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Author: Yujiemi Chisholm

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Bureau of Justice Assistance

Broward County, Florida Fellow hired as a staff Forensic Pathologist following successful completion of Fellowship Program

The fellow started promptly on July 1, 2018, and successfully completed all phases of the program. She completed over 200 autopsies, attended training from NAME and the American Academy of Forensic Sciences (AAFS), and presented a well-received poster concerning a very rare cause of sudden death. In the spring, she attended courses on forensic anthropology, forensic botany, and forensic entomology. Over the course of the year, she consulted with and learned forensic toxicology from an in-house laboratory and board-certified PhD toxicologist. With the opioid epidemic, this was a lot to undertake and master, and she became well versed in the properties, analysis, and interpretation of hundreds of prescription and nonprescription drugs. She received more than 30 hours of training from the staff pathologist, as well as hands-on training while doing cases. She was eventually hired as a staff forensic pathologist.
October 2023
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Bureau of Justice Assistance

Montgomery County, Texas uses grant funding to make facility improvements and support medicolegal death investigation training and certification

Thanks to the grant funds, the county was able to make the necessary improvements to a facility, increase storage capabilities with the purchase of a high-density mobile shelving unit, and send two death investigators to medicolegal death investigation training who subsequently achieved certification. The marked increase in caseload, internal staffing challenges, and continued changes in the death investigation process affected the county’s ability to complete all the goals within the timeframe; however, it is still on task to complete them.
October 2023
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Bureau of Justice Assistance

Fellow at Montgomery County Coroner’s Office, Ohio leads to decreased full-time forensic pathologist overall caseload average

The performance of autopsies by a fellow reduced the overall caseload average for the full-time forensic pathologists, helping to keep them below 325 annual autopsies and preserving critical criteria that must be met for National Association of Medical Examiners (NAME) accreditation. The fellowship was an affordable and cost-effective approach to solving concerns regarding record autopsy numbers, as well as bolstering forensic pathology in the future, by providing two well-trained forensic pathologists to an understaffed field.
October 2023
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Bureau of Justice Assistance

Hiring of Fellow at Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office, Wisconsin leads to increase of forensic autopsy services and support

With the hiring of a fellow, the office was able to increase the number of autopsies performed by 6 percent when compared with the 12 months prior, which allowed the office to offer support to surrounding jurisdictions in need of forensic autopsy services. During this timeframe, the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office was able to provide autopsy support to 14 other jurisdictions, which is an increase of more than 100 percent from years prior.
October 2023
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Bureau of Justice Assistance

Kittitas County Coroner’s Office purchases portable X-ray machine that enables enhanced investigations and saves county thousands of dollars from autopsy and X-ray fees

The portable X-ray machine has truly been an asset to the Kittitas County Coroner’s Office (KCCO) and to KCCO’s investigations. In the past, those cases requiring X-rays had to be transported to a local hospital for imaging, at considerable expense to KCCO. As a result, KCCO was very selective when it came to scheduling cases for imaging. Since KCCO has received their portable X-ray machine, they have enhanced their investigation to support their forensic pathologists by providing X-rays on any case in which it appeared they would be advantageous to have. In several cases, the KCCO pathologist has been able to certify cause and manner of death by reviewing scene photos and X-rays, thereby avoiding a costly autopsy which would have been required in the absence of the images. In a recent gunshot death, KCCO was able to locate projectiles in an area they did not expect them to be found based upon their initial review of the wounds. This saved a considerable amount of time at autopsy. Overall, having access to their own dedicated X-ray machine has enabled KCCO to perform better investigations with more accurate results, while, at the same time, saving their county thousands of dollars in autopsy fees and hospital X-ray fees. The convenience of being able to obtain images at KCCO’s facility without having to transport back and forth to the hospital is a great advantage as well.
October 2023
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Highlights

Texas State University’s Operation Identification uses MUHR funding to assist rural jurisdictions with unidentified human remains cases

Operation Identification (OpID) within the Forensic Anthropology Center at Texas State University started ten years ago with the aim of locating, exhuming, and working towards identification for long-term unidentified human remains (UHRs) in South Texas. These UHRs represent border crossing deaths that had no DNA samples in CODIS, and little attention given to investigation efforts. While OpID still works with long-term UHRs, OpID is also now assisting rural jurisdictions with more recent deaths thanks to the FY 2022 MUHR award. With the continual rise in migrant deaths, many counties are overwhelmed with UHRs and have little resources to process them and work towards identification. To ensure these UHR are not buried and forgotten, OpID proposed to work with local jurisdictional authorities to remotely assist with identification efforts. Recently, OpID was able to put this prosed work into action with funding from the MUHR Program. OpID was contacted by the Brooks County Sheriff’s Office (BCSO) on May 9, 2022, regarding the discovery of a recent UHR that was decomposed beyond recognition. Two Guatemalan identification cards were found within clothing on the remains; however, this cannot be considered an identification. The consulate was notified and contacted the family to obtain several familial reference samples (FRS). BCSO does not take DNA samples from UHRs nor do other jurisdictional authorities within the county, therefore an OpID team member traveled a few hours to Brooks County to obtain a DNA sample from the UHR in the BCSO refrigerated storage unit. Due to the strong identification hypothesis, following county protocols and chain of custody procedures, the OpID team sent the FRS and UHR DNA sample to a private laboratory for comparison at the request of the consulate. Two weeks later, OpID was notified of a positive genetic association that was then compared to all circumstantial information. The appropriate jurisdictional authority signed off on the identification and the repatriation process began. The MUHR funding allowed OpID to hire more staff allowing OpID members to travel to Brooks County for DNA collection and to provide a quick turnaround for this case. Without the capability of assisting Brooks County, previous turnaround times for DNA comparisons have been anywhere from six months to two years.
October 2023
Events

1st Annual BJA Forensics Programs Grantees Meeting

On behalf of the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), the Forensics Training and Technical Assistance (Forensics TTA) Team, led by RTI International, is hosting the 1st Annual BJA Forensics Programs Grantees Meeting, scheduled for October 2-3, 2023!
October 2023
Forensics TTA

DNA Capacity Enhancement for Backlog Reduction (CEBR) Program – Demystifying Performance Measures

Originally appearing in the Forensics TTA Program’s 1st Annual Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) Forensics Programs Grantees Meeting hosted on October 2-3, 2023, this Program Specific Workshop Session features members of the BJA team providing information to DNA Capacity Enhancement for Backlog Reduction (CEBR) Program grantees regarding performance measures. During this session, BJA provides a background on why the CEBR Program has performance measures, why supporting documentation is needed, why performance measures change over time, and what peformance measures are used for. BJA also provides examples of supporting documentation for performance measures, additional resources, and contact information for CEBR grantees needing assistance.
October 2023
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CNN

DNA testing leads to exoneration of California man imprisoned nearly 3 decades on kidnapping and sexual assault convictions

In January 1995, a man and woman were robbed at gunpoint by two men who had also sexually assaulted the woman. Days after the crime, Gerardo Cabanillas, who was 18 at the time, was arrested because he generally matched the description of one of the suspects. Mr. Cabanillas was coerced by the investigating detective into giving a false confession after 7 hours of interrogation and promises of leniency. Mr. Cabanillas was sentenced to 87 years to life in prison for kidnapping, sexual assault, carjacking, and robbery. After 28 years in prison, DNA was shown not to match Mr. Cabanillas, and instead pointed to other perpetrators. The court used this information to dismiss the case and declare Mr. Cabanillas factually innocent.
September 2023

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