No one has hours to scour the papers to keep up with the latest news, so we’ve curated the top news stories in the field of Forensic Science for this week. Here’s what you need to know to get out the door!
DNA Doe Project and Ramsey County Medical Examiner Identify Jane Doe After 45 Years (DDP – 8/02/2022)
St. Paul, MN – A young woman pulled from the Mississippi River in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1977 has finally been identified by the DNA Doe Project and the Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s office as Mary Jensen. Investigators at the time were unable to determine how long she had been in the water, or her cause of death, and the case went cold for more than 45 years.
In March, 2021, Butch Huston of the Ramsey County ME’s office reached out to the DNA Doe Project and submitted DNA extract from Jane Doe to a series of lab processes to create a DNA profile. Later that summer, a team of dedicated and skilled DNA Doe Project volunteer investigative genetic genealogists was assembled and research began using DNA databases at GEDmatch.com and FTDNA.com.
From the beginning, the team faced challenges with the genealogy involved in working limited and distant matches, including immigrant grandparents from Finland and over 35 Italian connections. Talented DDP genealogists combined their skills in foreign language research and document investigation in the United States, Finland and Italy. They finally broke the case by thinking outside the box to put all the clues together. The team’s resourcefulness eventually led to the successful identification of Mary Jensen after 850 hours of cumulative research time.
The DNA Doe Project wishes to acknowledge the contributions of the groups and individuals who helped solve this case: the Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s Office, who entrusted the case to the DNA Doe Project; HudsonAlpha Discovery for DNA sequencing; Kevin Lord of Saber Investigations for bioinformatics; GEDmatch Pro and FTDNA for providing their databases; 28 generous donors who contributed to this case; and DDP’s dedicated teams of volunteer investigative genetic genealogists who work tirelessly to bring victims home.
Derek Abbott, Who Helped Crack the Somerton Man Case, Reveals How DNA Helped Solve the Mystery – As It Happened (ABC.net – 8/02/2022)
The case of the Somerton Man has baffled detectives and amateur sleuths for decades.
University of Adelaide professor Derek Abbott joined us earlier to tackle all your curly questions about the case, alongside renowned forensic genealogist Colleen Fitzpatrick and host of Radio National podcast The Somerton Man Mystery, Fiona Ellis-Jones.
The DNA, The Code and the Conspiracies – Your Top Questions About the Somerton Man Mystery Answered (ABC.net – 8/03/2022)
Following a breakthrough in the Somerton Man mystery, we asked you to put your burning questions to the experts.
From the science behind the discovery to conspiracy theories that have long followed the case, researcher Derek Abbott, forensic genealogist Colleen Fitzpatrick, and host of The Somerton Man Mystery Fiona Ellis-Jones, tackled your tricky topics.
“It is amazing to see the public interest, not only in the case itself but also the science behind it,” Professor Abbott says. Here are some of your top questions. You can also catch up on the full Q&A over here.
NC Nonprofit Uses Genetic Genealogy to ID Remains of Man Found in 2010 (Forensic – 8/03/2022)
NJ Anthropologists May Use Genealogical DNA to ID Revolutionary War Soldiers Found at Dig Site (Forensic – 8/03/2022)
Altogether, in fact, the skeletal remains of approximately 13 individuals, believed by researchers to be Hessian soldiers, were uncovered this summer during an archaeological dig at the battlefield—the site of what Janofsky says was the greatest upset victory of the American Revolution.
Buried for 245 years just four and a half feet deep, the remains—femurs, skulls, teeth—were found in a mass grave, a rarity for Revolutionary War battle sites, according to Janofsky, the Megan Giordano Fellow in Public History in Rowan’s College of Humanities & Social Sciences.
Skeletal assessment, isotopic, genetic and radiological analyses also are ongoing to provide in-depth analysis of the human remains and to gather biological data and indicators of life history, health and disease, and other factors.
DNA analysis, including from the knee buckle containing blood, as well as musket balls that may have come in contact with bodies during battle, also may help the team to identify the remains…and even eventually find descendants of those who lost their lives on the battlefield.
DNA Tests are Changing Donor-Conceived Families (The Conversation – 8/04/2022)
A law passed on April 1 2005 will have life-changing consequences for families across the UK from next year.
Anyone conceived from a donated sperm, egg or embryo from that day onward can find out the identity of their donor parents once they reach adulthood. This means that starting from late 2023, when the oldest of these people begin to turn 18, there could be a deluge of young people wishing to find out who their donor was. But thanks to at-home DNA testing, many donor-conceived people are already uncovering their biological origins in what can be an emotionally difficult process.
Proving War Crimes Isn’t Simple – A Forensics Expert Explains What’s Involved with Documenting Human Rights Violations During Conflicts, from Afghanistan to Ukraine (The Conversation – 8/05/2022)
I investigate cases in which law enforcement, military and police are alleged to have committed crimes against civilians and are not held accountable for it. In many cases, these alleged crimes happen during a civil war, like the Guatemalan civil war in the late 1970s and early 1980s, or the Rwandan conflict and genocide in the mid-1990s.
