder was charged Thursday with two capital murders, including the 2001 slaying of the one-time girlfriend of actor Ashton Kutcher.

Michael T. Gargiulo, an air conditioner repairman, was arrested in June on suspicion of attempted murder during a burglary in Santa Monica, where the suspect broke into a woman's home late at night and repeatedly stabbed the woman, who fought him off.

 

DNA collected at the scene linked Gargiulo to the crime through a national database, officials said. His DNA had been gathered in a prior Illinois case.

 

Source: www.latimes.com

 

Pennsylvania - A prisoner serving time for sexual assault has been charged with the 2003 murder and rape of a Kensington woman after new DNA tests linked him to the crime.

 

Luis DeJesus, 35, is charged in the stabbing of Linda Safronsky, 44, who was found dead in her third-floor apartment.

 

DeJesus was linked to Safronsky's murder by a DNA sample he had to submit after he pleaded guilty to unlawful contact with a 13-year-old girl in 2004.

 

Source: www.philly.com

 

Minnesota - A man who evaded both a helicopter and a K-9 unit last August is now allegedly tied to a string of thefts in Cottage Grove by DNA evidence, police say.

 

Chad N. Downs, 28, who is at the Minnesota Correctional Facility in Faribault, is charged with second-degree burglary, third-degree burglary and theft for a series of crimes that concluded on Aug. 3 of last year.

 

Source: www.swcbulletin.com

 

Florida - Homicide detectives on Sunday announced an arrest in slaying of a 65-year-old woman on the Westside earlier in the month.

 

Police said DNA found under the fingernails of Delores Futrel, who was found dead in her Bennington Drive residence Aug. 5 when officers checked out reports of screams coming from her townhouse.

 

Detectives said Randall Deviney, 19, was a neighbor of Futrel and a person of interest from the beginning of the investigation.

 

Source: www.news4jax.com

 

Florida - An Orlando TV station reported Thursday that DNA results of hair and a stain found in the trunk of Casey Anthony's car indicate her daughter, Caylee, is dead.

According to WFTV, the information was provided by a source close to the investigation.

This latest revelation follows reports on Wednesday that samples taken from Casey Anthony's car indicate that, at some point, there was a decomposing body in the trunk.

 

Source: www.abcactionnews.com

 

Hawaii - The DNA of a former Schofield Barracks soldier already facing up to 40 years in prison for a series of dorm room invasions last year at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa has matched DNA linked to an unsolved rape case, prosecutors said yesterday.

 

Mark Heath, 21, was indicted on charges of second-degree sex assault and burglary by the O'ahu grand jury yesterday in the rape case, in which a Waikiki woman was assaulted.

 

Source: www.honoluluadvertiser.com

 

Did You Know?

DNA breakthrough can identify an individual in a public place

                                    

A type of DNA analysis that could vastly increase the power of genetic fingerprinting has been developed by US scientists.

 

They have found a way of picking an individual’s DNA out of a mixed sample – even when that sample is contaminated by the DNA of up to 200 others. The method works even when the DNA of interest is only 0.1 per cent of the sample. At present, it is hard for forensic investigators to detect an individual’s DNA if it constitutes less than 10 per cent of a mixture, or if many other people’s DNA is present.

 

This means that it is almost impossible to identify a suspect’s DNA out of, for example, a collection of skin cells from the handrail of a public staircase. The new method could resolve this problem.

 

“This is a potentially revolutionary advance in the field of forensics,” said the paper’s senior author, David W. Craig, the head of the research group.

 

The team, from the Translational Genomics Research Institute in Phoenix, Arizona, developed a mathematical technique to determine whether the DNA of an individual was present in a mixture. They tested their method successfully on a variety of samples they had mixed.

 

For more please go to:

Source: www.timesonline.co.uk

 

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
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