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Please see our “Did You Know?” section toward the end of this issue. In New Jersey the DNA Laboratory at the New Jersey Forensic Science Technology Center shares its number of DNA hits over the past two years and how these have helped investigations in the state.
Denver also provides some statistics based on a three year old Burglary DNA Program indicating that each year property crimes have dropped an average of about 12 percent.
And the success continues in Wisconsin “where DNA submissions from convicted felons have led to nearly 2,000 matches in other crimes over the past eight years.”
I would also like to add that one of our readers has submitted a case study, which I felt would be interesting to share with you. An introduction to it can be found under ‘Case Study’ below. If you should have a case study you would like us to include in The DNA Informant, please feel free to send it in for review.
In The News Each year, thousands of cases are sent to the DNA Laboratory at the New Jersey Forensic Science Technology Center in hopes of linking suspects to crimes.
Last year, the lab received 3,112 potential DNA cases, a 25 percent increase from 2007 and a 30 percent increase from 2006, Petersack said. The figures do not include non-DNA cases, such as those involving fingerprint or drug analysis.
While all samples can't produce a full DNA match, Petersack said a direct match is essentially irrefutable as the chances of two random DNA profiles fully matching is something to the tune of 1 in a quadrillion.
Last year, the crime lab produced 880 DNA hits, Petersack said. The year before, there were nearly 900. These hits solved or assisted law enforcement in investigating 90 sexual offenses, 355 burglaries, 131 robberies and thefts, and 37 homicides, according to state figures. Source: www.courierpostonline.com
Denver Program Targets Burglars Who Leave DNA Evidence BehindDenver authorities say thanks to a DNA program that targets burglars, property crime is down 30 percent in Denver. DNA has been widely used in violent crimes like murder and sexual assault, but it has been only recently that some cities have started using it to track down people who commit property crimes, said Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey.
Morrissey said the program has been going for three years and each year, property crimes have dropped an average of about 12 percent. "In the first two years we caught 95 habitual burglars," Morrissey said. "So far this, our third year, we've caught 53 habitual criminals." He said another sign of the programs success is cost. Authorities figure for every dollar paid for the program, taxpayers are saving $63 in lost property and police resources. Source: www.thedenverchannel.com
DNA links hundreds of felons to unsolved crimes DNA submissions from convicted felons in Wisconsin have led to nearly 2,000 matches in other crimes over the past eight years.
New and Ongoing Stories Involving the Use of DNA Evidence Mississippi - Biloxi police say it's a first in their city - DNA tests helped solve a burglary. Last October, when a Pass Road business was burglarized, investigators had very few leads. That was until Gulfport Police arrested Briceson Haskins for a similar crime.
DNA from Haskins matched up with microscopic evidence left behind at the Biloxi crime scene. Police say test results show the odds are one in 754.7 quadrillion that someone other than Briceson Haskins committed the Biloxi burglary. Source: http://www.wlox.com
Texas - DNA evidence confirms a body found in Travis County in 1982 is that of Houston King Morris. Police said Morris was murdered in Houston, however, his murder was not previously linked to the body found in Travis County. The case went cold until it reopened in 2006, when DNA from the body was sent to the University of North Texas Medical Center and uploaded into a database.
Houston police then linked the body to Morris. The man responsible for Morris' murder was convicted of the crime in 1986 and sentenced to prison for 99 years. Source: www.news8austin.com
Ohio - Columbus police used DNA to track down a suspect in the killing of a man whose body was found last month in a burning house on the North Side.
Clifton M. Jefferson, 30, was arrested Thursday on a charge of aggravated murder in the shooting death of Jackie D. Hagwood at 1770 Devonshire Rd.
Police said a trail of blood at the scene provided a DNA match with Jefferson, whom they think was shot in the hand when he and two accomplices robbed and killed Hagwood, according to search-warrant documents. Source: www.columbusdispatch.com
California - A traveling magazine salesman from Missouri was sentenced today to life in prison without the possibility of parole for raping and killing a 90-year-old Lafayette woman in her home in 2005.
Richard Craig McNew, 34, a convicted felon from St. Louis, will spend the rest of his life behind bars for murdering Anna Elizabeth Vuori.
Investigators said DNA at the crime scene matched a sample of McNew's DNA included in a national database. McNew has a criminal record in Missouri that dates to 1993 and includes convictions for assault, robbery and drug and weapons possession, court records show. Source: www.sfgate.com
Colorado - In what may be only the second time a sexual assault suspect in Mesa County has been identified through DNA, investigators linked a Grand Junction man to an assault that occurred nearly nine years ago.
Jorge Hurtado-Ruiz, 30, was in custody Wednesday at the Mesa County Jail on a $500,000 bond. He faces felony charges of first-degree sex assault and kidnapping. Source: www.gjsentinel.com
Indiana - Police believe a church burglary has been solved through DNA found on a half-eaten doughnut. A 22-year-old man was charged with burglary in the January 2007 break-in at Woodhaven Christian Church. Police said a number of musical instruments were taken, but officers found a box of doughnuts in the church's kitchen and noticed a bite had been taken from one of the doughnuts.
