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!
Riverside County Sheriff’s Office Coroner’s Bureau and the Riverside Cold Case Homicide Team Leverage Othram’s Identity Inference Pipeline to Identify a 1981 Homicide Victim (DNASolves – 7/10/2026)
On November 28, 1981, passersby gathering firewood in the mountainous area near Sugar Loaf Mountain and the Pinyon Crest community discovered what appeared to be a shallow grave. They observed skeletal remains partially exposed through the soil and immediately notified authorities.
The following day, Riverside County Sheriff’s Office personnel responded and recovered the remains located approximately 300 yards north of Highway 74 and approximately three-quarters of a mile east of the California Division of Forestry Station at Sugar Loaf, near mile marker 81.33. Due to the advanced state of decomposition, investigators were unable to identify the victim despite extensive efforts available at the time.
For more than 40 years, the victim remained unidentified. Details of the case were entered into NamUs as UP7276.
In 2024, advances in forensic science and funding provided by the Missing and Unidentified Human Remains (MUHR) grant gave investigators a new opportunity to revisit the case. On November 26, 2024, the victim’s remains were exhumed by the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office Coroner’s Bureau for additional forensic examination. DNA samples from the human remains were submitted to Othram’s laboratory in The Woodlands, Texas in 2026.
At Othram, scientists worked to develop a comprehensive DNA profile for the woman using Forensic-Grade Genome Sequencing®. This profile was then used by law enforcement in a forensic genetic genealogy search. This yielded new leads in the case, allowing investigators to identify the victim as Thelma Gaston, who was murdered in Los Angeles County on or about June 28, 1981.
Scientists Show That DNA Can Last For Up to 50,000 Years in Africa — Much Longer than Previously Thought (LiveScience – 7/14/2026)
Researchers extracted DNA from long-dead animals that lived in South Africa during the last ice age, revealing that genetic material lasts longer in hot climates than was previously thought.
RTI International and Othram Awarded NIJ Funding for Major Study of Forensic Genetic Genealogy Across Ancestral Populations (RTI International – 7/14/2026)
Independent scientific research institute RTI International and Othram announced that they have received funding from the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) to conduct one of the first large-scale studies evaluating the performance of forensic genetic genealogy (FGG) across a wide range of ancestral populations encountered in U.S.-based forensic investigations for human identification.
The study is expected to become one of the most comprehensive evaluations of forensic genetic genealogy performance across ancestral populations relevant to U.S.-based forensic investigations. It will help inform future policies, case selection strategies and best practices for medical examiners, forensic laboratories and law enforcement agencies investigating unidentified human remains and missing persons cases.
North Louisiana Crime Lab Joins 98 Other U.S. Forensic Labs in Using STRmix™ (STRmix – 7/15/2026)
The North Louisiana Crime Laboratory has joined 98 other forensic laboratories throughout the United States in using STRmix™ probabilistic genotyping software to resolve mixed DNA profiles previously regarded as too complex or degraded to interpret crime scene evidence.
Since its introduction in 2012, STRmix™ has proven to be a highly effective tool in producing usable, interpretable, and admissible DNA results in more than 700,000 criminal cases worldwide. It has been particularly effective in helping to resolve violent crime and sexual assault cases, as well as cold cases in which evidence was originally dismissed as inconclusive.
The North Louisiana Crime Laboratory (NLCL) is dedicated to enhancing crime detection, prevention, and investigation, and supporting other activities integral to criminal investigations. Serving the critical needs of the northern 29 parishes in Louisiana, NLCL provides forensic science services in the areas of drug chemistry, DNA analysis, firearms examination, fire debris, and forensic toxicology from its laboratories in Shreveport and Alexandria, as well as its evidence hub in Ouachita.
“Even though we are the 99th U.S. laboratory to begin using this software, we are the first in this country to validate the VeriFiler™ Plus PCR amplification kit with STRmix™, allowing us to utilize more information within the DNA profile to deconvolute complex mixtures,” says Jessica Esparza, Ph.D., DNA Technical Leader at NLCL. “This advancement gives us the ability to interpret complex mixtures that were previously uninterpretable using binary methods.”
Unlike previous methods of DNA analysis, which are more subjective and depend entirely on the application of fixed stochastic thresholds and other biological parameters to manually analyze DNA samples, STRmix™ uses a fully continuous model that makes better use of the information available within a DNA profile. It proposes hundreds of thousands of different profiles, assesses and weighs how closely these resemble the observed DNA mixture, and then assigns a likelihood ratio (LR) – the widely accepted standard statistical approach for conveying weight of evidence information – should a person of interest’s sample be available.
More than 120 forensic laboratories currently use STRmix™ for DNA analysis, including labs in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, the Caribbean, and all nine state and territory forensic labs in New Zealand and Australia.
The team behind STRmix™ has also developed three related software applications:
DBLR™, an application which when used with STRmix™ allows forensic laboratories to undertake extensive kinship analysis, carry out rapid database searches, visualize the value of their DNA mixture evidence, and carry out mixture-to-mixture matches;
FaSTR™ DNA, expert forensic software which seamlessly integrates with STRmix™ (when in use) to rapidly analyze raw DNA data generated by genetic analyzers and standard profiling kits and assigns a number of contributors (NoC) estimate; and
STRmix™ NGS, fully continuous mixture interpretation and likelihood ratio generation software for profiles generated using Next Generation Sequencing (NGS).In combination with STRmix™, FaSTR™ DNA and DBLR™ complete the full workflow from analysis to interpretation and database matching, while STRmix™ NGS broadens the range of profile types that can be interpreted.
