Here's the text of the Denver Post article:
DNA test suggests race of woman's killer in '97
By Marcos Mocine-McQueen
Denver Post Staff Writer
BOULDER - Boulder police have turned to an unconventional DNA test to create a racial profile of the suspect in a high-profile 1997 murder, but some experts wonder if the test is worth the high price tag.
Susannah Chase, 23, died several days after she was found beaten in a Boulder alley on Dec. 21, 1997. Police found several clues and received a "slew" of tips, but nothing ever came of them.
"Essentially everything had been exhausted up to this point," said Kurt Weiler, commander of detectives.
In an effort to reignite interest in the case, Boulder police announced Wednesday that a test by a Florida company found that DNA at the Chase crime scene was "indicative of someone exhibiting features that are common to Hispanics or Native Americans."
A representative of the company, DNAPrint Genomics, said the test has been used only in 20 to 30 criminal investigations nationwide. The test determines what ancestries are present in a person's DNA. The company calls this blend of ancestries "admixture."
Using information from the Human Genome Project, the company can place people into four basic groups - Indo-European, Sub-Saharan African, East Asian and American Indian (which includes all of the Americas), or mixes of those four.
Some scientists have questioned the reliability of the test the company uses, but Greggory LaBerge, who heads the Denver Police Department's DNA lab, said he doesn't doubt the science. Instead, he questions whether the results are helpful.
"There's nothing it's going to glean for us that's useful in an investigation," LaBerge said.
Knowing the range of a suspect's race doesn't mean much by itself, he said.
"How's that going to tell you anything about how that guy's going to look?" LaBerge said. "Nothing."
Tony Frudakis, founder of DNAPrint Genomics, said the company is working on a remedy for that problem. It plans to develop a database of thousands of pictures so that investigators could see a variety of appearances a particular admixture can take on.
The company began in 1999 and aimed its research at medical breakthroughs.
"But with the recession, we ran low on money," Frudakis said. "We figured out that this would be valuable to law enforcement, and it gave us more revenue."
The forensic version of the test cost the Boulder police $1,100. Another version of the test aimed at citizens curious about their racial makeup is available for $158.
LaBerge said that while he likes the idea of the test on an intellectual level, its cost outweighs its value.
"We're on a really tight budget," LaBerge said. "We're not going to drop that type of money on a test that doesn't tell you as much as what we're doing here (in the Denver police lab)."
Additionally, the test requires DNA from a crime scene, and if there is a limited sample of that available, it should be saved for other, more specific comparison tests once a suspect is identified, LaBerge said.
Weiler said there is more than enough DNA to go around in this case, and the Police Department checked with the Colorado Bureau of Investigation to make sure. He also said the department is treating the test results with healthy skepticism and won't be making any blanket requests for Hispanic or American Indian men to provide DNA samples.
