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!
Utah Medical Examiner Narrows Unidentified Human Remains to 30 Bodies (KJZZ14 – 5/02/2025)
While fingerprints can produce results in hours, DNA testing can take months. Even so, advancements in the process have led to 15 identifications in recent years, including three this year through DNA. In some cases, the office has used genetic genealogy, which helps establish potential relatives.
“We use genetic genealogy when we have no idea who that person might have been,” Russo said. “Once you have those possible family members, you can really narrow it down.”
Utah currently has 47 cases in the national missing persons database, known as NamUs, though the state is only actively working on a couple dozen. That’s partly due to record limitations. The Medical Examiner’s Office wasn’t established until 1972, meaning earlier cases often lack documentation.
The technology has evolved, with facial reconstructions and carbon dating aiding investigations. But resources remain limited.
“The challenges are always funding,” Russo said. “The expense of some of these tests is just very high.”
Federal aid and grants have helped bridge the gap, along with families voluntarily submitting DNA to law enforcement to enter into the national database.
For some, like Jimenez, getting answers brings some form of peace. But not closure.
How DNA on Discarded Napkin Broke Open the Cold Case in Minneapolis Woman’s 1993 Murder (KSL – 5/04/2025)
The Fort Worth Police Department (FWPD) Crime Laboratory reinforces its commitment to the community by officially clearing the 2024 sexual assault kit backlog.
Within six months, the crime lab successfully eliminated a backlog of 898 sexual assault kits. Those kits were tested, but also required Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) entry. The entire process has been completed.
On Oct. 18, 2024, 190 additional kits were mailed out for testing. Although these kits exceeded the 90-day requirement for CODIS entry while awaiting results, their testing and entry have since been completed, bringing the department to full compliance with all state requirements.
In addition to clearing the backlog, the Crime Lab now has the necessary staff to process all sexual assault kits. It has implemented policy changes that support continued compliance with state and federal requirements and the City of Fort Worth’s standards.
Cold Case Team Identifies Victim after Almost 40 Years (Forensic – 5/05/2025)
The St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office Cold Case Unit has positively identified the victim of a 1986 cold case homicide as Blaine Louis Brown, Jr., born December 3, 1946. Brown, who was also known by the nickname “Bunny,” was 39 years old at the time of his death.
On Oct. 7, 1986, the body of an unidentified male was discovered bound and shot multiple times in an execution-style killing in a grove area approximately ¼ mile southwest of Selvitz Road on Ralls Road. At the time, robbery was ruled out as a motive, as the victim was found with a large sum of cash in his pockets and wearing expensive clothing.
In 2019, Detective Paul Taylor of the Cold Case Unit reopened the investigation with renewed focus and new technology. In 2020, a court-authorized exhumation of the victim’s remains allowed for additional biological samples to be collected. DNA results remained insufficient for forensic genetic genealogy until March 2024.
On Jan. 8, 2025, a genealogy report identified potential first cousins of the victim. Subsequent contact with several family members, including a half-brother in Ohio, led to the submission of a confirmatory DNA sample. Testing confirmed the victim’s identity as Blaine Louis Brown Jr.
Brown was reported missing to the Marion County Sheriff’s Office on Oct. 7, 1986, the same day his body was found in Fort Pierce. According to his family, he was last seen on Sept. 26, 1986. Brown was the owner of Double B Farms, Inc., a horse ranch in Ocala, and Brown’s Fine Furniture in the same city. Interviews with family members indicated that Brown may have been involved in narcotics smuggling, and he had ties to Ocala, Miami, Fort Pierce, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania during the 1980s.
Study Seeks Reform by Holding Perpetrators of Sex Crimes ‘Accountable’ (Forensic – 5/05/2025)
A criminal justice professor at Michigan State University (MSU) is committed to reforming how sex crimes are handled by seeking to better understand the behavior, patterns and criminal histories of offenders identified as suspects. Do these offenders eventually face justice and/or are prevented from perpetrating more crimes?
Ultimately, Karen Holt, assistant professor in the School of Criminal Justice, says her research seeks to bring accountability to sex crime offenders.
Not only does Holt work collaboratively with investigators, but her research also includes testing backlogged rape kits across the state of Michigan as part of the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI). Testing of backlogged rape kits in Michigan (and across the entirety of the U.S.) became infamous in 2009 when prosecutors in Detroit discovered 11,000 untested sexual assault evidence kits, some dating as far back as the 1980’s. SAKI was passed in 2015 to address the problem overdue rape kit backlog, create a coordinated response to sexual assault and provide forensic training and funding. Through SAKI and other grants, the state of Michigan has reduced the number of untested sexual assault evidence collection kits held by law enforcement by 95% from 2018 to 2022.
