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!
How a Paternity Test Found a Young Woman’s Murderer 51 Years Later (Independent – 8/18/2025)
Annette Tokarz, a 23-year-old with a ‘heart of gold’ died in 1974, but police never arrested a suspect. Now, a detective has solved the case 51 years later.
UNT Health Researchers Awarded $2 Million Collaborative NIJ Grant (UNTHealth – 8/18/2025)
With support from a $2 million collaborative grant from the National Institute of Justice, researchers from UNT Health Fort Worth are using artificial intelligence and machine learning to develop new software to help forensic anthropologists accurately identify human remains.
The project, titled “MOSAIC: Unifying Methods of Sex, Stature, Affinity & Age for Identification through Computational Standardization,” plans to standardize and streamline the process of creating a biological profile—a critical tool forensic anthropologists use to narrow the potential identity of a deceased individual by estimating the person’s age at death, ancestry (or population affinity), sex and stature from skeletal remains.
With current tools and methods, forensic anthropologists typically estimate each of those parameters without considering how they might interact with each other.
“Currently, there aren’t any programs that analyze all four of the biological profile parameters together. Even though we’ve known for a long time that there is a lot of interaction between them, our methods still estimate those parameters individually,” said Kate Lesciotto, Ph.D., assistant professor of anatomy at UNT Health’s College of Biomedical and Translational Sciences and one of the primary investigators on the project.
“MOSAIC takes a new approach by not compartmentalizing data or making assumptions about whether a piece of data will be used only for age estimation or only to calculate stature,” she said.
To develop the new tool, Lesciotto will join research teams from Michigan State University, Washburn University, Texas State University and the University of New Mexico to gather skeletal measurements and morphological data from collections in the United States and Mexico.
36th International Symposium on Human Identification (ISHI) Explores Artificial Intelligence in Serial Killer Identification (Businesswire – 8/19/2025)
The 36th annual International Symposium on Human Identification (ISHI) will take place November 2-6 in West Palm Beach, Florida. ISHI welcomes more than 900 forensic DNA experts and law enforcement professionals from around the world. Promega Corporation, a developer and manufacturer of products for DNA-based human identification, has sponsored ISHI since its inception.
The 2025 ISHI Keynote section will feature Dr. Ann Wolbert Burgess and Alexandra Burgess presenting a unique, multi-generational perspective on the evolution of forensic profiling. From decoding criminal behavior through groundbreaking FBI methods to leveraging artificial intelligence for deeper insights, the session will illustrate how the tools of the past and future converge to solve complex cases.
NIEMOpen Launches Forensics Subcommittee (EINPresswire – 8/20/2025)
NIEMOpen announced the establishment of the Forensics subcommittee, whose mission is fostering consistent forensic data sharing and interoperability among government agencies, laboratories, and law enforcement. The subcommittee aims to promote interoperability across forensic organizations by providing the data elements needed to facilitate the exchange of forensics information in a well established model. This initiative will streamline processes and enhance collaboration within the forensics community, with the goal of improving the effectiveness of investigations and justice outcomes.
The Forensics Subcommittee is being stewarded by the Defense Forensics and Biometrics Agency (DFBA) within the Department of Defense (DoD). The executive committee includes Ryan Triplett (DoD/DFBA) as Chair, Tim Zolandz from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as Co-Chair, Patricia Wolfhope from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as Co-Chair, and Jennifer Stathakis from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) as Ombudsman. The executive committee will manage Forensics Subcommittee content and promote harmonization and interoperability across the forensics community.
Stakeholders across the federal government and private organizations are encouraged to participate in the development of the forensics schema through working group sessions, where schema, code list, and technical reviews occur.
NIEMOpen is an OASIS Open project. OASIS Open is a nonprofit consortium that drives the development, convergence, and adoption of open standards for the global information society.
Information about the Forensics Model content and the subcommittee’s mission and governance is located on the Forensics page of the NIEMOpen website.
Othram IDs Elderly Man Missing Since 2013, Cause of Death Listed as Suspicious (Forensic – 8/20/2025)
In April 2016, the skeletal remains of an unidentified individual were found by surveyors in a heavily-wooded area on the north side of a highway in Ocoee, a city near Orlando in Orange County, Florida. There were known transient camps in the vicinity, but not the specific location where the remains were found. Several law enforcement agencies responded to the scene, including the Oconee Police Department.
Investigators searched the area and, along with the remains, they found pants and an extremely degraded possible quilted-type jacket. The pants appeared to be tan in color, with a brand label of “Haband FIT-FOREVER” on the waist. Near the remains, they found a yellow metal “Pulsar” wrist watch.
Investigators determined that the individual was likely a Black man, who stood about 5’4″ and was probably between 40 to 60 years old. It was determined that the remains had been there 2 to 3 years.
Despite a lengthy investigation, the man could not be identified and he became known as Oconee John Doe (2016). Details of the case were entered into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) as UP16742.
In 2023, the Ocoee Police Department and the Districts 9 and 25 Medical Examiners Office submitted forensic evidence to Othram in The Woodlands, Texas to determine if advanced DNA testing could help identify the man. Othram scientists successfully developed a DNA extract from the provided evidence and then used Forensic-Grade Genome Sequencing to build a comprehensive DNA profile for the unknown man. Othram’s in-house forensic genetic genealogy team used the profile in a genetic genealogy search to develop new investigative leads that were returned to law enforcement.
Using this new information, a follow-up investigation was conducted leading investigators to a potential family member of the unknown man. A reference DNA sample was collected from the family member and compared to the DNA profile of the unidentified man. This investigation led to the positive identification of Oconee John Doe, who is now known to be Lloyd Williams, born in May of 1923.
Williams was 89 years old when he was reported missing in 2013 after his neighbors found the back door open to his home when they went to check on him. At the time that Lloyd Williams was reported missing, his son confirmed to authorities that his home appeared to have been ransacked. Investigators said the cause of death has been listed as suspicious and the investigation continues.
Online Course Gives Public the Chance to Solve Crimes Using Insects (Forensic – 8/20/2025)
The University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s Department of Entomology invites the public to enroll in a non-credit, online forensic entomology course this fall.
Developed and taught by Erin Bauer, graduate lecturer in entomology, the interactive class uses game-based learning methods to unravel immersive fictional murder mysteries through insect-based evidence. The course is open to all levels of learners.
Forensic entomology is a branch of forensic science that uses insects in legal investigations for crimes, including homicides.
“It’s not like the television show ‘CSI,’” Bauer said. “But insects—like maggots or fly specks—can offer crucial clues about a body’s location and time of death. This class introduces that methodology to the students.”
Titled “The Death of Dannie Bee,” the course allows students to explore investigative methods used in forensic entomology and apply these to fictional cases that represent situations that might be found in the real world. Some of these methods include analyzing maggots found on a dead body, determining postmortem interval (time since death), and collecting insect fragments from a car grille.
The course outline follows an alternate reality game format, creating an interactive, story-driven experience that mimics real investigations. The “plot” is that the body of Dannie Bee and two other victims have been discovered and the police suspect foul play, so the students must use forensic entomology to uncover the time, location and cause of death. The course design draws from Bauer’s own love of murder mystery games and her research in gamification and mixed methods education.