Gainsville, Fl: Serial Rapist Search

Police are searching for a rapist who attacked four women in Florida. The attacks occurred in Gainsville and Ocala.

Now, police all across the country are searching for a suspect. They've gathered DNA evidence from each of the crimes, however, officials have no significant leads.

http://www.cfnews13.com/article/news/2011/october/328851/Warning-to-women:-Possible-serial-rapist-in-Ocala

Read more here.

Lynette White case: Forensics 'led to Jeffrey Gafoor'

UK-
Familial DNA helped lead to the identification of Lynette White's killer 15 years after her death.  Gafoor admitted to the murder.

Three other men were imprisioned for the murder in 1990 and released on appeal in 1992.
Read more from the BBC.

Bundy Update: No DNA profile from 8 Year old Murder Victim

DNA evidence will not be able to determine if Ted Bundy did, in fact, kill an 8 year old girl in Tacoma, WA. 50 years ago.  Investigators were unable to create a suspect profile from the remains of the victim.

Read more here.

FL: DNA Links 5 Rapes

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. —

Police say they believe the same man is responsible for five rapes in Palm Beach County since 2009.
The most recent attack was on a 22-year-old woman in Lake Worth on Sept. 23.
Read more here.

http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2011/10/palm_beach_county_serial_rapist_attack_five.php

New York 2nd Degree Murder, Post Conviction DNA Testing

Shaliq Peterson, convicted of 2nd Degree Murder in New York in 1995, is  petitioning the Supreme Court in that state to have his conviction overturned.  DNA from the case does not match Peterson, or anyone else in CODIS. 

There existed at trial a significant body of forensic DNA containing evidence, including a smudged fingerprint on the murder weapon. Attorney Pascazi hopes to show that the smudged print does not match the DNA profile of either Shaliq or the victim, but does indeed match the profile of one of the nearly 10 million people, (virtually all convicted criminals) whose DNA profiles are now stored in the FBI's CODIS-NDIS database.
  
Read more here.

Familial DNA and the Oklahoma Brittany Phillips Case

Brittany Phillips was killed in Tulsa in 2004. There is DNA from the killer in the case, but no match in DNA databases. Brittany's mother, Maggie Zingman has been traveling the country in search of her daughter's killer. Now Oklahoma is considering the use of familial DNA searching in the case. 

The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation says it is in the early stages of evaluating familial DNA testing. Right now, OSBI is looking at the cost and what policies would need to be altered to begin that testing.
Read more here.

Jakarta Police haul in Child of Suicide Bomber

The child of a man believed to have carried out Sunday’s suicide bombing at a church in Solo has been brought in for DNA testing in the hopes of finding a match with the man, who was the sole fatality in the blast.

Read more here: Jakarta Globe Article.

Family Feud: The Familial DNA Search Controversy Continues

Kaye, Jenkins and Mercer cover familial searches for Forensic Magazine.


David Kaye is a Distinguished Professor of Law, Weiss Family Scholar, and Forensic Science Program Graduate Faculty Member at Penn State University. He is also the author of “The Double Helix and the Law of Evidence: A Scientific and Legal History.”
Stephen Mercer is the Chief Attorney for the Maryland Office of Public Defender Forensics Division and Adjunct Faculty at the David A. Clark School of Law for Forensic Scientific Evidence.
Brad Jenkins is the Biology Program Manager for the Virginia Department of Forensic Science.
A workshop featuring an international panel of law enforcement, legal, and forensic experts will discuss the issues surrounding familial searching from 8:30am to 5pm, Monday, October 3, 2011, during the 22nd International Symposium on Human Identification (ISHI) in Washington D.C. Visit www.ishi22.com for more details.

15 year Jane Doe murder PA

Chester County, PA investigators are still searching for the identity of a woman found murdered 15 years ago. Her DNA has been uploaded into CODIS, but no match has been found.
Read more here.

RCMP hope Facebook page will help find relatives of missing persons

A Saskatoon  missing persons case has been highlighted on a Facebook page (facebook.com/saskatoon. hcu) in the hope that Albert Kunkel's relatives will come forward and offer DNA to help find his remains among unidentified remains. 
Those familial DNA profiles, which are kept on file, can be invaluable. "If we have found human remains and we look over our missing people, there could be say 10 potential matches for a particular case. But if we can rule five out right off the bat because we have familial DNA, that's what speeds the investigation forward," said a investigator in the case.
Read more: http://www.leaderpost.com/news/RCMP+looks+Facebook/5417158/story.html#ixzz1YVfwjRVl

Rock Harmon to Speak at The Univ. of Central Okalahoma Forensic Science Inst

DNA expert and former deputy district attorney for Alameda County, Calif., Rock Harmon, will speak on September 27 at the University of Central Oklahoma about the use of familial DNA to solve crimes.

or more information, call Janie Womble, FSI administrative assistant, at 974-6911 or email her at jwomble1@uco.edu.

Click here to read the article.

Teen may be missing Santa Fe Boy

Police have collected DNA from a teen who they believe may be a boy, Robbie Romero, who went missing at age 7 in 2000. The teen's DNA will be compared to the DNA of the family from which the boy went missing.

The teenager, who goes by both Robert Romero and Robert Terrezas, says his family is from Mexico. He says  he grew up in Utah.
The Santa Fe police are being assisted by the FBI.
Read more in the Santa Fe New Mexican.

Michigan: Lansing Serial Rapist

Lansing police are still searching for a man they say is responsible for 3 rapes within a 4-month span and one mile of each other. 

A woman was assaulted Friday.  Late Friday afternoon, Mayor Virg Bernero and Police Chief Theresa Symanski announced the attack is similar to two others.
If anyone has information on the identity of the suspect in this matter, call Detective Steve McClean at 517.483.4612 or Detective Elizabeth Reust at 517.483.6860.
DNA status of the case is unknown.

Read more here.

20,000 victims family's DNA to be referenced in effort to identify missing 9/11 remains

The challenges of identifying 1121 unknown dead after events of September 11, 2011 have required new advancements in DNA technology. DNA had to be extracted from tiny samples, and many partial profiles had to be produced and compared to familial DNA reference samples. 
Read more here.

FL: Lakeland (Tampa) Brothers look for mother's killer

In 1981, Linda Slaten, a 31 year old mother of two was raped and murdered in her home.
DNA evidence from the case has been uploaded to CODIS but there has been no match.

Read more here.

Jeff and Tim Slaten's mother Linda was killed in 1981.