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!
SEMO Partners with Missouri Highway Patrol to Build Regional Forensic Lab on Campus (KRCU – 3/20/2026)
State and university officials unveiled plans for a major expansion of forensic services— a new Troop E crime laboratory, to be built on the campus of Southeast Missouri State University.
The future site will be near 1221 Broadway Street, in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, next to the SEMO Athletics offices, with some space used in the same building.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol, joined by Colonel Mike Turner, thanked Southeast Missouri State University for donating the land and praised Governor Mike Kehoe and members of the General Assembly for providing funding and support.
Representative John Voss said the facility will increase capacity, add modern equipment, and reduce evidence backlogs, speeding analyses in DNA, ballistics, toxicology, controlled-substances testing, and trace-evidence work for more than a dozen counties across the region.
Study: Uncounted Pandemic Deaths Reveal Gaps in Death Investigation System (Forensic – 3/23/2026)
A new study that relies on machine learning methods found that 19 percent more COVID-19 deaths occurred than official records indicate. The authors say their study has revealed critical gaps in the U.S. death investigation system, and is leading to renewed calls for reform.
“Without an accurate count of who is dying and where, public health resources can’t reach the communities that need them most,” said study senior and corresponding author Andrew Stokes, associate professor of global health at Boston University School of Public Health. “The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the long-standing gaps within the American death investigation system, and the changes that are urgently needed to improve the quality of cause-of-death data—for all deaths, not just those caused by COVID-19.”
The study did not directly examine the specific reasons why many death certifications list inaccurate causes of death, but other sources point to COVID-era challenges such as inadequate staffing to conduct postmortem COVID-19 testing, a lack of standardized training and protocol for death investigators, and partisan beliefs that may cloud investigators’ judgment—particularly for county coroners, who are politically reported and are not required to have medical backgrounds.
Overall, the researchers recommend increased funding and training for death investigators, as well as increased hiring of medical examiners.
Moxxy Helps ID Jane Doe After Nearly 50 Years (Forensic – 3/23/2026)
The Placer County Sheriff’s Office, in partnership with Moxxy Forensic Investigations and the Reno Police Department, has officially identified a woman who was found dead at Emigrant Gap nearly five decades ago. For years she was known only as the “Emigrant Gap Jane Doe.” Through advancements in DNA technology and decades of investigative work, she has now been identified as Melinda “Pip” Beardsley, a mother who had been missing since the mid-1970s.
On Dec. 17, 1977, a woman was discovered deceased in a snowbank in the Emigrant Gap area of Placer County. Investigators later determined she had been strangled to death. Despite extensive investigative efforts over the years, her identity remained unknown. Since the case began, Placer County Sheriff’s Office investigators have continued working to identify the victim and bring answers to her family.
NIST Helps Fingerprint Examiners with New Data and Software Release (Forensic – 3/23/2026)
Sifting through fingerprints gathered from crime scenes is the job of fingerprint analysts and — increasingly — their computers. Training humans and their machine partners for this meticulous work is no easy task, but help has arrived in the form of a new data and software release from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
The data, consisting of thousands of fingerprints along with notes detailing their quality, follows the release of an open-source software package that can help assess print quality rapidly. Together, they offer a pair of tools for improving the expertise of forensic scientists.
“These two resources will help improve the science of fingerprint identification,” said NIST computer scientist Greg Fiumara. “The data is the largest and most complete fingerprint dataset now available, and the software is a modified version of a print analysis tool used by U.S. law enforcement that we are making freely available to the world.”
The fingerprint data, available as part of NIST Technical Note (TN) 2367, augments a previous release, Special Database (SD) 302, that NIST initially made available in 2019. It contains about 10,000 fingerprints gathered in a lab environment from 200 volunteers, who consented to their prints’ use for research purposes. All other personal information was scrubbed from the database, including the volunteers’ names and places of residence.
