In a year characterized by unprecedented challenges, Gordon Thomas Honeywell Governmental Affairs (GTH-GA) took the opportunity to reflect—looking back at some of the positives and lessons learned in the forensic/law enforcement community over the past four years.
In 2017, GTH-GA launched “DNA Hit of the Year,” a global program designed to recognize the value of DNA database technology to solve and prevent crime. Every year, GTH-GA partners with a group of international judges to determine which submitted case will be recognized. Due to the pandemic, the program decided not to review new cases in 2021; but, as they say, the show must go on.
Thus, the DNA Hit of the Year program took the pandemic-caused opportunity to reflect on cases that were submitted in the previous four years but not selected by the judges as the Hit of the Year.
“The top case selected at each year is certainly a key part of the Hit of the Year program, however, to me, the Hit of the Year is so much more,” said Tim Schellberg, President of GTH-GA. “It’s about the hundreds of cases submitted that we all collectively learn from.”
This year, a panel of previous Hit of the Year judges, crime lab experts and police personnel all come together—virtually—to discuss how DNA databases changed the course of four special cases, getting them back on the path toward justice.
The father of DNA typing
The forensic scientists in one of the cases, out of the UK, went to extreme, unique lengths to solve a 1988 rape and robbery. They ended up going back into Sir Alec Jeffreys crime lab, resurrecting the equipment he used, finding his colleague from 30 years ago and completely recreating Jeffreys’ RFLP system to nab the rapist.
“Forensic DNA archeology is the best way to describe this case,” said an impressed Jeffreys, who discovered the original DNA typing techniques in 1984.
Forensic will reveal more about that case on Wednesday, as it is presented during the HIDS Conference May 19, for which registration is still open. In the meantime, let’s take a look at two other cases that will be profiled during the 2021 Hit of the Year Program this week.
Forensic DNA archeology is the best way to describe this case.
Sir Alec Jeffreys
‘Most Hits Ever Recorded’
Authorities in South Africa were justifiably flabbergasted when the DNA sample of a man convicted of common assault hit to 25 separate rape cases tied to an unknown suspect. Philippa Webb, DNA scientist for the South African Police Services, called it a “watershed case for the South African DNA database.”
Between 2011 and 2016, a serial rapist in Cape Town raped over 30 women. The authorities knew it was the same man, but did not have a suspect. At the time, South Africa also did not have a DNA database but they were in the process of building one—something the rapist did not know. Gathering DNA from each rape kit, the government entered the samples into what would become the intelligence database, unknown DNA profiles collected from crime scenes.
In 2013, the rapist was arrested on assault changes and sentenced to 11 months in prison. His DNA was entered into the Convicted Offenders Index and subsequently ran against the Intelligence Database, returning a hit to 25 separate rapes.
“It is probably the most hits ever recorded on one offender anywhere in the world,” said Webb. “We couldn’t believe after 5 years we were finally able to link a reference sample to so many cases.”
Ultimately, Webb and her team were able to tie the suspect via a full DNA profile to 30 rapes over six years.
Familial searching
In 1995, a young girl in Sweden was raped. The perpetrator left a DNA sample on the girl’s t-shirt, but at the time, there was no database for experts to compare it with.
“The case was kept for the future because we knew DNA technology would develop,” said Christina Widen, CODIS Administrator at the Swedish National Forensic Services.
Forensic scientists analyzed the DNA sample from the t-shirt in 1999 and 2003, but they were still unable to make a match. Over the years, they profiled it several times, but still nothing. That all changed in 2019 once the Swedish courts ruled in favor of the use of familial searching.
Widen said her lab was hopeful the courts would approve familial searching, so they had already spent time drafting best practices and standard operating procedures. They also educated the police, so they would understand the lab’s results and proceed accordingly.
With everything ready to go ahead of time, Widen and her team were able to solve this case very quickly after familial searching was made legal, making it the first to be solved through the use of the technique.
Sweden uses a very high likelihood ratios in familial searching, so when Widen and her team ran the sample, only 5 candidates came back as a possible parent or child.
In the end, the top candidate was the son of the rapist.
Editor’s note: Check back Wednesday and next week as we continue to detail unique cases profiled in the 2021 Hit of the Year program. Up next is a return to basics at Alec Jeffreys lab, followed by a 48-hour case in Colorado that is informing the next generation of DNA policy in the Philippines.