Apr 15 2022
This Week in Forensic Science
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 Match Helps Police Solve 1980 Murder on Long Island (Forensic – 4/08/2022)
A DNA match helped police solve the murder of a 20-year-old woman who was killed in 1980, authorities in New York announced last week.
Prosecutors in Suffolk County on Long Island said Herbert Rice, who died of cancer in 1991, was the attacker who killed Eve Wilkowitz in 1980 after raping and strangling her.
Forensic Experts to Travel to Ukraine to ID the War’s Dead (Forensic – 4/08/2022)
An international organization formed to identify the dead and missing from the 1990s Balkan conflicts is preparing to send a team of forensics experts to Ukraine as the death toll mounts more than six weeks into the war caused by Russia’s invasion.
Authorities in Kyiv have reached out to the International Commission on Missing Persons to help put names to bodies that might otherwise remain anonymous amid the fog of war.
A team made up of a forensic pathologist, forensic archeologist and an expert on collecting DNA samples from bodies and from families to cross-match, is expected to travel to Ukraine early next week, Director-General Kathryne Bomberger told The Associated Press on Friday.
Cape May County and Wildwood Police Report the Arrest of Jerry Rosado from a 1990 Cold Case (Cape May County Prosecutor’s Office – 4/8/2022)
Cape May County Prosecutor Jeffrey H. Sutherland and Wildwood Police Chief Robert Regalbuto report the arrest of Jerry Rosado a sixty-two (62) year old male from Millville, New Jersey for the sexual assault of Susan Negersmith from a 1990 Cold Case. At that time, Susan was a twenty (20) year old female from Carmel, New York who was in the Wildwood area with friends for Memorial Day Weekend.
Down on the Body Farm: The Gruesome, but Vital Forensic Facility Coming to the UK (Science Focus – 4/10/2022)
Man Sentenced to 650 Years in Prison in Brutal 1980s Sex Crimes (The New York Times – 4/2/2022)
DNA on an envelope helped to seal the fate of Steven Ray Hessler, who prosecutors said violently assaulted seven women, a 16-year-old girl and two men in Shelby County, Ind., from 1982 to 1985.
The Idaho County Sheriff’s Office Teams with Othram to Identify 1984 John Doe (DNASolves – 4/11/2022)
- Skeletal remains recovered in 1984 near the Powell Ranger Station in Idaho have been confirmed as Roger Brian Bennett, who went missing shortly after his discharge from the U.S. Air Force in 1982
Study Examines Impact of DNA Evidence in Sexual Assault Prosecutions (Forensic – 4/11/2022)
When DNA evidence is available that matches the suspects in sexual assault cases, prosecutors are more likely to litigate and the odds of conviction are more than nine times greater than cases without biological evidence, a new study found.
In a project funded by the National Institute of Justice, researchers examined the role of DNA evidence in more than 100 sexual assault cases accepted for prosecution in one metropolitan jurisdiction between 2005 and 2010.
They found that DNA evidence had a dramatic relationship with cases’ progression in the criminal justice system and on conviction rates. Almost 75% of the cases in which the DNA profile matched the suspect resulted in a guilty plea or a trial, compared with less than a third of cases without a laboratory report.
Bode Technology to Invest $2 M to Expand Forensics Operations (Forensic – 4/11/2022)
Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced that Bode Technology will invest $2 million to expand its DNA testing services lab in Fairfax County to support increased customer demand. The company will hire additional senior and entry-level laboratory technicians, information technology and engineering professionals and other business support roles, creating more than 70 new jobs.
DNA Links Man to Woman’s Sexual Assault 32 Years After Her Death, NJ Officials Say (Miami Herald – 4/11/2022)
In 1990, a 20-year-old woman and her friends traveled down to the Jersey Shore for Memorial Day weekend, and she was later found dead and sexually assaulted, according to the Cape May County Prosecutor’s Office. The case has remained cold for 32 years. However, recent DNA testing has provided new clues and identified a suspect in connection with Susan Negersmith’s sexual assault, the prosecutor’s office said in an April 8 news release. Officers arrested 62-year-old Jerry Rosado, of Millville, on April 8 in connection with Negersmith’s sexual assault, according to the release.
Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article260307010.html#storylink=cpy
France Sends Forensic Experts to Investigate War Crimes in Ukraine (The Week – 4/11/2022)
France has dispatched a team of police officers trained in forensics to investigate alleged Russian war crimes in Ukraine, The Kyiv Independent reported Monday.
The team will reportedly begin investigating crime scenes on Tuesday, focusing on the Kyiv suburbs, where retreating Russian forces left the streets littered with civilian corpses.
Axios notes that “war crime charges are notoriously difficult to prosecute,” but that forensic crime scene evidence, such as DNA, could help prosecutors “bring cases against some specific members of the Russian military.”
Sisters Woman’s DNA Solves Family’s 40-Year Mystery, Helping Identify Murder Victim (KTVZ News 21 – 4/12/2022)
When a Sisters woman took steps to learn more about her family tree, it ended up having a very surprising welcome, but sad outcome for her family, while helping an Oklahoma detective solve one part of a 40-year cold-case mystery, identifying the victim of a murder.
After four decades, a woman who had been reported missing in Las Vegas and later found brutally slain in Oklahoma has been identified as Tamara Lee Tigard.
Tamara, 20, disappeared from her Las Vegas home in 1980. Her body was eventually discovered — nude, shot three times in the chest and covered in lime powder — on an Oklahoma County riverbank weeks later, on April 18th 1980, which would have been her 21st birthday.
New DNA Analysis Supports an Unrecognized Tribe’s Ancient Roots in California (The New York Times – 4/12/2022)
A collaboration between researchers and the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe offers new evidence that their ancestors have lived in the Bay Area for thousands of years.
