Cold Case DNA

07/28/2022

Interesting implications for cold cases that might be solved by DNA. (This wouldn't apply to murder, which has no statute of limitations, but would apply to other death charges such as manslaughter.) Many states have a special SOL for cases involving DNA, recognizing advancements not available when the crime was committed. The New Jersey Supreme Court recently ruled that NJ law enforcement must test DNA and seek a match timely. (The case involved CODIS, but genetic genealogy might be subject to the same analysis.) The 5-year SOL began running as soon as police: 1) had crime scene DNA, and 2) the defendant's DNA (specifically, when a match could have been found in CODIS). By waiting longer to submit a profile to CODIS, the charges were too late. DNA testing may have to be sped up. New Jersey v. Thompson, 2022.

06/11/2022

06/02/2022

Proud that our lab Intermountain Forensics and genealogists have given answers to this family.

We are honored to have helped identify Peggy Dodd after 38 years. https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=392322809604889&id=100064815187856&sfnsn=mo Fort Bend County's cold case unit is passionate about giving families answers. Thank you to our volunteer genetic genealogists team leader Alison Wilde, Alyssa Ellis, Lindsay Dudzick, and Wendy McLean! Super proud (as always) of Intermountain Forensics.

05/23/2022

Check out our Director of Lab Development Danny Hellwig discussing the latest on forensic genetic genealogy (which we call Forensic Investigative Genetic Genealogy, or FIGG). Check out this free webinar with the latest in Golden State Killer-type testing!

The final webinar in our series is "Decoding the Laboratory Options for Genetic Genealogy" presented by Danny Hellwig of Intermountain Forensics on Wednesday, May 25th at 10:00am CDT/11am EDT/4pm GMT.

In this session, you will learn about:

*Pros and cons of various laboratory instrumentation, processes, and profiles
*A big-picture view of FGG bridging the forensic DNA and genealogy research communities
*Targeted SNP assays, the use of microarrays, and other genome sequencing options
*Cross-professional technologies and methodologies

Register for the webinar here: https://bit.ly/3sUsVdg

05/22/2022

The North Carolina Supreme Court has ruled that a defendant may seek post-conviction DNA testing even if he originally pled guilty. One reason? Because many innocent people plead guilty:

"Of the 2,997 documented cases since 1989 in which individuals who have been exonerated after having been wrongfully convicted, 672—or over 22 percent —involved guilty pleas… An innocent person may plead guilty to the commission of a criminal offense for a number of perfectly understandable reasons. For example, an innocent defendant may elect to plead guilty to avoid the risks and uncertainties associated with a trial that may result in a more severe sentence than the one offered by the prosecutor pursuant to a plea agreement. In addition, entering a guilty plea provides the defendant with more control over the sentence and facilitates an outcome that is more predictable than what a judge and jury may decide to do. Finally, defendants often plead guilty out of pure fear that they will be treated more harshly if they insist upon pleading not guilty and going to trial… [I]n a potentially capital case like this one, an innocent defendant may be confronted with the difficult choice of falsely pleading guilty and serving time in prison, or risking execution… [E]ven though they were innocent, they faced the likelihood of being convicted of capital offenses and sought to avoid the death penalty, even at the price of life imprisonment."

04/24/2022

Interesting legal argument rejected by a New York trial court. The defense sought to exclude 2003 DNA testing on the grounds that methods have substantially advanced since then. The trial court denied the motion, noting that the method used in 2003 is still used by many labs today, and:

"Certainly, there have been advances in the field of DNA testing since 2003, as there have been in many scientific areas, however, those advances do not invalidate tests conducted in accordance with the standards and technology existing at the time of testing. In short, the Court cannot apply 2022 standards to testing completed in 2003. The fact that the DNA sample has degraded does not require that the 2003 tests be suppressed. The defendant may, of course, choose to present evidence at the time of trial of the advances in the DNA testing field since 2003." (People v. Campos, 2022 NY Slip Op 22071)

04/08/2022

Exciting news - Accredited whole genome sequencing + bioinformatics - from our laboratory, Intermountain Forensics. Game changer!

*EXCITING NEWS!* We are pleased to announce that our nonprofit laboratory now offers forensic whole genome sequencing! This is the kind of DNA testing used in cases like the Golden State Killer. It produces a profile based on SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms), which can be uploaded to GEDmatch PRO and FamilyTreeDNA. After that, specially trained genealogists can identify possible leads.

This is a key service for identifying bodies and persons of interest. We had been outsourcing it, but thanks to an anonymous group, we partnered with Illumina to acquire a NovaSeq 6000 Sequencing system, the most powerful whole genome sequencing instrument in the world. With the NovaSeq, our lab adds a massively powerful tool to our investigative DNA toolbox. This announcement had been planned for April 25 – 3rd anniversary of when we announced our plans to found a nonprofit laboratory – but we’re just too excited and we already have clients, so…

*MORE BIG NEWS!* Accreditation is a long, arduous process in which all aspects of a laboratory’s operations – processes, policies, equipment, etc. – are independently evaluated by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). Accreditation is important not only for transparency, but also for cases that might end up in court, where Accreditation is the standard and is expected. We are already Accredited as a forensic laboratory, but we are pleased to announce that we have applied to expand our Accreditation to specifically include forensic SNPs. We expect this process to be completed in the next month or so. Intermountain Forensics will be the only Accredited forensic laboratory offering whole genome sequencing.

*AND MORE!* We've teamed with Kevin Lord of Saber Investigations to provide bioinformatics. (Bioinformatics is part of the process to make a whole genome sequence suitable for forensic use.) Kevin has been providing bioinformatics to forensic labs and genealogists for years, producing dozens of successful identifications. Kevin is a groundbreaker like us!

Along with other services we were already providing (STR, YSTR, Kintelligence, etc.), we now offer among the most comprehensive forensic DNA services in the country. This was hard to imagine three years ago, when a group of volunteers announced ambitious plans to found a laboratory to help make DNA testing more accessible. We are passionate about the cause!

04/06/2022

Leading up to BIG announcements starting tomorrow, we can't resist a short video showing the beginnings of our nonprofit DNA laboratory...

03/19/2022

Our lab (Intermountain Forensics) checking in samples from the Tulsa 1921 Race Massacre. We are so honored to be working on this historic and important case.

03/03/2022

Those who have been following the work of our lab have known that we have been chosen for this project for some time. We have been prepping for several months now and next week the remains will be arriving at our lab Intermountain Forensics.

Intermountain Forensics, a non-profit DNA forensics lab in Utah, was chosen to identify the remains of 14 possible victims of the Tulsa Massacre of 1921, which destroyed lives and the Black community known as “Black Wall Street. ” “We need to find out who these people are and bring...

02/26/2022

An update and a thank you from our Nonprofit DNA lab for letting us be of assistance...

Thank you to DealDash for helping fund this valiant effort to find Susan. Use the promo code HEAVYDSPARKS for a bonus worth $10 when making your first bid pa...