University to Provide Forensic Science Training to Animal Control Agencies, Shelters (Forensic – 3/23/2026)
Loyola University Maryland’s Department of Forensic Science has received a grant from Show Your Soft Side to provide forensic science training and evidence collection kits to animal control agencies and shelters in Maryland. Show Your Soft Side is a 100% volunteer nonprofit that works to prevent animal cruelty.
Loyola and Show Your Soft Side surveyed animal control officers to identify training gaps and needs that could be addressed through the grant, which will provide continuous education in veterinary forensic science. It will also provide animal control agencies and shelters with evidence collection kits—tools they do not currently have—and train staff in their use. The kits will assist in collecting entomological evidence that can be critical in animal cruelty cases.
Indiana State Police Ramp Up Cold Case Investigations with New DNA Genealogy Team (Indiana Capital Chronicle – 3/24/2026)
Some of Indiana’s oldest unsolved crimes are being cracked, thanks to new funding and a growing state police effort that blends traditional detective work with cutting-edge genetic genealogy.
Leaders of the Indiana State Police said advances in forensic technology — paired with a newly formalized forensic investigative genetic genealogy unit — have helped crack cases dating back as far as the 1970s.
The governor’s office highlighted several breakthroughs just in the last few months, including a 1975 homicide case that led to an arrest earlier this year; a decades-old infant death case that resulted in charges and a conviction, and a 2000 armed robbery and carjacking in Dubois County that was solved more than two decades later.
Gov. Mike Braun on Tuesday said those previously “frigid” cases sat dormant for years due to limited technology or resources.
He pointed to the latest results as evidence that relatively “modest” investments in public safety infrastructure can yield outsized returns.
“We’re doing something that’s really having an impact on public safety,” Braun said in an interview with the Indiana Capital Chronicle. “When you’re solving cold cases, there’s going to be a deterrent effect for anybody that’s thinking about enterprising in the wrong way.”
Missing Man Identified after 52 Years (Forensic – 3/25/2026)
The last known photograph of Mark Smith was taken at his sister’s wedding in September 1973. He left his home in Billings, Montana, to travel in 1974, and was not heard from again.
On Feb. 26, 2026, the Oregon State Medical Examiner’s Office Human Identification Program confirmed that unidentified human remains found in Josephine County in 1978 were a match to Mark who had been missing since he was 19 years old. His sister shared with the medical examiner’s office that the family thought of him every day during the more than 50 years since his disappearance.
State Police See 19% Reduction in DNA Backlog after Funding (Forensic – 3/25/2026)
Thanks to targeted investments in technology and law enforcement support under Governor Mike Braun, the Indiana State Police Cold Case Unit and Forensic Services Division are solving decades-old crimes and delivering long-overdue justice to Hoosier families.
In 2025, the Indiana State Police received a budget increase, including a 20.8% increase from under $15 million to $18 million for the ISP Forensic Laboratory, a boost of over $3 million – a vital resource for solving cold cases.
“For too long, families have waited for answers. We made smart investments in technology and cut red tape so our State Police can do their jobs more effectively. The results speak for themselves – criminals are being held accountable, no matter how much time has passed, and Hoosiers are safer because of it,” said Braun.
Braun prioritized funding for State Police technology and infrastructure while streamlining operations and reducing administrative costs.
Lawrenceville Police Department and Gwinnett County Medical Examiner’s Office Team with Othram to Identify a 2025 John Doe (DNASolves – 3/25/2026)
In February 2025, the skeletal remains of an unidentified individual were found in Lawrenceville, Georgia. A human skull was found by construction workers on Highway 316, near the exit ramp of Duluth Highway (Hwy 120), which leads to Lawrenceville, a northeast Atlanta suburb located in Gwinnett County. Investigators responded and began collecting evidence and investigating. They determined the skull belonged to an adult White man who had a healing fracture behind his left ear.
Despite a thorough investigation, the man could not be identified and details of the case were entered into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) as UP138513.
