DNA evidence

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Opera Star's Son Nabbed in '91 Rape/Murder

(Newser) - Some 18 years after a Pennsylvania camp counselor was shot in the head and raped as she died, cops have charged the son of a famed Metropolitan Opera bass with the brutal murder, the New York Post reports. Jeffrey Plishka, 46, has long been suspected of the crime, and the...

DNA Shows Mich. Man Is Not Long-Missing NY Boy

(Newser) - The FBI says DNA testing confirms that a 54-year-old Michigan man is not a toddler kidnapped in Long Island in 1955. John Barnes is not Stephen Damman, who disappeared at age 2 from outside an East Meadow bakery while his mother shopped. Barnes says he has long suspected the couple...

Convicts Don't Have Right to Test DNA: Supreme Court

(Newser) - The Supreme Court said today that convicts have no constitutional right to test DNA evidence in hopes of proving their innocence long after they were found guilty of a crime. The court ruled 5-4, with the conservative justices in the majority, against William Osborne, an Alaska man convicted in a...

LA Cops Arrest Suspected Serial Killer From '70s, '80s

72-year-old may have killed 30 women

(Newser) - Los Angeles police say a 72-year-old insurance claims adjuster may in fact be the city's "most prolific serial killer," the Los Angeles Times reports. The suspect, John Floyd Thomas, may have killed up to 30 older women and raped scores more during two separate rampages in the 1970s...

Move Over, Police Sketches: DNA's On the Case

Forensic phenotyping works, but is it ethical?

(Newser) - The old-fashioned police sketch could soon be obsolete, the Wall Street Journal reports, thanks to DNA forensic phenotyping, an increasingly popular technique that uses crime-scene DNA to describe a suspect. So far, labs can only determine details such as ethnicity and physical traits, but that alone has helped in some...

Sloppy DNA Work Creates Myth of Phantom Serial Killer

Female 'suspect' now believed to have been employee at DNA swab factory

(Newser) - Embarrassed German cops may soon call off their hunt for a notorious female serial killer, the Times of London reports. DNA from a suspect dubbed "the woman without a face” has been found at dozens of crime scenes across Europe, including stranglings and shootings, but detectives now believe the...

Texas Could See First-Ever Posthumous Exoneration

DNA evidence vindicates dead convict

(Newser) - A hearing this week could result in Texas’ first-ever posthumous exoneration based on DNA evidence, the AP reports. Tim Cole, who died of a heart attack in prison in 1999, was convicted in the 1985 rape of a Texas Tech student. But an imprisoned rapist’s recent admission of guilt,...

Remains Resemble Caylee
 Remains Resemble Caylee 
Dec 12, 2008 1:29 PM CST

Remains Resemble Caylee

(Newser) - A former attorney for Caylee Anthony's grandparents says investigators think the remains of a young child found near her home belong to the missing 3-year-old, the Orlando Sentinel reports. But a lawyer for the Sherriff’s Department said they have not yet made even a tentative identification of the body....

DNA Led Cops to Pressly Murder Suspect

Officials say forensics tie man to anchor's murder, teacher's rape

(Newser) - Police in Little Rock say forensic evidence led them to a suspect in the murder of news anchor Anne Pressly, reports KATV. A DNA sample from Pressly's home matched DNA found at the scene of an unsolved rape in Marianna, 90 miles away. Marianna police pointed investigators to rape suspect...

Dallas DA Makes Waves by Overturning Convictions

DA makes waves with quest to root out wrongful convictions

(Newser) - Craig Watkins is becoming famous for something rather unusual for a district attorney: getting people out of jail, the Wall Street Journal reports. The Dallas County prosecutor is painstakingly going through hundreds of convictions secured by his predecessors, using DNA evidence to overturn wrongful convictions. His Conviction Integrity Unit has...

Fossett Died in Crash: Calif. DNA Report

Widow hopes this 'puts a definitive end' to speculation

(Newser) - California officials today identified two large bones found near a Sierra Nevada crash site as Steve Fossett's, the Fresno Bee reports. The Madera County Sheriff refused to say which of the adventurer's bones were found, to avoid hurting the family further, reports the AP. "I am hopeful that the...

