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.

Cleveland man linked to 3 sexual assaults

A man who committed a sexual assault in 2010 has been linked to two other rapes, one of which was a rape/homicide, through DNA.  The first two rapes occurred in 1996 and 1997.  Police in the Cleveland Police Department are now asking for help from the public in identifying the suspect.

Click here for more.

Twin's DNA identifies unknown body

Houston- DNA from an unidentified body was entered into CODIS and identified as Paul Segura when it matched Chris Segura, Paul's living twin brother. Paul went missing in 1989 at the age of 13.
Read more here.

11 more counts added to Marc O'Leary case, Jeffco, CO

Marc O'Leary faces an additional 11 counts in connection with the assault of a 64-year old woman from Aurora. O'Leary is facing 28 other counts for the sexual assault of three other women, and the attempted sexual assault of one woman. He is also linked to a rape in Washington.

Read more here.

West Memphis 3 enter Alford plea, released

The West Memphis 3 are being released on a suspended sentence. In 2007 it was found that DNA collected at the crime scene did not match that belonging to any of the three men. In November 2010, the state Supreme Court ruled that all three could present new evidence in court.

Read the Huff Post article here.

Trial begins for suspect linked to 1967 murder through DNA of ex-wife and daughter

A trial begins today for a man accused of killing 14 year-old Eileen Adams in 1967.

DNA samples his ex-wife and their daughter were compared those samples with DNA found on Eileen Adams. Investigators said they found a match and charged him even though they had no idea where he was living or even if he was still alive.

Read more here.

J Forensic Sci. 2011 Aug 9. doi: 10.1111/j.1556-4029.2011.01867.x. [Epub ahead of print]

Comparisons of Familial DNA Database Searching Strategies.

Ge J, Chakraborty R, Eisenberg A, Budowle B.

Source

Department of Forensic and Investigative Genetics, University of North Texas Health Science Center, 3500 Camp Bowie Blvd., Fort Worth, TX 76107. Institute of Investigative Genetics, University of North Texas Health Science Center, 3500 Camp Bowie Blvd., Fort Worth, TX 76107.

The current familial searching strategies are generally based on either Identity-By-State (IBS) (i.e., number of shared alleles) or likelihood ratio (i.e., kinship index [KI]) assessments. In this study, the expected IBS match probabilities given relationships and the logic of the likelihood ratio method were addressed. Further, the false-positive and false-negative rates of the strategies were compared analytically or by simulations using Caucasian population data of the 13 CODIS Short Tandem Repeat (STR).

Click here to read abstract.