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Please see our “Did You Know?” section toward the end of this issue. And in January of 2009, a new Justice Department rule is scheduled to take effect, expanding the FBI crime database to include DNA from all people arrested for federal crimes and noncitizens who are detained. 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.
As 2008 comes to an end we would like to wish you all the best for the upcoming year! I would also like to say that 2008 has been a year of exciting developments for us at DNA Labs International, and a recent news article, which is summarized below, gives an overview of where we are. Thank you all for your continued interest in The DNA Informant and I look forward to providing you with news summaries in 2009!
Other recent stories involving DNA analysis include the fact that “despite the rise of DNA fingerprinting and other "CSI"-style crime-fighting wizardry, more people in this country are getting away with murder.” The article cites some statistics and reasons behind them. Because rape victims are often hesitant to come forward and being identified, the North Dakota Forensic Medical Examination Multidisciplinary Working Group recently got together attempting to find ways to make it easier for women to report violence through the use of a “Jane Doe” rape kit.
And as part of the effects of our current economy “budget cuts in coroners' offices are hampering police investigations and delaying release of death certificates.”
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 NewsLee agencies turn to forensic lab for help Deerfield Beach company gets difficult jobs and those that are urgent Opened in 2004 by Noppinger, a former Florida Department of Law Enforcement forensic biologist, and his wife, Kirsten, a businesswoman, DNA Labs International has been tapped as a tool in several local cases this past year: In Florida, the majority of law enforcement agencies use the FDLE. But when circumstances of an investigation demand fast results, the Lee County Sheriff's Office and others will seek a private lab. The lab in Deerfield has come highly recommended to several agencies, which also like it because of its relatively close proximity. Noppinger said he can return most samples in about two weeks (compared to FDLE's average of 91 days), but in special cases, he can rush results in two days - time that can be crucial in an investigation. Source: www.news-press.com
More Get Away With Murder, Despite Technology FBI figures show that the homicide clearance rate, as detectives call it, dropped from 91 percent in 1963 -- the first year records were kept in the manner they are now -- to 61 percent in 2007. Law enforcement officials say the chief reason is a rise in drug- and gang-related killings, which are often impersonal and anonymous and thus harder to solve than slayings among family members or friends. As a result, police departments are carrying an ever-growing number of "cold case" homicides on their books. Source: www.washingtonpost.com
Kits designed to keep violence victims’ identities confidential However, law enforcement would rather have the information available even if details of the “Jane Doe” rape kit need to be worked out. The North Dakota Forensic Medical Examination Multidisciplinary Working Group recently got together attempting to find ways to make it easier for women to report violence. Members hope “Jane Doe” rape kits do just that. Group member Lt. Rod Banyai said the kits make it possible for a rape victim to seek medical attention and gather possible forensic evidence without revealing their identity. Source: www.thedickinsonpress.com
Budget cuts hurt coroners' offices Budget cuts in coroners' offices are hampering police investigations and delaying release of death certificates, leaving families in limbo as they await results of a loved one's autopsy. Coroners and medical examiners in states such as California, Florida and Utah report the delays mean longer waits for DNA results in rape and child molestation cases and for ballistic results in homicide cases. For families, death certificates are classified as pending, delaying insurance claims and executing the will. Source: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-12-18-coroners_N.htm
New and Ongoing Stories Involving the Use of DNA EvidenceOhio - It will have been 14 years, two months and 23 days since a woman was brutally raped on Oakland Avenue when John Wesley Mann walks into Kenton Circuit Court Tuesday to face charges he was one of the rapists. He is the fourth man linked to, charged with or convicted of a rape after police here began DNA testing on evidence from unsolved homicides and sexual assaults in 2002. Source: news.cincinnati.com
Oklahoma - A trail of tobacco spit has led investigators to a suspect in at least five burglaries across eastern Oklahoma, police said. Randy Lee Shoopman Jr., 33, was charged with 11 counts of second-degree burglary after a sample of his DNA matched that taken from expectorant left behind at the scene of several burglaries in Oklahoma, said officer Brad Robertson, a spokesman for the Tahlequah police department. Shoopman was taken into custody Friday in Merced, Calif., on an unrelated stolen property charge, Robertson said. Source: www.google.com/hostednews