DNA Results Shed Little Light on Caylee Case

Labs see evidence of 'decompositional event' in chloroform-soaked car trunk

(Newser) - No positive identification of Caylee Anthony’s body could be made from DNA analysis of evidence gathered from her mother’s car trunk, the Orlando Sentinel reports today. However, investigators found “an unusually large concentration of chloroform.” Odor analysis yielded hints of a “decompositional event that could...

Senate Grills FBI on Anthrax, Ivins

Lawmakers raise doubts that suspect acted alone

(Newser) - Senators cast strong doubts today on the FBI's conclusion that Bruce Ivins acted alone in the 2001 anthrax scare, reports the Washington Post, with many demanding a more public vetting of the investigation into America’s largest bioterror attack. "There are others out there who should be charged...

Men Admit Bigfoot Hoax
 Men Admit Bigfoot Hoax 
Aug 19, 2008 9:11 PM CDT

Men Admit Bigfoot Hoax

(Newser) - Bigfoot hunters will just have to keep looking. Two Georgia men’s story about finding Sasquatch has—surprise!—turned out to be a hoax, Cox News Service reports. Their ruse fell apart when a block of ice containing the “body” melted—leaving behind a rubber monkey suit. The...

Ga. Men Claim to Have Found Bigfoot
Ga. Men Claim to Have
Found Bigfoot
Aug 14, 2008 10:55 AM CDT

Ga. Men Claim to Have Found Bigfoot

Body, photos, DNA among 'proof' to be presented tomorrow

(Newser) - Two Georgia men claim to have found a Bigfoot, and say they'll release evidence tomorrow at a press conference, LiveScience reports. Whether they'll display the alleged carcass or simply photographs is unknown, but a well-known Bigfoot hoaxer speaking on their behalf said the body will be studied in a secure,...

Did We Slaughter the Neanderthals?

DNA probe sheds light on early humans' doom

(Newser) - Analysis of DNA from a thigh bone is helping solve the longstanding question of what happened to Neanderthals. Did they simply die off, were they killed by more modern humans—or did the two groups interbreed? DNA from the Neanderthal bone is so different from that of modern humans that...

DNA Links Scientist to Anthrax Attacks

Anthrax traced to flask in Ivins' Maryland lab

(Newser) - Investigators have DNA evidence that links biodefense expert Bruce Ivins to the deadly 2001 anthrax attacks, but the case is largely circumstantial, the New York Times reports. Prosecutors have linked the anthrax used in mailings targeting news networks, newspapers, and Congress with a flask used by Ivins at his Maryland...

'Ironclad' Authority of DNA Evidence Questioned

Experts debate odds of coincidental matches

(Newser) - With odds of a definite match to suspects often cited as high as 1 in 100 billion, the power of DNA evidence in a criminal case is rarely disputed. But new studies are leading some to question whether DNA evidence should be an ironclad determination of guilt, the Los Angeles ...

DNA Clears JonBenet's Family
 DNA Clears JonBenet's Family 
Jul 9, 2008 3:35 PM CDT

DNA Clears JonBenet's Family

Colo. DA apologizes to family; no new leads in search for killer

(Newser) - New DNA evidence in the JonBenet Ramsey murder case has exonerated the entire Ramsey family, the Boulder Daily Camera reports. Scientists analyzed a sample from JonBenet's clothes, using new technology called "touch DNA," and found no match to JonBenet's parents, brother, or anyone in law enforcement databases. The...

Mysterious Human Feet Baffle Police
Mysterious Human Feet Baffle Police
Jun 25, 2008 7:56 AM CDT

Mysterious Human Feet Baffle Police

Speculation afoot around washed up body parts

(Newser) - Police are struggling to explain a string of washed up human feet found on beaches along one 125-mile stretch of British Columbia. So far five of the grisly, sneaker-clad appendages have been found, and all are right feet. “It’s a mystery,” said one Royal Canadian Mounted Police...

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