Sep 16 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 Made to 1996 Crime Scene Sample (Forensic – 9/9/2022)

- Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark today announced that a Bronx man has been indicted for second-degree Murder in the 1996 strangling death of a pregnant woman after his DNA was recently matched to DNA found under the victim’s fingernails.
  According to the investigation, on Feb. 5, 1996, inside an apartment in the Morris Heights section of the Bronx, the defendant allegedly choked Jasmine Porter, 36, to death in her apartment. Porter’s 5-year-old son was in the home and was alone with her body for two days before it was discovered. DNA was recovered from under the victim’s fingernails.
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Genealogy Leads Police to Man Who Harrassed ‘CSI’ Actress, Daughter for 12 Years (Forensic – 9/9/2022)

An Ohio man was sentenced today to 40 months in federal prison for his 12-year campaign of harassment—via letters and phone calls—against a television actress and her daughter in which he threatened to torture, rape and kill them.
James David Rogers, 58, of Heath, Ohio, was sentenced by United States District Judge John A. Kronstadt. Rogers pleaded guilty on April 28 to two counts of mailing threatening communications, one count of threats by interstate communications, and two counts of stalking.
The FBI collected DNA samples from many of the envelopes Rogers used to mail his letters, but they couldn’t identify him—until they turned to genetic genealogy.

Cold Cases Cracked: How Experts Are Solving Hundreds of Violent Crime Mysteries After Decades of No Answers (FOX News – 9/9/2022)

The 2018 arrest of 74-year-old Joseph James DeAngelo — a former police officer known as the Golden State Killer who was responsible for at least a dozen murders and as many as 50 rapes in the 1970s and 1980s — served as a proof-of-concept for law enforcement that this new forensic science could help uncover secrets that have eluded them for decades. The case opened the floodgates, with law enforcement agencies around the country contacting genetic genealogists for help cracking cold cases. “Now is the time for legislators, the courts and law enforcement to ensure that the benefits of genetic-science technology don’t come at the cost of our privacy rights,” Vera Eidelman, a staff attorney with the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, wrote after the Golden State Killer was arrested.

Forensic Investigators Work to Give 9/11 Families Peace as They ID Ground Zero Remains (ABC News – 9/11/2022)

Twenty-one years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the families who lost loved ones at the World Trade Center and are still seeking to hold on to them one last time.
For these families, who have yet to receive any remains of their loved ones, the closest they can get is a special section of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum located at what was once the foundation of the north tower of the World Trade Center.
While the museum’s repository serves as a somber memorial ground for those families that have no physical proof that their loved ones perished on 9/11, the forensic team at OCME has been testing samples of those remains to try to make positive identifications in their own lab in Manhattan. And even though the team said the task has been daunting for 21 years and counting due to the sheer scope of work, they are still determined to give these families closure.

University Launches Free Forensic Science Seminar Series (Forensic – 9/12/2022)

- Experts on bomb investigations, forensic archaeology, and cold case investigations are among the speakers for the fall University of Rhode Island Forensic Science Seminar Series, which runs Friday afternoons from Sept. 16 through Dec. 9.
  The fall series, which also includes lectures on recreational cannabis legalization, forensic genealogy and expert witness testimony, will be held from 3:30 to 5 p.m. in Room 100 of the Beaupre Center for Chemical and Forensic Sciences on URI’s Kingston Campus. This is the 24th year of the free, public seminar series, which also offers lectures in the spring.
  Those who cannot attend in person may view the lectures live online or at a later date by going to https://www.chm.uri.edu/forensics/seminars.php and clicking on the link in the topic section.

Skull Found Near Copper Mountain Resort in 2016 Identified (DNA Doe Project – 9/12/2022)

- After almost two years of investigative genetic genealogy, the DNA Doe Project and the Summit County Coroner’s Office have identified remains located in the Sky Chutes in the Ten Mile Canyon across from Copper Mountain Ski Area in 2016 as Jeffery Lee Peterson, who was 57 years old at the time of his death.
  
  In July, 2016 hikers discovered a human skull in a heavily wooded area just outside of the “Y” avalanche chute, near Copper Mountain, Summit County, Colorado. Nearly a month later searchers found additional skeletal remains and personal items nearby. A forensic pathologist determined the remains to be that of a white male between 30 to 50 years old, with strawberry blond hair. Damage to the skull was consistent with a self-inflicted gunshot to the head from a Glock .45 handgun found near the remains. Items found with the body included a backpack with high-end hiking gear and clothing, but no form of identification of any kind. In fact the serial number on the firearm had been intentionally destroyed with a metal punch. A bottle water and a tube of Blistex with a manufacture date of 2012, indicated the man most likely died in 2012.
  
