DNA Testing Basics

[Ninurta]

Here They Come . . . . . (look quickly side to side)..

They're H-E-R-E

...

GOOGLE: 23andme catching criminals

Yup, that's a concern for some, but those folks probably ought to be looking over their shoulders on a regular basis anyhow.

There is a third-party site that most law enforcement uses to solve cold cases, rather than going to the trouble of subpoenaing data from individual testing sites. I think it's Genomelink. They register as law enforcement and then upload the cold case DNA files for comparison against the other DNA files in the database there, no subpoena required. They do that to take advantage of the fact that the site collects data from a multitude of other testing sites, rather than producing it's own. it's like a one-stop shopping center.

Subpoenas don't usually enter the picture until they've narrowed the suspect list down to a relative of the tested person, and then get a subpoena to compel a DNA sample from the suspect him or her self. Killers and such are generally savvy enough not to have their own DNA tested, but they can't keep relatives from getting tested - they usually don't even know the relative WAS tested, or that it can be used to find them even though it's not their own DNA.

That's how they caught that serial killer in Oregon i think, 20 or 30 years after the crimes. It's also how they caught that guy that killed the college students in Idaho recently. 

Most of the time, they don't match to the DNA of the actual killers, instead matching to the DNA of some unsuspecting family member that uploaded their own DNA for analysis, and the law enforcement matches find relatives of the subject which gives them a jumping off point to renew the investigation.

They've also used it to identify John and Jane Does, unidentified bodies found in shallow graves and whatnot. Whether the killer is caught in those cases or not, it does provide closure for the victim's families, such that they know what became of their loved one and can put the mystery and uncertainty to rest with their remains.

We had a case here about a year ago where some human remains were found in the woods about 10 or 11 miles northeast of here, and that sort of DNA matching was used to identify the body as that of a guy who had vanished about a year prior to the discovery.

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