“MSU has been at the forefront of the Michigan SAKI research since the beginning, with MSU professor Rebecca Campbell and her team’s groundbreaking work,” Holt said. “My work extends this by looking at offenders’ behavior and patterns and the investigative response to them.”
Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office Teams with Othram to Identify a 1993 Jane Doe (DNASolves – 5/05/2025)
In February of 1993 the Fortuna Police Department contacted the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office to report the discovery of a woman’s partial human skull found on the beach near Trinidad Head, a rocky structure found in California’s Trinidad Harbor. The discovery was made by a man who turned the skeletal remains over to the Fortuna Police Department. A traditional DNA profile was developed from the skull and entered into both the California Missing Person DNA Database and National Unidentified Person DNA Index. The DNA profile was also searched against profiles from both missing persons and other human remains in the Combined DNA Index System. No match to a known individual was ever made and details of the case were entered into NamUs as UP55274.
In 2024, the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO) received funding from U.S. Representative Jared Huffman, which was to be used to clear a backlog of unidentified human remains cases. Using these funds, the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office submitted evidence to Othram’s laboratory in The Woodlands, Texas to determine if advanced DNA testing could help to identify the woman. Othram scientists successfully developed a DNA extract from the skeletal evidence and used Forensic-Grade Genome Sequencing® to build a comprehensive DNA profile for the unknown woman. Othram’s in-house forensic genetic genealogy team then used this profile to conduct genetic genealogy research to provide new investigative leads to law enforcement.
Several months later, Othram provided HCSO with new leads, including the possible identity of the woman whose partial skull was found in 1993. Investigators used this report to launch a follow-up investigation and locate a potential relative of the woman. The California Department of Justice compared the potential relative’s DNA profile to the DNA profile developed from the skull, which confirmed that the skull belonged to Kay Josephine Medin, who was known as Kay Adams when she was reported missing in August of 1987.
Nickolas Medin, who died in 2018, reported to the Trinity County Sheriff’s office in that he had gone on a business trip and when he returned to the family’s home in Hyampom, Kay was gone. Kay’s purse and personal property were found at the residence. The Medin property was searched, and friends and family were contacted. Kay, who had no serious medical issues, was a school teacher in Hyampom. Kay’s boss was contacted and reported that she had been in good spirits. The Trinity County Sheriff’s Office listed Kay’s disappearance as suspicious.
Several months later in November of 1987, the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO) received a package in the US mail. The package contained skeletal remains and an anonymous letter. The letter gave directions leading to more human remains. The directions lead to a location near Ammon Ridge Road in Eastern Humboldt County. Humboldt County Sheriff’s detectives responded to the location given in the letter and discovered additional human remains, about 45 miles west of her home. These remains were later identified as belonging to Kay Medin through a comparison of dental records. While a death certificate was issued for Kay Medin in 1988, she remained listed as a missing person as there was not a complete body recovery. Kay Medin is considered a homicide victim and her death remains open as a homicide investigation. It is unclear how the majority of her remains were found 45 miles from her home or how her skull was found almost 100 miles away.
Research-Based Practices Can Help Forensic Scientists Do Their Best Work (NIST – 5/07/2025)
If a murder suspect’s DNA is found at the scene of the crime, juries often think of that as strong evidence of guilt.
One reason for this is that our public discourse around DNA may make it seem like an all-or-nothing concept to people who make up juries. Think of daytime TV shows revealing someone’s paternity, DNA tests that uncover family heritage, or the simple whodunit plot on TV where DNA indicates guilt.
But when it comes to crimes, you can’t always make a direct leap between the presence or absence of DNA and someone’s guilt or innocence.
One reason for this problem is that as technology improves, we can measure smaller amounts of DNA, so forensic analysts are finding more of it. Some of the DNA they’re finding is not necessarily relevant to the investigation.
For example, imagine that investigators are looking at the scene of a crime in which a window was broken and the perpetrator, cut by the broken glass, bled. In the past, you would have needed about a dime-size amount of blood to get the suspect’s DNA from that blood sample. Now, you can get DNA from much smaller samples. Someone could have opened the window days before the crime or never touched it at all (because DNA travels through the air just like germs do), and a small amount of that person’s DNA might still be found. So having more DNA evidence means law enforcement and prosecutors need to answer questions beyond who the DNA belongs to. They need to answer questions related to how and when the DNA could have gotten there.
This presents interesting challenges to the forensic science community.