DNA Doe Project Identifies Jane Doe Found in Indiana in 1976 (DNADoeProject – 7/15/26)
Nearly 50 years after the body of an elderly woman was found inside a cardboard box in a field in rural Indiana, the DNA Doe Project and their agency partners have identified her as Jane Hart. Hart was born in 1906 and was 69 years old at the time she was murdered. Although she was a native of Ohio, Hart’s last known residence prior to her death was in Chicago.
On October 8, 1976, a farmer tending to his field near Otterbein, Indiana came across a box about 15 yards from a nearby road. Stuffed into this small cardboard box was the body of a woman who had been shot in the back of the head. She was Caucasian, and it was estimated that she was between 55 and 65 years old. Local authorities believed that the box had only been in the field for about 12 hours, although it was estimated that the woman had been killed around one week before her body was discovered.
In 2021, the Benton County Coroner’s Office brought this case to the DNA Doe Project, whose expert investigative genetic genealogists work pro bono to identify Jane and John Does. After a DNA profile for the woman was generated, the DNA Doe Project team quickly determined that the unidentified woman was of Croatian descent. But people of Eastern European heritage are underrepresented in the DNA databases available to investigative genetic genealogists, and Benton County Jane Doe’s highest match shared just 1.6% of their DNA with her.
“We could tell that our Jane Doe had Croatian ancestry, which posed a challenge,” said Harmony Vollmer, team co-leader. “Without more people of Eastern European descent uploading to the GEDmatch.com, FamilyTreeDNA.com and DNAJustice.org databases we have access to, cases like this will remain tricky to solve.”
Despite this hurdle, the team continued to work on the case and eventually made a breakthrough in 2024. Their years of research led them to a Croatian woman who immigrated to the US in 1905 and gave birth to a daughter a year later. Difficult family circumstances led to this daughter being entrusted to the care of an orphanage. Census records showed that the daughter later moved from Ohio to Chicago as an adult. Her name was Jane Hart, and in the 1970s she appeared to vanish from the public records.
“We uncovered further documentation from institutions that Jane had lived in, as well as probate records linking her to her family,” said Traci Onders, team co-leader. “This research revealed genetic and genealogical connections that enabled us to identify her as a candidate.”
With Hart now identified as the key person of interest, investigators began working to confirm this identification. Thanks to the work of the Benton County Coroner’s Office, it was later confirmed that the woman formerly known only as Benton County Jane Doe was in fact Jane Hart.
“It was thanks to the assistance of Jane’s surviving family that we have been able to confirm her identity,” said Onders. “Once we had identified Jane as a likely candidate, they assisted by taking DNA tests and uploading their DNA data to GEDmatch.com, the results of which proved Benton County Jane Doe to be their long-lost relative.”
The DNA Doe Project is grateful to the groups and individuals who helped solve this case: the Benton County Coroner’s Office, who entrusted us with this case; HudsonAlpha Discovery and Lakehead University’s Paleo-DNA Lab for some initial lab work; Astrea Forensics for DNA extraction; Intermountain Forensics for sequencing; Kevin Lord for bioinformatics; GEDmatch Pro and FamilyTreeDNA for providing their databases; our generous donors who joined our mission and contributed to this case; and our dedicated teams of volunteer investigative genetic genealogists who work tirelessly to bring all our Jane and John Does home.
Medici Family Mystery May be Solved After More than 400 Years (CNN – 7/15/26)
Since 2004, when exhumation and analysis of skeletal remains began for 49 Medici family tombs as part of the Medici Project, various studies have confirmed malaria as the cause of Francesco’s demise. However, other studies published as recently as 2006 used toxicological investigations to determine that the couple were indeed victims of arsenic poisoning,
A new study led by Serena Tucci, an assistant professor of anthropology at Yale University’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and jointly conducted by Yale and the University of Pisa, Tuscany, used DNA extracted from the skeletal remains of Francesco and another one of his brothers, Giovanni, in an attempt to settle the debate once and for all.
Teen Killed in 1978 in California Crash Finally Identified through Forensic Genetic Genealogy (WTNH 8 – 7/15/26)
A teenager killed in a California crash nearly five decades ago has finally been identified through forensic genetic genealogy, officials announced.
The June 2, 1978, crash occurred when the driver of a Volkswagen Beetle lost control while traveling westbound on Arlington Avenue in Riverside, crossed the center divider, and collided with a sport utility vehicle, according to a news release from the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office.
The driver was the lone survivor of the crash.
While three of the victims were identified, the driver told investigators he had only met the unidentified male victim a day earlier and knew nothing about him. Family members of the other victims also could not identify him. According to the Riverside County Sheriff-Coroner’s Bureau, funding from the Bureau of Justice Assistance’s Missing and Unidentified Human Remains grant program made it possible to exhume the victim’s remains for additional testing. GenGenies, a nonprofit organization, funded the forensic genetic genealogy work that generated the investigative leads needed to identify Smith.