  “Our dedicated team built a research tree made from distant cousins that led us into Norway, Sweden, and Poland. None of the DNA matches shared any common ancestors which made our hunt that much more difficult,” said team leader Missy Koski. “We knew we had found the right man in our tree when some old-fashioned Y-DNA research was combined with some new-fashioned research using DNA segment tools. This combination led our team to determine that we should be looking for a man with a Scandinavian father and a West Slavic mother.”

DNA Analysis Leads to Arrest in 1972 Waikiki Fatal Stabbing (Yahoo!News – 9/13/2022)

- Honolulu police have used DNA comparisons and evidence to make an arrest in connection with the Jan. 7, 1972, killing of Nancy Elaine Anderson, who was found stabbed and unresponsive in her Waikiki apartment.
  Anderson, a 1970 graduate of John Glenn High School in Bay City, Michigan, was 19 when her roommate found her with multiple stab wounds in their apartment at 2222 Aloha Drive in Waikiki. Anderson moved to Hawaii in October 1971 and was working at the McDonald’s at Ala Moana Center at the time of her death.
  At the time, Honolulu Police Department investigators conducted extensive investigations but did not turn up any viable leads.
  HPD investigators used Parabon NanoLabs, a DNA technology company in Virginia, to identify a suspect in the case through DNA comparison, according to police. It was enough for HPD investigators to obtain a no-bail warrant.

Despite Privacy Concerns, Many are Submitting DNA to Tulsa Race Massacre Investigation (Forensic – 9/14/2022)

- Trust is hard to come by in any situation, but especially for those who have had their trust broken in the past or on a repeated basis. On May 31, 1921, Black residents of Tulsa trusted law enforcement to protect them from a white mob. And although some did, others did the exact opposite. Accounts from that day allege some law enforcement personnel took part in the air attacks and firebombing that killed hundreds and decimated Tulsa’s Greenwood neighborhood.
  Now, 101 years later, forensic scientists and researchers are asking descendants of those killed in the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre to submit their DNA to a database that can be accessed by law enforcement officials.
  Danny Hellwig and Alison Wilde at Intermountain Forensics understand what a huge ask that is, and are doing everything they can to apply education and respect to the process.

AG’s Office Receives Grant for Post-Conviction DNA Testing (Forensic – 9/14/2022)

- The Michigan Department of Attorney General’s Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU) has received federal grant dollars for post-conviction DNA testing to aid in its evaluation of more than 1,700 post-conviction claims of innocence, Attorney General Dana Nessel announced Tuesday.
  The Bureau of Justice Assistance, part of the U.S. Department of Justice, awarded $550,000 to the department to aid in the review of post-conviction DNA testing cases. The Postconviction Testing of DNA Evidence grant provides funding to states, local units of government and public institutions of higher education to assist in defraying the costs associated with postconviction case identification, case review, evidence location, and DNA testing in violent felony cases where the results of such testing might show actual innocence. The Department will use grant funds to cover the cost of case reviews, locating evidence, DNA testing of evidence, and hiring of additional staff and experts.
  Nessel launched the department’s Conviction Integrity Unit in 2019 and then partnered with Western Michigan University Cooley Law School to review forensic (including DNA) cases. That same year the department received $734,930 from the Postconviction Testing of DNA Evidence grant and WMU-Cooley Law School received $274,960 from the Upholding the Rule of Law grant. This new grant award will allow this successful partnership to continue.

New Doctorate Degree to Help Advance Those Already in the Field (Forensic – 9/14/2022)

- Those already working in the forensic sciences field now have a new option to earn a doctorate at Oklahoma State University (OSU) Center for Health Sciences.
  The School of Forensic Sciences now offers a Doctorate in Forensic Sciences degree, or DFS, in addition to its Ph.D. in Forensic Sciences program.
  The DFS is a 62-hour program and students must have a master’s degree in order to enroll. Those who have earned their master’s degree in the last 10 years can have up to 30 hours automatically put toward their DFS degree.

Mesa County Coroner’s Office and Othram Partner to Identify 2011 John Doe (DNASolves – 9/15/2022)

- In October 2011, a Colorado Mesa University instructor and a group of students discovered a skull near the Umcompaghre Plateau wilderness area in rural Mesa County. The students were environmental science majors performing a fire management field project on the plateau just a few hundred yards off Divide Road near the town of Whitewater, Colorado. The Mesa County Sheriff’s Office was able to determine that the skull belonged to an adult male, but there few other insights that could be gained from the partial remains. No determinations could be made about the unknown man’s height, weight, or outward appearance. It is also unclear how and when the unknown man died. For the past decade, investigators have diligently pursued various leads in an attempt to identify the man. In September 2022, the Mesa County Coroner’s Office partnered with Othram to determine if advanced forensic DNA testing could help establish an identity for the man or a close relative.