In March 2025, investigators teamed with Othram to leverage identity inference, a process that enables investigators to identify individuals from DNA evidence, even when there is no known reference sample to initially compare against. Officials with the Lawrenceville Police Department and Gwinnett County Medical Examiner’s Office worked together to submit forensic evidence to Othram’s laboratory headquartered in The Woodlands, Texas.
At Othram, scientists reviewed details of the case, determining that advanced DNA testing could help to identify the man. Othram scientists worked to develop a DNA extract from the provided skeletal remains, using Forensic-Grade Genome Sequencing® to build a comprehensive SNP profile for the man. This SNP profile powered a forensic search led by Othram’s in-house forensic genetic genealogy team, resulting in new investigative leads about the man’s identity.
Using this new information, a follow-up investigation was conducted leading investigators to potential relatives of the man. Reference DNA samples were collected from a relative and compared to the DNA profile of the unidentified man. This investigation led to the positive identification of the man, who is now known to be Timothy Mitchell Williams.
Timothy Williams, was a 57-year-old resident of nearby Duluth, Georgia. He was reported missing in July 2020 and was listed in NamUs as MP78509. Just days before he was reported missing, he was last seen by his employer at his residence and a family member contacted him via telephone. He was last seen wearing Bermuda shorts and a tank top.
DNA Doe Project identifies remains found in California in 2022 (DNA Doe Project – 3/26/2026)
Four years after human remains were found on a beach in California, the DNA Doe Project and their agency partners have identified Salmon Creek John Doe as 59-year-old Walter Karl Kinney. Kinney, a former banker who lived in nearby Santa Rosa, was known to have disappeared in 1999, twenty three years before one of his bones was discovered on Salmon Creek State Beach.
On June 17, 2022, a family looking for sea shells on Salmon Creek Beach in Sonoma County, California came across a long bone sticking out of the sand. The bone contained surgical hardware and a later pathology examination revealed it was possibly a tibia. A search of the discovery area did not reveal any further remains, and there was no indication of who the bone could belong to.
The Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office later brought this case to the DNA Doe Project, whose expert investigative genetic genealogists work pro bono to identify John and Jane Does. A DNA profile was developed for the unidentified man and uploaded to the GEDmatch database in January 2026. Shortly afterwards, a team of volunteers began working on this case and immediately began making headway.
They zeroed in on a family who had moved from the East Coast to California, settling in the San Diego area. As they began looking into the descendants of this family, the team came across Walter Karl Kinney, born in 1940. Though Kinney was born in San Diego, he had later moved to Santa Rosa, not far from Salmon Creek State Beach.
The critical breakthrough came when team members found an article about human remains that had washed ashore in 1999, just a couple miles south in Bodega Bay. In 2003, a woman got in touch with investigators regarding her father, who had last been seen on 10 August 1999. Shortly afterwards, investigators confirmed that the partial remains found in 1999 belonged to her father, Walter Karl Kinney, using X-ray records to confirm the ID. Kinney’s daughter described him as “smart, sensitive, almost to a fault”, stating that “this world was just too harsh a place for him”.
After identifying Kinney as a candidate in just eight days, the DNA Doe Project presented this lead to the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office. Shortly afterwards, investigators confirmed that the man formerly known only as Salmon Creek John Doe was indeed Walter Kinney.
“This case was unusual – it’s not often we see someone end up as a John Doe twice,” said team leader Traci Onders. “But thanks to investigative genetic genealogy, we were able to resolve this mystery and provide some answers to everyone involved in this case.”
The DNA Doe Project is grateful to the groups who we worked with to solve this case: the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office, who entrusted this case to us; Genologue for sequencing; Astrea Forensics for bioinformatics; GEDmatch Pro for providing their database; our generous donors who joined our mission and contributed to this case; and the DNA Doe Project’s dedicated teams of volunteer investigative genetic genealogists who work tirelessly to bring all our John and Jane Does home.