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CFSRE's Online Symposium To Focus on Trends in Seized Drug Analysis
The first event, Current Trends in Seized Drug Analysis, is a free, weeklong program addressing cannabis, global trends and challenges of novel psychoactive substances (designer drugs), new methods for drug screening and identification, and portable methods for on-site drug identification. read more
Discredited Bite Mark Evidence, DNA Tests Help Exonerate Eddie Lee Howard After 26 Years on Death Row
New forensic opinion regarding bite marks and powerful alibi witnesses, along with DNA testing of crime scene evidence, including blood and DNA from the murder weapon, excluded Howard, proving his innocence. read more
New Method Helps Pocket-sized DNA Sequencer Achieve Near-perfect Accuracy
Researchers have found a simple way to eliminate almost all sequencing errors produced by a widely used portable DNA sequencer, potentially enabling scientists working outside the lab to study and track microorganisms like the SARS-CoV-2 virus more efficiently. read more
U.S. Carries Out First Execution of Female Inmate Since 1953
A Kansas woman was executed Wednesday for strangling an expectant mother in Missouri and cutting the baby from her womb, the first time in nearly seven decades that the U.S. government has put to death a female inmate. read more
Study: Community-based Programs Reduce Sexual Violence
Through small, neighborhood classes, researchers at UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh and Promundo-US significantly reduced sexual violence among teenage boys living in areas of concentrated disadvantage. read more
Othram, Mississippi State Medical Examiner's Office Seek to ID Young Boy Discovered in 2014
In January 2014, contractors working along a mid-central Mississippi creek discovered a skull in a drainage canal. Initial analysis suggested that the skull belonged to a young boy and that he had been deceased for several years. read more
Victims Help FBI Take Down Human Trafficking Network
After investigators built trust with her, she told them she had met Daniel Palacios Rodriguez while trying to survive on the streets. Rodriguez groomed her for prostitution. read more
After 3 Years and $1.5 Million Testing Rape Kits, Alaska Made One New Arrest
In the state with the highest rate of sexual assault in the nation, testing the backlog of rape kits may not be enough. Many were from cases where the identity of the suspect was already known, or were opened only to find no usable DNA. read more
Alternative Light Sources, AFIS Combine to Create 'Workhorse' Workflow
A motel room in Indian River County, Florida was about to become the scene of a homicide. A big drug deal was about to go down. One man was waiting with a stash of cocaine. Two alleged buyers came into the room, but the pair didn’t intend to buy the drugs. read more
Gaining Access 101: A Simple Guide to Data Extractions
Special Feature
For law enforcement, the days of simply asking suspects for their log-in credentials and collecting data from their phones are long gone, as are the days of easily bypassing a passcode. read more
Paper: Identical Twins Don't Always Have Identical DNA
The scientists found two groups of twin pairs, one where twins share mutations and another where the developmental mutations are only present in one of them at high frequency. read more
Alaskan Law Enforcement Ignore Law Requiring DNA Collection of Violent Arrestees
Law enforcement agencies across Alaska, including in the state capital, are failing to collect DNA from people arrested for violent crimes, violating a state law passed with great fanfare in 2007 that was going to put Alaska at the leading edge of solving rape cases. read more
Restorative Justice Preferred in Small-scale Societies
In large-scale societies, it’s anonymous—judges have no repercussions. In small-scale societies, the community knows the person, needs them and wants to keep them in the fold. read more
Ballistics Link Recovered Gun to Oregon Homicide
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
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 ... read more