Connecticut Attorney General William Tong has sent a letter of inquiry to 23andMe after a data breach last month, expressing concerns about the fallout, as well as the possible ethnicity implications of the stolen data.
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Approximately 3,000 kits have been located and will be tested as part of this initiative. Many of these kits pre-dated the advent of DNA technologies.
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Eventually, due to the quality of the DNA samples preserved from the crime scene in conjunction with the advances of forensic science, additional investigative opportunities presented themselves.
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Clearing the backlog and testing the kits has helped solve at least 21 sexual assault cases—a number that is not exhaustive and will grow over time.
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Authorities can confirm 14-year-old Rashell Ward was murdered by Johnny Lee Coy, who was not a suspect at the time but did have a violent criminal history.
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New York’s highest court on Tuesday ruled police can resume a DNA searching method that can identify relatives of potential suspects, a technique that has helped solve crimes but caused privacy concerns.
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The purpose of “Missing in Florida Day” is not only to raise awareness of those who are missing, but to enter more missing persons cases into the current system so they may be found and identified.
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On Tuesday, Perry Lott was exonerated in Ada, Oklahoma, after 35 years of wrongful conviction and 30 years of incarceration for a 1987 rape and burglary.
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A variety of resources and teams had to come together to investigate a sexual assault case in San Marcos that had gone cold.
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In Washington, D.C., under current law, the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) is only required to collect and deliver sexual assault kits to the Department of Forensic Sciences (DFS) if an assault has been reported to MPD.
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Nearly six years later, in November of 1996, a hunter discovered some skeletal remains in a wooded section of Hanover, New Hampshire. A search of that area resulted in the recovery of additional human bones.
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In 1987, the child was abducted near his home in the city of Vallejo. Four days after the child went missing, his body was discovered on Sherman Island in Sacramento County.
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Researchers and investigators will work to reduce the 3,440 sexual assault kit backlog, better understand the perpetrators of sexual violence, develop victim and survivor centered responses to sexual violence, and provide training programs for law enforcement investigating sexual assaults.
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Detectives with the Michigan State Police First District Cold Case Unit have identified a suspect in the 1982 murder of 16-year-old Kimberly Louiselle—the same man responsible for the 1983 rape and murder of Christina Castiglione.
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A ProPublica investigation highlighted a critical collection of evidence and inspired a law to preserve it. Now, that evidence has been used to charge a man with three rapes.
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