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SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2009
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NEWS ABOUT: DNA evidence

DNA evidence stories: 36 news summaries

1 - 20 of 36 Stories | 1 2 Next >>

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(Newser) - FBI forensics experts found a blood stain in the shape of a child in fetal position in the trunk of Casey Anthony’s car, according to newly released documents. One intelligence analyst pointed out the silhouette in an email to another bureau employee last September. “You can make out... More »

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murder • forensics • DNA evidence • Casey Anthony • Caylee Anthony

 Clark Tried to 
 Cover His Tracks 
 as Cops Searched 

DNA evidence led to arrest for Annie Le's murder

Sep 18, 09 7:37 AM CDT
(Newser) - Before his arrest, murder suspect Raymond Clark tried to cover his tracks even as FBI agents and police searched the Yale lab where he worked. Clark, who has been charged with the murder of grad student Annie Le, was seen cleaning areas where Le had been before she died and... More »

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FBI • murder • Connecticut • DNA evidence • Yale • Annie Le • Raymond Clark • lab technician

 DNA Evidence 'Easy to Fake' 


Aug 18, 09 4:57 AM CDT
(Newser) - Think DNA evidence is foolproof? In fact, it's so easy to fabricate that "any biology undergrad" could engineer a crime scene, claim scientists in Israel. Raising troubling implications for a legal system that treats DNA as a gold standard, the scientists have demonstrated that DNA samples are vulnerable to... More »

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Israel • DNA • DNA evidence • crime scene

(Newser) - Some 18 years after a Pennsylvania camp counselor was shot in the head and raped as she died, cops have charged the son of a famed Metropolitan Opera bass with the brutal murder, the New York Post reports. Jeffrey Plishka, 46, has long been suspected of the crime, and... More »

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New York City • murder • rape • Pennsylvania • Metropolitan Opera • DNA evidence • summer camp • Jeffrey Plishka • Paul Plishka • Laura Ronning

(AP) - The FBI says DNA testing confirms that a 54-year-old Michigan man is not a toddler kidnapped in Long Island in 1955. John Barnes is not Stephen Damman, who disappeared at age 2 from outside an East Meadow bakery while his mother shopped. Barnes says he has long suspected the couple... More »

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FBI • Michigan • missing child • DNA evidence • John Barnes • Stephen Damman

(AP) - The Supreme Court said today that convicts have no constitutional right to test DNA evidence in hopes of proving their innocence long after they were found guilty of a crime. The court ruled 5-4, with the conservative justices in the majority, against William Osborne, an Alaska man convicted in a... More »

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John Roberts • DNA • John Paul Stevens • US Supreme Court • DNA evidence • evidence • William Osborne

LA Cops Arrest Suspected
Serial Killer
From '70s, '80s

72-year-old may have killed 30 women

Apr 30, 09 5:57 PM CDT
(Newser) - Los Angeles police say a 72-year-old insurance claims adjuster may in fact be the city's "most prolific serial killer," the Los Angeles Times reports. The suspect, John Floyd Thomas, may have killed up to 30 older women and raped scores more during two separate rampages in the 1970s... More »

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crime • Los Angeles • serial killers • DNA evidence • serial rapists

Move Over, Police Sketches: DNA's On the Case

Forensic phenotyping works, but is it ethical?

Mar 27, 09 10:02 AM CDT
(Newser) - The old-fashioned police sketch could soon be obsolete, the Wall Street Journal reports, thanks to DNA forensic phenotyping, an increasingly popular technique that uses crime-scene DNA to describe a suspect. So far, labs can only determine details such as ethnicity and physical traits, but that alone has helped in... More »

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DNA • forensics • DNA evidence • digital forensics

Sloppy DNA Work Creates Myth of Phantom Serial Killer

Female 'suspect' now believed to have been employee at DNA swab factory

Mar 27, 09 9:13 AM CDT
(Newser) - Embarrassed German cops may soon call off their hunt for a notorious female serial killer, the Times of London reports. DNA from a suspect dubbed "the woman without a face” has been found at dozens of crime scenes across Europe, including stranglings and shootings, but detectives now believe the... More »

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Germany • DNA • forensics • serial killers • DNA evidence • crime scene • Howard Stern Grid

Texas Could
See First-Ever Posthumous Exoneration

DNA evidence vindicates dead convict

Feb 1, 09 2:09 PM CST
(Newser) - A hearing this week could result in Texas’ first-ever posthumous exoneration based on DNA evidence, the AP reports. Tim Cole, who died of a heart attack in prison in 1999, was convicted in the 1985 rape of a Texas Tech student. But an imprisoned rapist’s recent admission of guilt,... More »

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Texas • prison • rape • wrongful conviction • exonerate • DNA evidence

 Remains Resemble Caylee 


Dec 12, 08 1:29 PM CST
(Newser) - A former attorney for Caylee Anthony's grandparents says investigators think the remains of a young child found near her home belong to the missing 3-year-old, the Orlando Sentinel reports. But a lawyer for the Sherriff’s Department said they have not yet made even a tentative identification of the... More »