Deputies sent the half-eaten doughnut to the Indiana State Police lab for testing. Authorities received confirmation in November that DNA left on the treat matched the man, who is serving a prison sentence at the Branchville Correctional Facility for an unrelated home burglary. Source: www.google.com/hostednews
Florida - Orange County sheriff's detectives said on Wednesday that they arrested two suspects in the rape of an 11-year-old girl. Investigators said they received a tip when someone flagged down a deputy and told him to check the house at 5702 Citadel Drive in the search for the rape suspect.
Officers went to the house once, but were told the man wasn't home. They were called back to get a DNA sample voluntarily. The two men they received samples from were 23-year-old Richard Morales-Marin and 24-year-old Juan Hernandez-Monzalvo. When investigators arrived at the home to collect DNA samples, they said Morales had bags packed in his car, so they had an immigration hold put on him.
They were only able to get a DNA sample from Morales-Marin at that time, which came back to match the DNA found on the rape victim, police said.
On Wednesday, police were able to get a DNA sample on Hernandez-Monzalvo and found out that it matched the victim. Source: www.msnbc.msn.com
Illinois - DNA technology has allowed police to solve the 1984 Halloween night murders of Theresa Hall, 9, and her cousin, Sherry Gordon, 12, Decatur Deputy Police Chief Todd Walker announced during a news conference Wednesday. Source: www.pantagraph.com
California - A routine search of the nation’s DNA database has all but closed the unsolved rape of a Sonoma State University student who was left unconscious in the attack 17 months ago.
Now, DNA collected after the incident links a former Sebastopol man to her case. The man already is facing trial for an alleged sexual assault outside Sacramento that occurred three days after the Rohnert Park attack, authorities said. Deverick Lockett, 26, is now expected to be tried on both cases, prosecutors said. Source: www.pressdemocrat.com
Maryland - State Police say DNA evidence has linked a 40-year-old Baltimore man to a 2006 rape in the Centreville area. Source: www.baltimoresun.com
Florida - Investigators said they arrested a 22-year-old convicted felon after his DNA profile matched one taken from a beer can found at a burglary and vandalism scene in 2004.
Robert Galt of Melbourne faces charges of burglary to a residence and criminal mischief. He was charged in connection with an incident that occurred in the Twin Lakes subdivision of Melbourne during Hurricane Frances about 41/2 years ago, the Brevard County Sheriff's Office said.
Brevard County Sheriff's Office Agent Randy Holliday said DNA taken from an empty beer can at the vandalized and burglarized mobile home matched the one that Galt had provided to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement in September, after his conviction on unrelated charges of fleeing and eluding. Source: www.floridatoday.com
Florida - Authorities from two agencies Thursday night charged an unemployed man with burglarizing and robbing three banks over the past two months, including one Tuesday morning in Temple Terrace. Michael Purnell Weston, 44, was arrested at 10:30 p.m. Thursday.
The robber left behind a black ski mask that had DNA evidence, Callaway said. Deputies matched the DNA to samples taken from Weston when he was in prison. Source: www.msnbc.msn.com
Tennessee - DNA from key evidence in a Tennessee woman's slaying does not match the man who spent more than two decades on death row for killing her, according to new FBI lab tests.
Paul House, 47, who uses a wheelchair because he developed multiple sclerosis in prison, was convicted of killing Carolyn Muncey nearly 23 years ago. But the case against him has been in doubt for years because of DNA testing, which wasn't available then. Still, prosecutor Paul Phillips wants to retry House.
"What the evidence would suggest to us is there may have been other people involved in the crime as well as Mr. House," he said. Source: www.google.com
International Australia - Australia's DNA database will soon be completed. After over eight years of development, cross-matching of DNA across all states will be possible. Civil liberties groups hold concerns about the database, having issues about whose DNA is included, access and the potential for leakage of information. Source: www.tmcnet.com
Case Study If it is possible in cases of sexual assault when a victim reports consensual activity prior to or following an alleged sexual assault, an elimination sample should be obtained in order to distinguish the consensual profile from the profile of the perpetrator.
However in this case, the elimination sample could not be obtained prior to the case being outsourced for analysis, and it was the matching of the two forensic profiles that generated the Forensic Hit, initiating the investigatory lead for the investigator.
Submitted by: Det. Paul Koczwanski M.S. Coventry Police Department BCI Unit For the full case study please go to: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/dnacasestudy.htm
Did you know?
Questionable Crime-Scene ScienceU.S. forensic science is inadequate, NRC saysTHE FORENSIC SCIENCE currently used by federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies has numerous deficiencies, according to a report released last week by the National Research Council, the research arm of the National Academies. It suffers from a lack of standards, insufficient oversight, and flaws in interpretations, the report says.
The congressionally mandated report, "Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward," recommends actions for improving forensic science through government oversight, research funding, and education. The report was sponsored by the National Institute of Justice, which is part of the Department of Justice. The agency says it is evaluating the report and considering how best to address its findings and recommendations.
For the full article please go to: Source: pubs.acs.org
Link to prepublication of the above mentioned report:
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 |
