Author Profile

Ballistics Link Recovered Gun to Oregon Homicide
January 08, 2021
A gun found in the pants pocket of a man after he was killed by police in Washington fits the make of the gun likely used to kill a man after a pro-Trump rally in Portland, Oregon, new reports indicate. read more
New Law Provides Funds, Resources for Forensic ID of Migrants Along the Border
January 06, 2021
On January 1, 2021, President Donald Trump signed into law the bipartisan Missing Persons and Unidentified Remains Act, which seeks to help local jurisdictions improve the recording and reporting of missing persons and unidentified remains found along the U.S.-Mexico border—a tragedy that is increasing by the day. read more
Kentucky State Police Crime Lab Recognized by OSAC for Commitment to Standards
January 06, 2021
Kentucky State Police Forensic Laboratories were recently recognized by OSAC for voluntarily adopting rigorous standards in the analysis of seized drugs. read more
South Carolina: 2 Bodies Found in Separate Homes, One Burns Down 2 Days Later
January 06, 2021
Over the first weekend of the new year, the body of a baby was found inside the wall of a house being remodeling in South Carolina. That same day, a body was found in the freezer of an abandoned house. read more
Appeals Court Vacates Order Delaying Woman’s Execution
January 06, 2021
A federal appeals court has cleared the way for the only woman on federal death row to be executed before President-elect Joe Biden takes office. read more
ASPCA Opens Veterinary Forensic Science Center to Support Animal Cruelty Cases
January 06, 2021
The 3,000 square-foot facility, based in Gainesville, Fla., is staffed with five veterinary forensic experts equipped to assist law enforcement with animal cruelty investigations and prosecutions through services such as necropsies, live animal forensic exams, and forensic osteology. read more
Houston Forensic Science Center Adopts Rapid DNA as Crime Nearly Doubles
January 04, 2021
HFSC will be able to provide some DNA results to investigators in six hours or less, an important development that could help the Houston Police Department battle the rise in violent crime. read more
Ohio Police Solve 1992 Murder of ‘Baby April’
January 04, 2021
In November 2019, Moline Police Chief Darren Gault submitted a budget request for expanded funding for cold case investigations, which was unanimously approved. The extra funding allowed investigators to submit a genetic DNA profile for the Baby April case to Parabon Nanolabs. read more
Othram Working to ID Victim of Suspected Serial Killer Wayne Nance
January 04, 2021
The female victim is known in the area as “Jane Doe 3UFMT” and “Christy Crystal Creek” and is one of the three Jane Doe victims of suspected serial killer, Wayne Nance. read more
Chicago Ends 2020 With 769 Homicides as Gun Violence Surges
January 04, 2021
The number of homicides and shootings in Chicago spiked dramatically in 2020, ending with more bloodshed than in all but one year in more than two decades, statistics released by police on Friday revealed. read more
Washoe County Crime Lab Eliminates DNA Backlog
January 04, 2021
Washoe County Sheriff Darin Balaam announced that the Sheriff’s Office Forensic Science Division (Crime Lab) has completely eliminated the backlog of DNA evidence kits needing testing. read more
Applied Biosystems GlobalFiler, GlobalFiler IQC, and GlobalFiler Express PCR Amplification Kits from Thermo Fisher Scientific
December 28, 2020
Around the world, Forensic DNA labs are being asked to do more with less. This is why the Applied Biosystems GlobalFiler IQC, GlobalFiler, and GlobalFiler Express PCR amplification kits combine reduced amplification time with exceptional discrimination power, even on the most challenging sample types for Human Identification. read more
Precision ID Ancestry Panel
December 28, 2020
The Applied Biosystems Precision ID Ancestry Panel can provide you with biogeographic ancestry information and guide your investigation process. read more
Justice Dept. Charges Bombmaker in 1988 Pan Am Explosion
December 23, 2020
The Justice Department announced new charges Monday against a Libyan bombmaker in the 1988 explosion of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, an attack that killed 259 people in the air and 11 on the ground. read more
Forensic Pathologists: Over 15% of Child Deaths in South Africa are Homicides
December 23, 2020
According to official figures, around 1,000 children are murdered every year in South Africa, nearly three a day. But that statistic, horrific as it is, may be an undercount. read more
FaSTR DNA Now Available Commercially to Forensic, Research Community
December 23, 2020
Created by the same team that created STRmix, FaSTR DNA expedites the analysis of raw data generated by genetic analyzers and standard profiling kits. read more
Spain Dismantles Top Russian Organized Crime Network that Infiltrated Public Institutions
December 23, 2020
The large-scale criminal network, implicated in a number of other criminal activities including murder, drug trafficking, arms trafficking, trafficking of human beings and extortion was active across Europe, South America and the United States. read more
Forensic’s Top 10 News Articles of 2020
December 23, 2020
This year brought unprecedented challenges that sometimes felt more like a movie than real life. Despite the hardships, individuals rose to the occasion to do what they could. For forensic scientists and law enforcement professionals, that meant continuing to do what they are best at—uncovering the truth and preserving justice. read more
Researchers Turn to STR Analysis to Fight Poaching
December 21, 2020
Researchers at the Wildlife Institute of India have, for the first time, used unique DNA markers to provide forensic evidence for alleged poaching cases involving the Indian rhino. read more
Genetic Genealogy Helps Solve 1999 Cold Case Rape, Murder of Young Mother
December 21, 2020
In the investigation of the homicide of Jennifer Watkins, Parabon submitted the genetic data profile created from the unknown crime scene DNA sample collected from the pants of Jennifer Watkins to a public genetic genealogy database for comparison. read more