The use of DNA evidence in criminal investigation is fairly well accepted. Each person has a unique DNA signature that tends to eliminate the rest of the human species. It's really specific. As evidence goes, it's just about the gold standard. Of course, there may be many reasons for one person's DNA to be in the vicinity of another person, not all those reasons are nefarious.
So, the investigators still have work to do, but it appears that the suspect in the Moscow, ID murder case (and I will never use his name) might have been identified through the use of familial DNA. The closer a suspect might be to a family member, the more closely they will share a DNA signature. While the suspect may have been unknown to police and the police were unable to precisely match his DNA in a database, there might have been a family member who had given a sample that closely matched his.
This case is becoming truly interesting from a number of perspectives. The suspect himself was a doctoral student of criminology. On the face of the case, this seems to be his first run-in with police. That flies in the face of other mass murderers, who often work up to this sort of crime. One wonders what set of circumstances led us this point. Are there other murders out there?
We'll be studying this one for a while.
7 comments:
The tinfoil-hat part of me wonders if my DNA has been skimmed from my yearly blood-work. How hard would it be to do?
A part of me pretty much accepts that the major DNA companies "share" results with FBI whether you authorize it or not.
That we will, and it will be interesting to see how it 'unwinds' as it were...
When I first read of the familial DNA route I thought of it as an end run around direct evidence. Not sure I feel differently now after thinking about it. However, in the long run it probably makes no difference as so many of us are surely in a government database of DNA, and others just don't know.
I do blood work every 30-90 days at the VA and I'm sure it would take only a note on scrap paper to get my DNA for a prosecution of some sort.
And due to Familial DNA, they don't need yours, only that of a relative to trace you...
FYI
All law enforcement has to do is open an account, submit the sample and sit back and wait for the matches.
It could be that simple and legal.
OR....
Go to a website that allows you to upload your sample and boom, results.
When it’s all said and done they are going to dig deep into this guys life. I’d make a large wager they will find some unsolved murders or missing persons cases around other places he has lived or gone to school.
That the companies share your private info with law enforcement has been proven prior (without so much as a warrant). What your tinfoil hat should be telling you is these companies were created and setup for the purpose of, collecting everyones DNA. They don't need to force you to do anything, just make you want to do it. Now they have everyones DNA from 23 and me, etc. No forced collection needed. Now extrapoltae that with the "familial DNA concept" discussed here. Game over, man.
Remember your novels (Huxley, Orwell, et al), people will be made to enjoy their prison. They think its 'neat' to see some chart that claims their ancestral DNA is...
Yeah, Epsteins clients all thought that young girl at the party really liked them, too.
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