SAN ANTONIO – The Texas Department of Public Safety continues to process approximately 20,000 rape kits that had been previously untested. The process began in 2013. Nearly 2,000 kits are from sexual assaults reported to the San Antonio Police Department.
Comments Off on DPS processing thousands of untested rape kits
Posted in Backlogs
Australia’s law enforcement information-sharing agency CrimTrac will soon switch on a new system that will for the first time allow police to compare human remains to long-time missing persons cases across state and territory borders.
The federal government hopes the shared database will finally bring closure to the loved ones of an estimated 1600 long-term missing persons in Australia, who have been unaccounted for longer than six months.
The system will run DNA and other forensic characteristics of the missing individuals against more than 500 unidentified sets of human remains collected and recorded since the 1960s. The data is in the process of being digitized and entered into the system.
Comments Off on Australia-wide missing persons matching system to go live next week
Posted in Database, Forensic Industry News
…A report from the Louisiana State Police Crime Laboratory issued on April 29, 2014, which Joel Porter obtained from the Louisiana Attorney General’s Office in March, states that the ankle portion of Denise Porter’s gray sweatpants contains her DNA and that of an unknown person. The report ruled out Joel Porter as being connected to the DNA while also finding it isn’t linked to anyone in a nationwide criminal database…
Comments Off on Attorney Joel Porter says DNA analysis shows he didn’t kill his wife 30 years ago
Posted in Cold Cases
Bode’s DNA and Investigators Conference is a multi-disciplinary event where individuals from crime laboratories, law enforcement, and attorneys will receive training highlighting policy, impact, and technology that effect the law enforcement and legal community.
Leaders from various law enforcement and federal agencies will provide lectures, demonstrations, and mini-workshops on new technologies, new concepts and challenges in the DNA identification field.
Pre-register by Tuesday, August 18 to save $75 on the general registration fee
Comments Off on Annual DNA & Investigators Conference – Bode Mid-Atlantic
Posted in Forensic Industry News
Ann Rule, whose 1980 study of the serial killer Ted Bundy, “The Stranger Beside Me,” set her on the road to writing dozens of best-selling true-crime books praised for their insight into criminal psychology, died on Sunday at a medical center in Burien, Wash. She was 83.
Comments Off on Ann Rule, Author of Books on Ted Bundy (a Friend) and Other Killers, Dies at 83
Posted in Forensic Industry News
HONOLULU — The military on Monday exhumed more caskets containing the unidentified remains of USS Oklahoma crew members killed in the 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor.
Comments Off on Remains of Pearl Harbor Victims Raised for Identification
Time is running out to save on ISHI registration and workshop fees. Register by August 1 and save $100 on symposium registration. After August 1, symposium registration will increase to $755.
Discounted fees are also available for workshop registrations made by the August 1 deadline.
Comments Off on ISHI Early Registration Ends August 1
In its three years in operation, the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation’s Cold Case Unit brought to close two unsolved homicide cases dating as far back as the 1970s.
The unit was shut down in 2011 after the federal grant that funded it ran out. But DCI officials said they continue to investigate homicides cases that have gone years, or even decades, without justice.
Comments Off on Cold Case Unit’s end didn’t stop Iowa DCI from continuing search for DNA profiles
Posted in Backlogs, Cold Cases
GUILFORD COUNTY — Ten law enforcement agencies have come together with a way to try and get suspects off the streets faster. Officers say it can take up to two years to get tests like DNA results back from the state crime lab – but a new plan on the table could cut down that time significantly.
Comments Off on Triad Law Enforcement Agencies want Regional Forensics Lab
Posted in Forensic Industry News
The union cabinet next week is likely consider a bill to create national DNA database of all those in conflict with law including suspects and volunteers which the critics term as against the “basic tenements of the Constitution”.
Comments Off on DNA profiling the new headache for NDA government
Posted in Database, DNA Legislation, Forensic Industry News
HA NOI (VNS) — Over 8,000 cases of unidentified war martyrs have been referred to the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs for DNA testing to establish a link to their alleged families.
Comments Off on Remains of 8,000 war martyrs need DNA tests
Posted in Mass Disaster, Missing Persons
ATLANTA — The State Crime Lab has been swamped with rape kits awaiting DNA analysis since March, accelerating in June when police agencies around the state responded to criticism that old evidence wasn’t being tested.
Comments Off on Police scramble to test old rape kits leads to crime backlog
Posted in Backlogs
The Department of Justice is insisting that it has no specific appropriation from Congress to fund the testing of rape kits around the country, even though some members of Congress say Justice should have funding from the huge omnibus spending bill from late last year.
Last week, Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, accused Justice of failing to fund the Debbie Smith DNA Backlog Program, even though Congress authorized that program in 2013, and funded it in 2014.
Comments Off on Justice Dept. insists it has no appropriation for rape-kit testing
Posted in Backlogs, Forensic Industry News, Funding
WASHINGTON — More than two months after members of a D.C. family and their housekeeper were killed in their burning Northwest home, police are still waiting on crucial evidence.
Comments Off on Police await DNA, other forensics in D.C. quadruple homicide
Posted in Cold Cases
NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) — With a staff of 175, including 160 scientists, the Department of Forensic Biology of the City of New York Office of Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) is the largest forensic DNA testing laboratory in the United States and has been at the forefront of developing and testing new technologies for analyzing samples from crime scenes and identifying human remains.
Comments Off on Timothy Kupferschmid of the NYC Office of Chief Medical Examiner on New Forensic DNA Techs
Posted in Forensic Industry News
Try in our lab
Confidence Comes From Clear Vision
RSS Feed