Come April 2020, there will be another choice of forensic laboratory—one that is unique in its goals, mission and business model. The Utah Cold Case Coalition announced last month it is building the first nonprofit forensic lab in the nation called Intermountain Forensics.
The Utah Cold Case Coalition, headed by Salt Lake attorney Karra Porter, formed in late 2017 to bring attention to the 1995 unsolved case of Rosie Tapia, a 6-year-old girl taken from her bedroom, murdered and dumped in a nearby canal. Since then, the coalition has helped introduce legislation to create a cold case database in Utah. Now, Porter has turned her sights on a different type of forensic laboratory.
Dan Hellwig, who worked with Sorenson Forensics for a decade and has helped Salt Lake police with a number of high-profile murder investigations, will be the lab director.
“I’m coming from both the public and private sector,” Hellwig told Forensic Magazine. “I’m on board and passionate about this project because I am hoping it is the perfect merge of the two.”
At public labs, bureaucracy, politics and red tape often come into play, Hellwig said; whereas private labs must focus on profit if they are to be successful. While the non-profit lab will look a lot like a private DNA testing lab, a crucial difference will be the availability of multiple revenue streams.
“We can charge as minimal as we can for a case that keeps our lights on, but we can supplement that with donations,” Hellwig explained. “We are going to try to think outside the box with this lab business model—if it works, we’ll try it all over. The only restriction is how much we can do at any given time. The whole idea is to make this into a system that can be easily cloned and expanded upon.”
Types of cases
Roughly 200,000 cases of homicide and non-negligent manslaughter have gone unsolved from 1980 to 2018, according to estimates from data courtesy of the FBI. There isn’t even data for sexual assault cases, although it is predicted to be in the hundreds of thousands as well—more than cold cases.
Intermountain Forensics will devote much of it’s time to testing DNA from cold cases as well as sexual assault cases in Utah and throughout the nation.
“The need is always there from a resource side,” Hellwig said. “The backlog for cold cases and sexual assault cases will still be there and it’s just getting worse. We thought, ‘maybe it’s time to apply some new leverage toward that problem.’”
In addition to DNA testing, the lab will also take on case consultation, a service Hellwig is extremely passionate about. In his previous lab experiences, he has had little to no interaction with law enforcement—something that doesn’t help the already-large knowledge gap between law enforcement and the forensic lab.
Hellwig’s version of the forensic lab is interactive—the lab accepts cases and then talks through the evidence with the submitters. The lab will help law enforcement and lawyers understand the results they are getting, as well as take the time to work with them to chose the correct avenues to explore based on those results.
Opening the lab
Intermountain Forensics's goal is to put efficiency, cutting-edge, and affordability first and foremost. Through generous donations, the lab is already outfitted with some of the most advanced DNA technology available today, including the MiSeq FGx Forensic Genomics System from Illumina, as well as automated extraction equipment from QIAGEN.
“We’re embracing Massively Paralleled Sequencing (MPS),” Hellwig said. “I think it’s one of those things that is going to be the staple of forensics in 10 years. That being said, the traditional DNA testing pathways are still there. Regardless, we are not buying used equipment. We will be working with state-of-the-art equipment.”
The lab building is currently under construction, but getting close to viable. Instrumentation and equipment have already been delivered, waiting to be unpacked. Hellwig anticipates starting evaluations and validations around January/February 2020, and with any luck, be ready to accept casework in April, even if accreditation hasn’t come through just yet.
Hellwig and the lab have already gotten inquires about case submission and case consultation, so they are on the right path. Given start-up costs, the lab will initially operate with two or three forensic scientists, before going online and “letting the market tell us how big to become.”
“This business model gives us the ability to proactively go for some cutting-edge technologies and get online quickly in a manner similar to how private labs conduct operations online. We can use a variety of different funding streams to keep the lights on, but still give the community as affordable an option as possible. There’s just so much work out there—more resources are good,” Hellwig said.
Photo: The MiSeq FGx Forensic Genomics System from Illumina ready to be removed from the crate at Intermountain Forensics. Credit: The Utah Cold Case Coalition