http://www.marketwatch.com/story/sorenson-forensics-to-set-up-nigerias-first-forensic-dna-laboratory-2012-01-11

http://www.sorensonforensics.com/downloads/IMC_CSI_MYTH.pdf

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705395141/Real-forensic-scientists-shake-their-heads-at-TV-CSI-counterparts.html

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/52721825-78/zambia-dna-forensic-forensics.html.csp

Laval, Quebec, September 19, 2011 – Warnex Inc. (TSX: WNX) announced today that its subsidiary, Warnex PRO-DNA Services, located in Thunder Bay, Ontario, has launched PRO-DNA® Lead, a new investigative DNA testing service. Warnex has signed an exclusive agreement with Sorenson Forensics, a forensic DNA testing company based in Salt Lake City, Utah, to offer this new service in Canada.

“We are pleased to collaborate with Sorenson Forensics to offer this new service to investigators and law enforcement agencies across Canada,” said Mark Busgang, President and CEO of Warnex. “PRO-DNA® Lead can provide valuable information to help further investigations, particularly in cases that have had no hits in CODIS and have reached a dead end.”

“We are excited to begin a collaboration with Warnex, the premier forensic DNA testing firm in Canada,” said Tim Kupferschmid, Executive Director of Sorenson Forensics. “In addition to helping solve cold cases, PRO-DNA® Lead can also assist in the identification of unknown victims.”

Warnex’s PRO-DNA® Lead service can provide investigative leads by determining the ancestral background of a suspect or victim based on crime scene samples. PRO-DNA® Lead uses DNA markers called Ancestry Informative Markers (AIM) to ascertain an individual’s genetic ancestry. AIMs are composed of single base pair polymorphisms (SNP) in DNA sequences that vary between human populations.

PRO-DNA® Lead analyzes the affinity of an unknown human DNA sample to 5 reference populations (West Europe, East Asia, West Africa, Indigenous America and India Subcontinent) to determine the individual’s genetic ancestry and provide a clue as to the individual’s physical appearance.

For more information on this service and Warnex’s other forensic services, visit www.prodna.ca.

https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/235190.pdf

Judge hears DNA testimony in hearing for ’98 murder
By aaron falk

The Salt Lake Tribune

Published: June 15, 2011 07:24PM
Updated: June 16, 2011 09:50AM
A DNA expert says the most conservative probability of the biological sample taken from under Anna Palmer’s fingernails belonging to anyone other than her accused killer is “one in 11 million.”

Dan Hellwig, a DNA specialist with Sorenson Forensics in Salt Lake City, was one of several people to testify in 3rd District Court on Wednesday, the second day of a preliminary hearing for Matthew John Breck.

Breck, 32, faces a charge of aggravated murder, a crime punishable by death, in the 1998 slaying of 10-year-old Anna Palmer. He has also been charged with aggravated sex abuse of a child, a first-degree felony, and inflicting serious injury on a child, a second-degree felony.

Palmer’s mother, Nancy Palmer, stayed away from the courtroom most of Wednesday, as police and medical experts testified to the gruesome details of the Sept. 10, 1998, killing.

Deputy Chief Medical Examiner Edward A. Leis said Anna suffered five stab wounds to her throat, some so deep they hit her vertebrae and severed her spinal cord.

Leis performed the autopsy the morning after Anna’s mother found her bleeding to death on the porch of their Salt Lake City home, near 1600 South and 300 East.

After the autopsy, Leis gave detectives a number of evidence samples including: pet food and plant material found on her body, clothes, hairs, fibers, blood — and fingernail clippings.

Nearly a decade later, those fingernail clippings from the girl’s right hand pointed police to Breck, who lived down the street from Palmer in 1998.

Breck was serving time in an Idaho prison for sodomy/lewdness of a minor when officers collected samples from him in 2010.

Hellwig said the samples matched the DNA profile found on the girl.

The three-day preliminary hearing was slated to run through Thursday. Attorneys on both sides, however, agreed to continue the third day of testimony to accommodate a witness who was recovering from surgery.

At the completion of the hearing, Judge Judith Atherton will decide if there is enough evidence to order Breck to stand trial on the charges.

afalk@sltrib.com

Link – http://connect2utah.com/news-story?nxd_id=147497

As DNA science continues to evolve now tests are more complete and can answer more questions in criminal investigations.  They can even figure out where people come from and that might prove handy in the most mysterious of cases.  They can’t tell police what race a suspect is beyond a doubt, but most results give them a pretty good idea.

“DNA has done something that for much of human history was unimaginable,” said University of Utah law professor Daniel Medwed.  “It can detect with a degree of scientific certainty, who did it.”

Using DNA in criminal investigations has become as normal as speaking to witnesses.

“This type of test goes beyond traditional forensic DNA tests,” said Tim Kupferschmid with Sorenson Forensics.  “(The test can) At least tell the law enforcement officers if they’re looking for someone with an African ancestry or a European ancestry or east Asian ancestry.”

The test is called investigative lead.  Using the company’s data base with more than 100 thousand DNA samples technicians can determine if a person’s ancestors came from western Europe, eastern Asia, western Africa, the Indian subcontinent or indigenous America.

“(It can) certainly include or exclude someone from a case we’re investigating,” said Lt. Justin Hoyal of the Unified Police Department.

Hoyal said this isn’t the kind of test they would use every day.  But it can help when you look at old cold cases or the murder of Sherry Black in South Salt Lake. In the Black murder police say there are a lot of clues, but no suspects.  This test might refocus an investigation.

Since police have DNA, they can positively identify a suspect or rule someone out.  Medwed places this test in the category of profilers and composite sketches, that is Information that never makes it to trial.

“Are those things necessarily reliable and accurate?  No,” Medwed said.  “But they can help speed up the investigative process and that’s a good thing.”

But Medwed said most advancements come with a cost and when you can potentially peg a suspects race before you know their name, it’s something our society should consider.

“There are many people who might belong to a particular race who may not necessarily look as if they belong to that race,” Medwed said.  “The problem with any lead, it can create tunnel vision.”

Also the test is not a slam dunk. Take Tiger Woods for example.  His parents had different racial back grounds and his DNA would likely show African, East Asian and Indian Subcontinent ancestry, possibly European too.

Kupferschmid says the science will only get better.  While humans see race, the tests are color-blind.

“That’s just who you are,” he said.  “There’s no profiling about it.”

This test is being used in the Sherry Black murder case, but South Salt Lake police have not released the results if they have them.

This specialized DNA analysis costs around $2000.   Police say that’s a drop in the bucket in a murder investigation that can command hundreds of man hours.  It is not something they will likely order in every case, only those with a high degree of mystery.

Sorenson Forensics Identifies Remains of the Mother of Zulu’s King

Source:biowire