DNAP NEWS DNA Witness Used to Guide the Investigation in Trail Side Murder Case in Concord, California
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SARASOTA, Fla., Oct. 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- DNAPrint genomics (OTC Bulletin Board: DNAP) today confirmed that DNA Witness, a DNA test that determines an individual's ancestral proportions, was strategically employed in the investigation of the Trail Side Murder Case in Concord, CA. Detectives used the DNA Witness test to obtain physical information about the suspect. This allowed detectives to focus on high value leads related to the suspect.
On September 26, Concord police announced the arrest of a suspect in the May 13, 2003 slaying of Kathleen Aiello Loreck. The DNA Witness analysis was completed in mid-August. According to detectives, using DNA Witness allowed them to narrow their investigation and re-weigh the value of certain leads based on the information provided by the test, revealing the suspect's ancestry.
"DNA Witness provided significant information about the suspect that we used to focus our investigation. DNA Witness is a great new tool in criminal investigations. It helped us in this case, and saved us time and money," said Sergeant Michael Finney of the Concord Police Department.
The suspect's arrest was achieved through outstanding detective work on the part of the Concord Police Department. Standard DNA testing provided a unique identifier from the crime scene DNA, but the crime scene DNA did not match any of the profiles in the FBI's CODIS database. The genetic heritage of an individual cannot be accurately inferred from standard DNA tests, but detectives continued their quest to learn about the suspect from his DNA. This search led investigators to DNAPrint genomics for a new type of DNA analysis, DNA Witness.
DNA Witness is the world's first forensic test to measure the ancestry of an individual from his DNA. DNA is commonly left at crime scenes, but until DNAPrint developed DNA Witness, no physical information could be reliably read from that DNA other than gender. Forensic validation studies of DNA Witness were performed by the San Diego Police Department Crime Lab, the National Center for Forensic Science and the Broward County, Florida Crime Lab. In July, a report in the Journal of Forensic Science provided the scientific rationale and results of studies related to DNA Witness. DNAPrint genomics has successfully determined the ancestral background of over 5,000 individuals.
"We are working with detectives, like Sgt. Finney, on cases that have gone cold or are at a standstill," said Richard Gabriel, CEO and President of DNAPrint genomics, Inc. "We encourage law enforcement officers to contact us. In this case, as in others when DNA Witness has been used, the scope of the investigation was narrowed and resources were more efficiently deployed in a multi-state manhunt. DNA Witness is proving to save time and resources by contributing valuable information about the suspect's ancestry. If there is a crime scene sample of DNA, DNA Witness could help re-direct or focus the investigation."
