Obtaining DNA Profiles from Rootless Hairs
Throughout the years, conventional wisdom has said that rootless hair shafts do not contain DNA, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. In this interview, Ed Green, Professor at the University of California Santa Cruz and co-founder of Astrea Forensics, discusses how his company is generating DNA profiles from rootless hairs and how this […]
GEDmatch: A Platform for Data Driven Forensic Intelligence
Today’s blog is written by Swathi A. Kumar, Director of Product Management at Verogen. Read the full version in the November 2020 issue of The ISHI Report. GEDmatch is a genetic genealogy website with over 1.4M users who want to learn more about their genetic roots. It was set up in 2010 with the […]
GEDmatch: A Genealogy Platform Allowing Users and Law Enforcement to Make Familial Connections
GEDmatch is a genetic genealogy website with over 1.4M users who want to learn more about their genetic roots. It was set up in 2010 with the mission of using science to connect people and has since been used by amateur and professional researchers and genealogists, as well as adoptees looking for their birth parents. […]
Instructional Design for Forensic Genealogy
Forensic Genealogy Training for Law Enforcement (FG4LE) is an online educational program developed by Anthony Redgrave, lead forensic genealogist of Redgrave Research Forensic Services LLC. Anthony has a M.S. in Instructional Design and Technology, and is currently enrolled at the University of New England working towards an Ed.D. in Transformative Leadership with a focus on […]
Forensic Genealogy and Missing Persons Cases
In this interview, we talk with Dr. Bruce Budowle, Director for the Center for Human Identification at the University of North Texas Health Science Center to learn more about the challenges that come with identifying missing persons cases and how forensic genetic genealogy is becoming a powerful tool to provide identities. Dr. Budowle began his […]
Identifying the Oldest Doe Using Forensic Genetic Genealogy: Henry Joseph Loveless
In the summer of 1979, a family was searching for artifacts in Buffalo Cave, a dark lava tube outside of the small and remote town of Dubois, Idaho. Approximately 200 feet from the opening of the cave, the family discovered a burlap sack containing a mummified, clothed, and dismembered headless torso. In early spring of […]
A DNA Testing Framework for Addressing the “Silent” Mass Disaster of Unidentified Remains and Unsolved Crimes
Today’s blog is written by David Mittelman, PhD and Michael Vogen (Othram, Inc.) Reposted from The ISHI Report with permission. The search for answers began in 1994 when a fisherman discovered a body in the lake. The Snohomish County Medical Examiner’s office determined the deceased to be between 25 and 35 years old and the […]
The Missing Piece: A New Video Series Focusing on the People Behind Forensic Genetic Genealogy Successes
Carla Walker. Christine Jessop. Siobhan McGuinness. For years, these victims were listed on cold case files in law enforcement evidence boxes. While never forgotten, limitations in forensic science prevented their cases from being closed. Families waited decades for answers and justice while their killers remained unidentified. To generate leads in criminal cases investigators […]
Investigative Genetic Genealogy and Criminalistics – What is the Future?
Investigative Genetic Genealogy (IGG) has been amazing in solving both cold and recent cases and for exonerating the innocent. Each day, another once-thought-to-be-intractable case is solved using this new-to-forensics means of human identification. We live in exciting times for forensic identification! Despite, or because of, this success, the use of genetic genealogical data for forensic […]