MOODY, Texas — Phil Ratliff will tell you he’s had a good life. All 91 years of it.
But there was that one bad day.
They said DNA traces of the killer were found on the body of the girl and they are hoping the swabs will lead them to the murderer.
Comments Off on 900 men in Germany are asked to give DNA samples
Posted in Cold Cases, Database, Forensic Industry News
LOS ANGELES, Calif. (WSET) — Tom Hanks recently found out that he’s related to the man he is portraying in an upcoming movie.
Hanks and Fred Rogers are sixth cousins according to Ancestry.com, CNN reports.
Comments Off on DNA testing shows Tom Hanks and Mister Rogers are 6th cousins
Posted in Ancestry
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – Attorney General Josh Kaul says testing is finally finished on thousands of unanalyzed sexual assault evidence kits.
Kaul said Wednesday testing was finished on all 4,471 kits designated for analysis. The state Justice Department started analyzing the kits in 2016. Testing has resulted in a dozen criminal cases so far and at least one conviction.
Comments Off on Testing complete on thousands of Wisconsin sexual assault kits
Posted in Backlogs
Picking embryos based on genetics might not give prospective parents the “designer baby” they’re after.
DNA predictions of height or IQ might help would-be parents select an embryo that would grow into a child who is, at most, only about three centimeters taller or about three IQ points smarter than an average embryo from the couple, researchers report November 21 in Cell. But offspring predicted by their DNA to be the tallest among siblings were actually the tallest in only seven of 28 real families, the study found. And in five of those families, the child predicted to be tallest was actually shorter than the average for the family.
Comments Off on Why screening DNA for ‘designer babies’ probably won’t work
Posted in Ancestry
A Memphis judge on Monday tossed a petition to obtain DNA testing in the case of a man executed 13 years ago.
Judge Paula Skahan ruled the estate of Sedley Alley did not have standing to petition for the DNA. The Associated Press, the Memphis Commercial Appeal and the New York Times have coverage.
Comments Off on Estate of executed man has no standing to obtain DNA testing, judge rules
Posted in Ancestry
Oscar Nilsson is a world-renowned reconstruction artist, taking the remains of prehistoric humans and bringing them back to life using a complex system of anatomical analysis, 3D printing, and occasional DNA analysis. But what’s equally vital to his job is a sense of context.
Comments Off on How One Archaeologist–Artist Completely Reconstructed the Body of a 7,000-Year-Old Woman
Posted in Ancient DNA
LITTLE ROCK (KATV) — Thousands of sexual assault kits still need to be analyzed nationwide according to the latest data released.
As part of a sexual assault kit survey of all DNA laboratories in the country, the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors estimated 98,022 kits still need analysis.
Kermit Channel also emphasized the state is ahead of the curve on testing kits. He credits legislation passed in 2019 which mandates a tracking system.
Comments Off on Arkansas ahead of the curve in testing sexual assault kits
Posted in Backlogs
True crime podcasts are nothing new, but for police in the Netherlands this was an unprecedented venture. Thousands tuned in to the three-part series when it aired last month and tip-offs have been coming in ever since.
Comments Off on Dutch police podcast unearths clues to decades-old murder
Posted in Cold Cases, Forensic Industry News
MADISON (WKOW) — Dane County Court records show Madison police arrested a 52-year-old man in Indiana for reckless homicide Wednesday in connection with a woman’s death in Madison twenty-five years ago.
A major break came in December of 2015 when the Wisconsin State Crime Laboratory learned of a CODIS (Combined DNA Index System) DNA match, linking Coleman to the case, according to police. A criminal complaint states in 2017, technicians at the state crime lab matched more DNA from Cunnigan’s sweater and other places to Coleman.
Comments Off on Madison police arrest suspect in woman’s 1994 death
Posted in Cold Cases, Forensic Industry News
Hair shafts, particularly rootless ones (telogen hair), are common exhibits found in crime scenes. They can be deposited either normally due to shedding or by force due to hair plucking. Based on the American Academy of Dermatology, the normal rate of shed hair per day is 50 to100 strands [1]. However due to the structure and the composition of hair, it was believed for decades that shed telogen hair has no nuclear DNA.
Comments Off on No Nuclear DNA in Rootless Hair: Myth or Fact?
Posted in Ancestry
A new forensic technique could have criminals—and some prosecutors—tearing their hair out: Researchers have developed a method they say can identify a person from as little as 1 centimeter of a single strand of hair—and that is eight times more sensitive than similar protein analysis techniques. If the new method ever makes it into the courtroom, it could greatly expand the ability to identify the people at the scene of a crime.
Comments Off on Ultrasensitive protein method lets scientists ID someone from a single strand of hair
Posted in New ID Technologies
In the past six years, the NYPD has made New York a safer and fairer city in numerous ways, scaling back on arrests by 45% and targeting our investigative resources with far greater precision than in the past. Restricting or prohibiting the use of DNA and photo-recognition technologies would force investigators to fall back on less reliable and accurate means of identification, including eyewitnesses, who are less successful than technology at identifying people accurately.
Comments Off on The truth about the NYPD and DNA: Keep open vital database invaluable in solving crimes
Posted in Ancestry, Database, Geneology Database
Gene Discovery does brisk business hawking DNA tests out of a warren of rooms in Hong Kong’s Tsim Sha Tsui shopping district. More than half of its clients are from China’s mainland, where parents eager to shape their offspring into prodigies are fuelling the advance of a growing but largely unregulated industry. It’s a Chinese version of helicopter parenting that reflects the country’s tendency to push the boundaries when it comes to genetics, part of a broader race to dominate the field with ramifications for how the life-altering science is used throughout the world.
Comments Off on Chinese parents test DNA to check if kids will become prodigies
Posted in Forensic Industry News
The Marshals have been trying to gain approvals to compare his biological son’s DNA against samples of DNA collected from unsolved crime scene evidence around the country in hopes that it will yield a match and offer hints to Eubanks’ new identity or recent location.
Try in our lab
Confidence Comes From Clear Vision
RSS Feed