Analyzing how NYPD, Authorities Can Use DNA Databases to Find Subway Shooting Suspect (MSNBS – 4/12/2022)
A manhunt is now underway for any suspects responsible for the shooting that left multiple people injured in a New York City subway in Brooklyn. MSNBC contributor Frank Figliuzzi explains the different resources the NYPD and federal authorities could use to identify the suspect.
The Will County Coroner’s Office and Othram Team to Identify a 1981 Jane Doe (DNASolves – 4/12/2022)
In April 1981, the skeletal remains of a young woman were found off I-80 near Route 30 in New Lenox, Illinois. The cause of death was unclear. However, there was no clothing found at the scene and investigators believe the body was intentionally placed where it was found. The young woman was described as caucasian, blonde, standing at around 5’5″, and estimated to be between the age of 23-40 years old at the time of her discovery.
In 2021, The Will County Coroner’s Office engaged Othram to leverage advanced forensic DNA testing to generate new leads that could help identify the young woman or a family member. Skeletal remains were sent to Othram’s laboratory and Othram scientists used Forensic-Grade Genome Sequencing® to develop a comprehensive DNA profile for the unknown woman. Othram’s in-house genealogy team built out family trees and search family records to produce investigative leads that were then returned to law enforcement investigators.
Hunters Stumbled Upon Human Remains 37 Years Ago in Idaho. DNA Just Identified Them. (Idaho Statesman – 4/13/2022)
Hunters discovered skeletal remains in an Idaho forest in 1984 that went unidentified for 37 years. With the help of DNA testing, they were identified on April 8 as Roger Brian Bennett of Oklahoma, the Idaho County Sheriff’s Office said in an April 11 Facebook post.
ANSI Announces Spring 2022 Legal Issues Forum: Forensic Standards and Conformity Assessment (PR Newswire – 4/13/2022)
As part of its spring 2022 World Standards Week (WSW) series of events, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) will host a Legal Issues Forum on the theme, Forensic Standards and Conformity Assessment. The forum will take place on May 19 at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, DC. A virtual attendance option is also available. REGISTER HERE.
Boone County Sheriff’s Office Partners with Othram to Identify a 1992 Jane Doe (DNASolves – 4/13/2022)
In May 1992, the Boone County Sheriff’s Office was informed of human remains that were discovered in a ditch on the East side of the on-ramp of I-65N from S.R 47. The remains belonged to a young female and were located by a farmer in a nearby field. The body was approximately 50 feet east of the ramp at the bottom of an embankment. The young woman was found wearing only a bright green tank top and bright green socks. Investigators determined that she was a white female approximately 5’6” tall and that we likely weighed 130 lbs. Her hair was reddish-brown and approximately 2 inches in length. Time of death was estimated as 2-4 days prior to the discovery of her body. A dental analysis suggested that the young woman was between 17-22 years old when she died. Early on, the death was treated as suspicous and the case was submit to FBI ViCAP.
In 2020, Boone County Sheriff’s Office partnered with Othram to use Forensic-Grade Genome Sequencing® to build a comprehensive genealogical profile. Skeletal remains were sent to Othram in early 2021. A suitable DNA extract was developed and Othram scientists used the DNA extract to build a genealogical profile. Othram’s in-house genealogy team performed a genealogical search and returned investigative leads back to Boone County Sheriff’s Office.
CHI Researcher Awarded by USDOJ’s National Institute of Justice (NIJ) (Center for Human Identification – 4/13/2022)
The Center for Human Identification (CHI) at the UNT Health Science Center at Fort Worth has announced a recent NIJ funding award for CHI Associate Director Dr. Jianye Ge. Dr. Ge’s research project, “Enhanced mixture interpretation with macrohaplotypes based on long-read DNA sequencing” involves the study and evaluation of methods used to identify individual DNA from samples which are a mixture of multiple people’s DNA profiles.
Deconvoluting mixture samples is one of the most challenging problems confronting DNA forensic laboratories. Efforts have been made to provide solutions regarding mixture interpretation. The probabilistic interpretation of the Short Tandem Repeat (STR) profiles can increase the number of complex mixtures that can be analyzed. A portion of complex mixture profiles, particularly for mixtures with a high number of contributors, are still being deemed uninterpretable.
The latest long-read sequencing (LRS) technologies can overcome this limit in some samples and sequence larger DNA fragments. This will develop a novel set of markers, which combines hundreds of variants to offer extremely high discrimination power to better interpret mixtures.
After More than 40 Years, Random DNA Test Reveals Identity of Mystery Woman (The Spokesman-Review – 4/14/2022)
On April 18, 1980, some fishermen were making their way to a favorite fishing hole along the North Canadian River outside of Jones, Oklahoma.
Before casting a line, they would stumble onto what would become one of the most infamous cold case murder mysteries in American history.
The fishermen discovered a young woman who appeared to have been murdered. Her body was coated in a substance called “quicklime,” which under normal conditions should have increased the rate of decomposition. Instead, with the help of the water from the North Canadian River, the lime was a preservative.
Authorities were stumped. The Oklahoma County medical examiner reported the woman had been shot three times with a suspected .45-caliber pistol. Neither the suspect nor the murder weapon have been identified.
The mystery woman would go down in the annals of cold case crime lore as “The Lime Lady.”
Fast forward nearly 40 years, and a random DNA test would finally reveal her true identity.
“Baby Doe” Found in Dumpster 17 Years Ago Close to Being Identified (ABC13 Eyewitness News – 4/14/2022)
A newborn baby girl was found dead in a dumpster at Sam Houston State University 17 years ago. Now, investigators are reopening her case, thanks to technology invented by scientists at a Houston-area lab.
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