DNA Lady: February 2012 Archives

Goose Creek, SC - sound like a sleepy little town with wooden rockers on front porches and wheat blowing in the wind.  However, both the police department and the local DNA testing facilities have once again facilitated the quick capture of a criminal through the collective efforts.

Goose Creek, SC police recognize the need for a Private Forensic laboratory.  The state funded labs are usually over worked, underfunded and in some cases may be not up to par on equipment and the newest accreditations.  Whereas, Intelligenetics, has to maintain a strict level of performance in order to maintain their accreditations in the DNA Testing Industry.  Accreditation and strict adherence to protocol are what sets most private forensic laboratories apart from the state funded and/or non-accredited DNA sites popping up all over the internet.  As with the DNA Lady in New Jersey, when you call Intelligenetics, you are speaking with an owner who has a personal interest in provided the best of care to your case - whether it be a forensic case, a private paternity test or the more intriguing infidelity testing.

Below is a newspaper's account on the recent assistance provided by Intelligenetics to the local authorities which expedited the capture of a bank robber using today's most of to date methodology of collecting DNA.

There is a monstrous backlog at the state crime lab. At times, more than 4,000 DNA samples from crimes across the state are waiting to be processed at the State Law Enforcement Division lab.

A local police department is tired of playing the state's waiting game and has found another way to solve crimes, using their own budget to fund forensic science.

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The crime scene is First Federal Bank on St. James Avenue in Goose Creek, which was robbed in May 2011.

In the surveillance video, a man in line shows the teller a note to hand over the money. Crimes like this one happen so quickly, but often take months of police work. Using DNA Forensic evidence, DNA, can speed up the process.

"It's a brilliant science," said Capt. Dave Soderberg with the Goose Creek Police Department. "And it's very exact."

Soderberg and his team take sealed packets from their evidence room, headed not to the SLED lab in Columbia, but instead to Intelligenetics, a private accredited lab in Hilton Head Island. Goose Creek police pay for this testing and get test results back in days.

While the SLED lab is free, the wait time can be eight to 10 months, time Soderberg says the bad guys are out there committing more crimes.

For the past year, the Goose Creek Police Department has funded its own forensics. In the First Federal Bank case, police had an arrest warrant six days after the suspect leaned on the bank counter.

"When he did that he left some of his DNA where his arms made contact with the counter top he left some of his DNA," said Dr. Daniel Dremers, director of Intelligenetics.

So how do police know who left the DNA on the counter? The suspect wasn't the only person at the bank counter. The man in front of the alleged suspect also left his DNA on the counter. Crime scene investigators say that in this particular case, when the robber leans in to show his message to the teller, he is taking away some of the first man's DNA and leaving a lot more of his behind. DNA samples will be a mixture, but most will be from the last man there.  Intelligenetics is able to separate Y Chromosomes and develop separate male profiles, as long as the two males are not related.

In this case, police got more DNA evidence from the suspect's sunglasses, which were found outside the bank.

DNA can't been seen by the naked eye, but a good crime scene investigator can collect thousands of microscopic human cells. It only takes 15 to 20 to make a solid case.

"The DNA that we're interested in is on that swab," Demers said.

Demers' job is to analyze the cells people leave behind.

"It could be a handgun and there may be more than one person that's handled the gun and for some reason they think one person might be on the trigger and somebody else be on the magazine within the gun," Demers said.

The DNA is a person's blueprint and is unique to that individual.

"(In this case) it matched our suspect here perfectly," Soderberg said.

Fingerprints are also unique to us. Before DNA testing, police were frustrated when prints were smeared, but that isn't the case anymore.

"Now we know we can wipe or swab those areas and we can get that DNA," Soderberg said.

Not every Goose Creek crime will get this treatment. The department has to decide which cases will get the most bang for the taxpayer's buck. Sodoerberg believes private DNA testing saves money in the long run by getting criminals off the streets quickly and fingering the right suspect.

"It makes sure proof positive that the guilty are guilty and the innocent are innocent which is very important to us," Soderberg said.

The Hilton Head lab has a regional database called "Rodis," which identified a suspect in another Goose Creek case. Police went to the man's house and found a second suspect, the gun used in the crime and stolen goods.

Last year, the department paid $8,000 for DNA analysis.  A small sum considering the damage these suspects create and fear they inflect on their victims.

Linda Passarella, this months guest blogger, has contributed the following.  Linda is a local New Jersey resident with a keen interest in all things fossil, ancient and unidentified.  Linda is passionate about identifying these items and continues to spend her personal time and money on gaining concrete answers to her findings.

“YES” TERRESTRIALS, INDIANS AND COWBOYS “WERE” NEIGHBORS. THE “LENAPE RED RECORDS” THEY ARE  “NOT A HOAX” PICTOGRAPHS PICS FOUND IN NEW JERSEY

             The DaVinci code is practically cracked.  Knowing and telling the truth is the American way and should never be put to a vote; it should be a natural reaction for any intelligent species. My name is Linda Passarella and  I am a “studying”  New Jersey's Geologist, Paleontologist, Archeologist and I am a Peacemaker.  I have been told by the State, as an American, that I am allowed to believe in what I wish to believe about this subject.  I respect them highly for this freedom.

         With great respect, honesty, and dignity I would like to announce that I have found over 5000 Dinosaur claws  with hair, and teeth intact preserved in clay.  In addition to Lenape Indian artifacts over 4 years ago with pictures called pictographs. The artifacts are called Petroglyphs and have been aired on TVs History and Nova channels. Petroglyphs are not just in caves and on large mountains but are also on what we see as some ordinary rocks. They have carvings of Terrestrials inside Spaceships and are also tattooed with pictures by the Lenape Indians (Turtle Tribe ”Unami). I have been to my Musuem several times mediating with the authorities to be allowed to show people and tell humankind what I have found. So far I have been treated extremely fair on the Terrestrial circumstances and they are listening with an open ear. My artifacts have pictures of the Turtle, Wolf, and Turkey showing a United Lenape Indian Delaware Nation all on  the same artifact. These artifacts are made of (Diagenisis) petrified bone, claw, and teeth from the dinosaurs. DaVinci was not the first person to hide things in his paintings. He most likely got the idea from the Indians and knew about the Terrestrials himself. 

     Later in history, Rafinesque who had over 50,000 Lenape Pictograph artifacts was shipwrecked along the Eastern Coast near New Jersey and Philadelphia. Rafinesque never was able to get the recognition or credit he deserved in finding our evolutionary answer in the Lenape artwork. He appears in our history books as dieing in poverty being wrong about the Red Records. I have pictures of a Deputy Sheriff, an Astronaut, a Celtic Soldier, 2 pictures of a Christ-like image but it is not a total human face. I have 2 pictures of Lenape Chiefs, one is Chief Beaver a very great and highly respected mediator between the Indians and our Military, and was also enlisted in our own Military. I have another of Chief White Eyes. I have pictures of the globe also showing the states in perfect formation with a couple of past land formations from an aerial view.  (How is is that air travel was possible in that time?) I have posted some of the pictures on Weird NJ Magazine website also. I do not wish to attack anyone's religious beliefs but the “truth” is the best religion will unite “everyone”.   I believe not just separate groups of people. We need everyone working together in order to be truly a productive, intelligent and lasting species. We need to accept reality no matter “what” it is or what we were brought up with, or we are living lies and  no good can ever be accomplished  based on lies.

   These findings will be a hard one to discredit, and so far no one has tried to discredit it. The truth is important in order for mankind to evolve in a productive way instead of staying stagnant in a way of life that is slowly destroying them.