This means that I often work with international organizations like the United Nations to travel to these places and document physical evidence of war crimes – take photographs, take notes, do measurements and draw sketches to illustrate a potential crime scene. The idea is that any other experts can pick up this evidence and reach their own conclusions about what happened there.
DNA Links Two Men in Prison to Cold Case from 1983 that Originally Sent the Wrong Man to Prison for 37 Years (CNN – 8/05/2022)
Two men serving life sentences for murder in a Florida prison have been linked to two other murders with the help of newly discovered DNA samples, which led to the exoneration of another man who wrongfully served 37 years in prison for the rape and murder of Barbara Grams in 1983.
Amos Robinson and Abron Scott allegedly raped and murdered 19-year-old Grams, whose beaten body was found behind a dental office in Tampa Heights on August 18, 1983, Hillsborough County State Attorney Andrew Warren said during a news conference Thursday after he was suspended as the state attorney by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for his stance against criminalizing abortion providers.
Police Hope DNA Testing Will Solve ’59 Murder of Albany Teen (U.S. News & World Report – 8/06/2022)
Authorities in the Albany area are hoping modern DNA tracing techniques will help solve the murder of an 18-year-old woman more than 60 years ago.
The body of Ruth Whitman was exhumed from a cemetery in Glenmont last week to perform DNA testing. The case had been cold since the 1990s when police pursued what turned out to be a bogus tip, but was reopened in 2012 when Whitman’s family approached police.
Two New Forensic Firearm Examination Standards Added to the OSAC Registry of Approved Standards (NIST– 8/08/2022)
The Organization of Scientific Area Committees (OSAC) for Forensic Science has placed two new standards covering firearm and toolmark analysis, the forensic discipline used in the investigation of gun crimes, on its Registry of Approved Standards. This stamp of approval from OSAC, which is administered by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), indicates that these standards are technically sound and will help forensic laboratories improve their processes and methods.
These are the 100th and 101st standards to be placed on the registry by OSAC, which works to strengthen forensic science in the U.S. by facilitating the development and adoption of high-quality standards. When the organization launched in 2014, there was a patchwork of standards but no coordinated effort to develop and improve standards across multiple forensic science disciplines.
Familial DNA Links Suspect to Two Cold Case Homicides (Forensic – 8/10/2022)
Evidence preservation, familial DNA, covert collection and incredibly persistent investigators has led to the arrest of Robert Edwards for the rape and murder of a young woman in Ohio 31 years ago. DNA from that case has also hit to a similar 1996 cold case, although no charges have been made in that case yet.
“[Edwards] had a reckless, violent past. It’s not unreasonable to believe he may be responsible for other cases. If there are other counties in Ohio, or other states he may have lived in who have cases that are similar in nature, I hope they reach out,” said Rick Minerd, Chief Deputy of the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office.
Blood Left on Victim’s Jacket Leads to Arrest in 1982 Murder of Teen (Forensic – 8/10/2022)
A Hawaii man has been arrested after DNA technology helped investigators identify him as a suspect in the 1982 slaying of a 15-year-old girl who was abducted in Northern California from a bus stop, raped and killed, authorities said.
Karen Stitt was waiting for a bus in Sunnyvale when she disappeared in the early morning hours of Sept. 3, 1982. A delivery truck driver discovered her naked body among some bushes 100 yards (91 meters) away from the bus stop, the Mercury News reported Tuesday.
Last week, Sunnyvale police arrested Gary Ramirez, 75, in Maui after they say his DNA matched the blood from Karen’s leather jacket and the 4-foot (1.2-meter) cinder block wall where the killer left her after stabbing her 59 times, the newspaper reported.
Solving Decades-Old Missing Person Cases with DNA Data (News Nation – 8/10/2022)
Since its founding in 2017, the DNA Doe Project has helped identify dozens of unnamed deceased persons.
“Our co-founders, Dr. Margaret Press and Dr. Colleen Fitzpatrick, got together, had the idea that, oh, genealogy and the whole burgeoning industry of consumer DNA testing could be combined to build family trees for unidentified people and figure out who their relatives are and then figure out who they are,” Lauritzen said.
Law enforcement and medical examiners turn to DNA Doe Project when they have remains they can’t identify. DNA Doe Project consults with them about the best lab to use in order to extract DNA.
The organization then uploads the person’s DNA profile to public databases. DNA Doe Project uses two in particular: GEDmatch.com and FamilyTreeDNA.com.
After a Career of Cracking Cold Cases, Investigator Paul Holes Opens Up (NPR – 8/10/2022)
In a new memoir, Unmasked, Holes writes about his decades-long search for the Golden State Killer, as well as his investigative work on other cold cases. He also reflects on the emotional toll of obsessing over gruesome crime scenes and talking with survivors of horrific crimes and relatives of those who have been killed.
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