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FBI • remains • attorney • DNA evidence • identification • Casey Anthony • Caylee Anthony • investigators

DNA Led Cops to Pressly Murder Suspect

Officials say forensics tie man to anchor's murder, teacher's rape

Nov 29, 08 5:40 AM CST
(Newser) - Police in Little Rock say forensic evidence led them to a suspect in the murder of news anchor Anne Pressly, reports KATV. A DNA sample from Pressly's home matched DNA found at the scene of an unsolved rape in Marianna, 90 miles away. Marianna police pointed investigators to rape suspect... More »

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Arkansas • murder • rape • forensics • Little Rock, Arkansas • DNA evidence • news anchor • Anne Pressly

Dallas DA Makes Waves by Overturning Convictions

DA makes waves with quest to root out wrongful convictions

Nov 15, 08 6:34 AM CST
(Newser) - Craig Watkins is becoming famous for something rather unusual for a district attorney: getting people out of jail, the Wall Street Journal reports. The Dallas County prosecutor is painstakingly going through hundreds of convictions secured by his predecessors, using DNA evidence to overturn wrongful convictions. His Conviction Integrity Unit has... More »

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Texas • Dallas • justice • wrongful conviction • exonerate • innocence • district attorney • DNA evidence • Craig Watkins

Fossett Died in Crash: Calif. DNA Report

Widow hopes this 'puts a definitive end' to speculation

Nov 3, 08 5:41 PM CST
(Newser) - California officials today identified two large bones found near a Sierra Nevada crash site as Steve Fossett's, the Fresno Bee reports. The Madera County Sheriff refused to say which of the adventurer's bones were found, to avoid hurting the family further, reports the AP. "I am hopeful that the... More »

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Steve Fossett • remains • DNA evidence • Sierra Nevada

DNA Results Shed Little Light on Caylee Case 

Labs see evidence of 'decompositional event' in chloroform-soaked car trunk

Oct 24, 08 5:02 PM CDT
(Newser) - No positive identification of Caylee Anthony’s body could be made from DNA analysis of evidence gathered from her mother’s car trunk, the Orlando Sentinel reports today. However, investigators found “an unusually large concentration of chloroform.” Odor analysis yielded hints of a “decompositional event that could... More »

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Florida • hair • odor • Oak Ridge National Laboratory • DNA evidence • Casey Anthony • Caylee Anthony

 Senate Grills FBI 
 on Anthrax, Ivins 

Lawmakers raise doubts that suspect acted alone

Sep 17, 08 2:02 PM CDT
(Newser) - Senators cast strong doubts today on the FBI's conclusion that Bruce Ivins acted alone in the 2001 anthrax scare, reports the Washington Post, with many demanding a more public vetting of the investigation into America’s largest bioterror attack. "There are others out there who should be... More »

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investigation • FBI • Robert Mueller • Patrick Leahy • anthrax • DNA evidence • Bruce Ivins • bioterrorism

 Men Admit Bigfoot Hoax 


Aug 19, 08 9:11 PM CDT
(Newser) - Bigfoot hunters will just have to keep looking. Two Georgia men’s story about finding Sasquatch has—surprise!—turned out to be a hoax, Cox News Service reports. Their ruse fell apart when a block of ice containing the “body” melted—leaving behind a rubber monkey suit. The... More »

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Georgia • monkey • bigfoot • Sasquatch • DNA evidence • hoaxer • costume

Ga. Men Claim to Have
Found Bigfoot

Body, photos, DNA among 'proof' to be presented tomorrow

Aug 14, 08 10:55 AM CDT
(Newser) - Two Georgia men claim to have found a Bigfoot, and say they'll release evidence tomorrow at a press conference, LiveScience reports. Whether they'll display the alleged carcass or simply photographs is unknown, but a well-known Bigfoot hoaxer speaking on their behalf said the body will be studied in a secure,... More »

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Georgia • press conference • bigfoot • Sasquatch • DNA evidence • hoaxer

 Did We Slaughter
 the Neanderthals?

DNA probe sheds light on early humans' doom 

Aug 8, 08 8:20 AM CDT
(Newser) - Analysis of DNA from a thigh bone is helping solve the longstanding question of what happened to Neanderthals. Did they simply die off, were they killed by more modern humans—or did the two groups interbreed? DNA from the Neanderthal bone is so different from that of modern humans that... More »

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human evolution • Neanderthals • prehistoric • DNA evidence

 DNA Links Scientist
 to Anthrax Attacks

Anthrax traced to flask in Ivins' Maryland lab

Aug 4, 08 6:16 AM CDT
(Newser) - Investigators have DNA evidence that links biodefense expert Bruce Ivins to the deadly 2001 anthrax attacks, but the case is largely circumstantial, the New York Times reports. Prosecutors have linked the anthrax used in mailings targeting news networks, newspapers, and Congress with a flask used by Ivins at his Maryland... More »

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anthrax • DNA evidence • 9/11 attacks • Bruce Ivins • bioterrorism • Fort Detrick • US Army Medical Institute of Infectious Diseases • biodefense

1 - 20 of 36 Stories | 1 2 Next >>


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