New Jersey - Alex James Crow was sentenced to 40 years imprisonment last Friday after pleading guilty in October to the 2005 strangling death of Marianne DeMartin.Crow, 33, of Oak Ridge in Medford expressed remorse and apologized to DeMartin's family during the hearing, according to court documents. On Sept. 29, 2005 police discovered her abandoned car about a mile from her home parked next to a dumpster behind a convenience store on Evesham Road. In processing the car for forensic evidence, investigators discovered the DNA profile of an unidentified male. Blood stains with DNA matching DeMartin's were also found in the trunk, officials said. On Jan. 18, 2008 authorities discovered the unidentified male DNA profile found in DeMartin's car was a genetic match to Crow, who was in the national database as a sex offender for a 1998 conviction of endangering the welfare of a child in Cinnaminson. Source: www.medfordcentralrecord.com
California - Fresno police and state scientists have matched DNA from a Fresno woman's stabbing death three decades ago with a suspect already serving a sentence in Avenal State Prison for an unrelated 1993 robbery. Police and the Fresno County District Attorney's Office intend to have Larry Banks, 55, sent to Fresno to stand trial for murder in the death of Susan Vallin, 20. She was stabbed three times in the throat in May 1977. Her body was found in an alley between the 2600 block of Clay and Tyler avenues. Police Chief Jerry Dyer announced in a news conference Tuesday that detectives and the state Department of Justice now believe their DNA evidence conclusively identifies Banks as Vallin's killer. He said the crime was a random attack by a stranger. Source: www.fresnobee.com
California - Jose Hernandez is a serial rapist, a jury has ruled. Source: www.kget.com
Pennsylvania - Jermaine Burgess, a local man with an extensive criminal record, has been arrested and charged with the murder of Ho Pham, a Vietnamese immigrant who was killed in his home during an alleged Nov. 10 burglary."Jermaine Burgess emerged as a suspect early on in the investigation," Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood said yesterday. "His name surfaced as a person with a very, very long criminal record and very violent who lived close by." Evidence showed a porch window was broken and the front door unlocked to gain entry, according to police. DNA evidence tied Burgess to the crime. "We submitted forensic evidence to the Pennsylvania Police Lab that include what we believed was one of the murder weapons, a makeshift wood chisel," he said. Source: www.newsofdelawarecounty.com
Illinois - A Rantoul man is due back in court in February after being charged with residential burglary and an unrelated drug possession. Darren Monroe, 44, is accused of entering a home on East Wabash Avenue in Rantoul on Sept. 21 and stealing from the woman living there. The woman found a bottle of Tums and $8 missing from her purse. She also found a partially consumed bottle of soda in her kitchen, Pugh said. Pugh said police were able to lift evidence from the bottle that had Monroe's DNA in it. Source: www.news-gazette.com
Pennsylvania - DNA evidence has helped authorities in Gloucester County to track down the man that they say stabbed a single mother to death more than six years ago. Authorities say that Brian M. Mertz, 30, met Jennifer Whipkey after the 22-year-old had spent a night dancing at the Adelphia nightclub and restaurant in Deptford on May 24, 2002. Dalton said that DNA obtained from Mertz matches DNA found on Whipkey's body. Source: www.philly.com
Florida - It's Caylee Marie. The five-month mystery ended today when authorities confirmed that skeletal remains discovered in woods last week belong to the missing two-year-old girl. Source: www.newsday.com
Florida -Authorities say they've linked a 48-year-old man to a 1987 St. Petersburg slaying through DNA evidence.
Tony Fantauzzi was arrested in Newton County, Ga. on Wednesday on a warrant issued in Pinellas County. He is charged with first-degree murder and is awaiting extradition. The body of 19-year-old Lisa Bickford was found in 1987 near a mall. Police said she was strangled and raped. Source: www.ledger-enquirer.com
Did You Know?
Year in science: Dig into DNA, out-of-this-world discoveries Genome mapping gets personal The age of the personal genome, an entire genetic map of a single person, began this year as 10 volunteers on a Harvard University project, including lead scientist George Church, released genome details in October. "We're all shockingly healthy," Church said. A month later, Nature magazine reported on individual genomes of a man from China and another from West Africa in separate studies. Ancient DNA gets its day in the sun Extinct species enjoyed a good year — well, as good as you can have when you are extinct — thanks to genetic technologies. A team led by Richard Green of Germany's Max Planck Institute in August unveiled a complete map of the mitochondrial DNA of a 38,000-year-old Neanderthal. Mitochondrial DNA is found throughout cells and the results showed significant differences with human DNA. And then it was the woolly mammoth's turn. A team led by Webb Miller of Penn State reported the genome of the vanished pachyderms in Nature. The genes reveal that mammoths split from African elephants about 1.5 million years ago. For other discoveries as part of the “Year in Science” article, please go to: Source: www.usatoday.com HAPPY NEW YEAR!
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 |
