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 Testing Results in Arrest in Texas Couple’s 2005 Killing (US News – 7/9/2022)
- Shelley Susan Thompson, 41, has been charged with capital murder in the April 2005 deaths of Antonio Rodriguez, 80, and his wife Luz, 77. The couple’s daughter found them in their home in Cleveland, located about 45 miles (70 km) northeast of Houston.
DNA found at the crime scene was tested last year and pointed to Thompson. Investigators interviewed Thompson, who was in state prison at the time on an unrelated charge. She denied involvement in the deaths but provided a DNA sample to investigators, according to authorities. Earlier this year, the DNA Thompson provided matched evidence found at the crime scene, authorities said. Thompson, who was on parole, was arrested Friday.
Reno, Nevada, Man’s DNA Linked to 1982 Murder of California Girl, 5, DA Says (NBC News – 7/10/2022)
A Reno, Nevada, man was in custody Saturday after California investigators said a new look at DNA evidence implicated him in the 40-year-old murder case of a kindergartner.
Robert John Lanoue, 70, was in Nevada’s Washoe County Detention Facility based on allegations he violated a condition of parole and is a wanted fugitive for the Seaside, California, murder of 5-year-old Anne Pham, according to jail records and the area district attorney.
Bond for the defendant was listed at more than $1 million.
Prisoners Denied Access to Forensic Evidence in Bid to Prove Their Innocence (The Guardian – 7/11/2022)
Prisoners convicted of serious crimes who may be the victims of miscarriages of justice are being blocked from access to crucial forensic information that could prove their innocence, experts have warned.
Campaigners are calling for legal reforms to provide improved access to evidence that may help prove the innocence of the wrongly convicted. They say a supreme court ruling in 2014 is effectively being used to deny access to police files and evidence.
The Law Commission, the statutory independent body that reviews the law in England and Wales, confirmed this weekend it is reviewing the law around criminal appeals.
Multiple Cold Cases Solved with Assist from Attorney General’s DNA Forensic Genetic Genealogy Program (Washington State Office of the Attorney General – 7/11/2022)
Thousands in Bosnia Commemorate 1995 Srebrenica Massacre (AP News – 7/11/2022)
Fifty newly identified victims were honored and reburied Monday in Bosnia as thousands gathered to commemorate the anniversary of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, Europe’s only acknowledged genocide since the Holocaust.
Twenty-seven years after they were brutally murdered, the remains of 47 men and three teenage boys were laid to rest at a memorial cemetery at the entrance to Srebrenica, joining more than 6,600 other massacre victims already reburied there.
M-Vac Helps Solve 1979 Murder of 12-Year-Old Girl (Forensic – 7/13/2022)
M-Vac technology has helped cold case detectives in Montgomery County, Texas solve their oldest homicide case—the 1979 abduction, rape and murder of 12-year-old Lesia Michell Jackson.
After spending a day at her neighborhood pool, Jackson disappeared before she could return home. Six days later, on Sept. 13, 1979, an oilfield worker found her body in a heavily wooded area. A subsequent autopsy revealed Jackson had been raped.
The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) followed leads for years but eventually all were exhausted and the case went cold.
A new spotlight was shined on the case when the then-newly created MCSO Cold Case Homicide Squad took over the investigation in May 2005. As with all cold case units, the team kept apprised of new forensic innovations and technological advancements that could have an impact on a case.
In October 2021, they found one—the M-Vac wet-vacuuming system.
A 100,000-Year-Old Human Lineage Rediscovered (Forensic – 7/13/2022)
Every once in a while a great discovery is made on a computer screen, even if the discovery is of an evolutionary event that is nearly as old as humanity itself. That is the case for the recent discovery of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplogroup L7, an ancient lineage from eastern Africa just announced in a new article published in Nature Scientific Reports.
The unique DNA markers that define this haplogroup, or shared lineage, were passed down from mother to daughter to granddaughter—never through fathers—for 100,000 years. To date, only nineteen individuals out of several hundred thousand analyzed carry these unique DNA markers. Thus, it is one of the rarest and most ancient human groups on Earth.
BCA Rolls Out New Sexual Assault Kit Tracking System (Forensic – 7/13/2022)
Sexual assault victim survivors in Minnesota now have better access to information about their case, thanks to a new sexual assault kit tracking program. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension completed the deployment of the Track-Kit system this week. Track-Kit provides victim survivors with 24/7, online access to information about the status of their sexual assault kit.
The goal of the Track-Kit system is to increase accountability and transparency for what can be a lengthy process. “The BCA stands with Minnesota’s victim survivors. We hope the Track-Kit system relieves uncertainty and gives comfort with the knowledge of exactly where their kit stands in the testing process,” said BCA Superintendent Drew Evans.
Track-Kit uses a barcode system to update information about a kit’s status and location in real time. The medical facility that collects the kit creates the record by scanning the kit’s barcode into the system. Law enforcement updates the status when the kit is sent for testing to an accredited forensic laboratory in the state. The forensics lab updates the status again when it receives the kit and when testing is complete. At any time, a victim survivor can use their unique login and password to see the status of their kit.
Descendants of Possible Tulsa Massacre Victims Can Give DNA (AP News – 7/13/2022)
People who believe they are descendants of victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre can now provide genetic material to help scientists when they begin trying to identify remains of possible victims.
Danny Hellwig, laboratory director with Intermountain Forensics, said Wednesday that researchers are not ready to begin trying to match DNA for identification, but an outpouring of requests from local residents on how to provide genetic material led them to begin the process of accepting donations.
“That’s what prompted this,” Hellwig said. “We didn’t expect the amount of support and willingness to help… people have jumped out of the woodwork” to offer their DNA for testing.
Black people who had ancestors in Tulsa in 1921 are sought, Hellwig said.
“What we need is to populate these databases with family lines” of direct descendants, making identifications of the remains possible within days, Hellwig said.
Cold Case Solved: Body Found in Rosemount ID’d as Missing NY Man, James Everett (CBS News – 7/13/2022)
- In a morning press conference, Rosemount police and the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office said that DNA science and law enforcement partnerships helped bring closure to the family of a missing man. A break in the case came when Everett’s DNA profile was uploaded to an open-sourced DNA database used for genealogy purposes, the medical examiner’s office said.
In September 2019, the first potential relatives for the then-unknown man were identified. However, information failed to identify a presumptive identification and the case once again stalled.
Then, at the beginning of this year, the FBI referred the investigative task force to another group, the DNA Doe Project. The group soon identified another potential relative on the maternal family tree.
Everett was named as a potential lead in March. After receiving a DNA sample from Everett’s father, the body was confirmed as Everett.
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