Highlights Archives - Forensics TTA

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Highlights

Remains identified in decades-old Oklahoma cold case

On May 5, 1983, the Pottawatomie County Sheriff’s Office requested the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation investigate the suspicious disappearance of 19-year-old Melody Ann Jones who was a member of The Muscogee (Creek) Nation. That morning, Melody Ann Jones did not show up to work and a family member went by her residence to check on her. Her husband, 20-year-old Paul Richard Jones, was discovered deceased inside the home. It was determined he sustained injuries consistent with homicide. Melody Ann Jones was not located at the scene and was reported missing. Investigators searched the surrounding area on foot and horseback, covering 160 acres, while a helicopter covered 6-square miles. Investigators found no sign of Jones or any evidence. In October of 1998, skeletal remains were discovered in rural Seminole County and were transported to the Oklahoma Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME). The Oklahoma OCME recently acquired the necessary resources needed for additional testing. This additional testing was conducted by the University of North Texas Health Science Center (UNTHSC) at Fort Worth through their Missing and Unidentified Human Remains (MUHR) Program grant; Purpose Area 3 (services to assist small, rural, and/or tribal entities on a national scale). UNTHSC MUHR funding was used to obtain DNA from the skeletal remains which hit to family reference samples in Combined DNA Index System (CODIS). On August 7, 2024, the remains were positively identified as Melody Ann Jones.

August 2024

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FOX 5 Atlanta

Man arrested for 1990 double murder, rape in DeKalb County

An arrest has been made in a 1990 sexual assault and double homicide case out of DeKalb County, Georgia. 55-year-old Kenneth Perry faces multiple charges in connection to the murder of siblings Pamela and John Sumpter. Nearly 34 years after the attack, a federal grant “Prosecuting Cold Cases Using DNA” helped investigators move the case forward. In February 2024, Dekalb County District Attorney’s Office worked with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to upload the DNA profile of this case to the national database and within days, got a match to a sexual assault case in Detroit, Michigan. This match, combined with Forensic Genetic Genealogy analysis led investigators to Perry. When Perry was taken into custody, investigators collected a DNA sample which they believe will confirm that he was the perpetrator.

June 2024

East Bay Times

Man accused in two 1979 Monterey County homicides cannot be charged due to mental illness

Jurn Norris, 69, formerly from Marina, has been identified as the perpetrator in the killings of Helga DeShon and Uicha Malgieri, both young military spouses slain in their apartments in 1979. According to the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office, they have not been able to file charges against Norris because he is incompetent to stand trial due to severe mental illness. In 2016, Marina Police Department conducted a review of unsolved homicides that had occurred in the city. Advancements in technology allowed detectives to submit evidence again and they had the opportunity to re-interview witnesses. The Monterey County District Attorney’s Office determined that sufficient evidence existed to establish Norris’s identity as the perpetrator of the murders and charges would be filed if he were mentally competent to stand trial. The Monterey County District Attorney’s Office Cold Case Task Force received a $535,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice back in January 2022. The grant, titled Prosecuting Cold Cases Using DNA, provides funding to support forensic testing and investigative cold cases where DNA from a suspect has been identified.

May 2024

Forensics TTA

BJA Forensics Programs FY23 Grantees

Congratulations and welcome to all BJA Forensics Programs FY23 grantees!

March 2024

Highlights

Florida Man Indicted in NY’s First Use of Investigative Genetic Genealogy to Solve Cold Case Rapes

Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, and New York City Police Commissioner Edward A. Caban announced that a Florida man has been charged in separate indictments for raping a woman in the Bronx and a woman in Manhattan two decades ago, after new DNA technology linked him to the brutal attacks. These are the first sexual assault cases in the state solved with Investigative Genetic Genealogy. A three-year, $500,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance to the Bronx District Attorney’s Office to solve cold cases was used to fund Investigative Genetic Genealogy. This entails taking crime scene evidence and sending it to a private laboratory to develop a profile which is used to search for consumer DNA databases for genetic relatives who consented to assist law enforcement. Using the suspect’s DNA found at the scenes, a family tree was developed by NYPD’s Forensic Laboratory, and those results helped identify the defendant as Jancys Santiago, 48.

December 2023

Highlights

San Diego County District Attorney’s Office’s COLD funding leads to conviction of suspect in a 34-year-old cold case homicide

The San Diego County District Attorney’s Office, alongside the San Diego Police Department, convicted the killer of Larry Breen whose murder occurred on May 24, 1990. Mr. Breen was a petty officer and cook in the U.S. Navy stationed aboard the USS Fox CG-33. At the time of his death, he had been selected as the President’s chef at Camp David. Mr. Breen’s body was found at his home, slumped against a fence in the backyard. He had been stabbed several times. His car was missing and was later found abandoned over a mile from the crime scene. Despite a thorough investigation by both the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and the San Diego Police Department, the murder went unsolved. This 34-year-old cold case homicide was reviewed with funding provided by the Bureau of Justice Assistance’s Prosecuting Cold Cases Using DNA (COLD) Program and investigated using Forensic Genetic Genealogy (FGG) and the expertise of the San Diego District Attorney’s Cold Homicide and Research Genealogy Effort (CHARGE) team. A beer bottle with the suspect’s DNA was left at the crime scene. Using FGG, the CHARGE team generated an investigative lead regarding the suspect’s identity. The suspect also cut himself during the attack. Further STR DNA testing of both the bottle and blood confirmed the identity of the suspect, Brian Koehl, leading to his arrest and prosecution. Brian Koehl was sentenced to 16 years to life for the murder of Mr. Breen on November 17, 2023.

November 2023

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Highlights

Attorney General Nessel Announces Vacated Wrongful Convictions in Calhoun County

The convictions of Louis Wright, 65, have been vacated pursuant to a collaborative review by the Michigan Department of Attorney General’s Conviction Integrity Unit, the Calhoun County Prosecutor’s Office, the Michigan State Police Forensic Science Division, and the Western Michigan University Cooley Law School Innocence Project. This review concluded that Mr. Wright was wrongfully convicted of sexual assault and breaking and entering in 1988 for which Mr. Wright was sentenced to 25-50 years in prison. DNA testing of the sexual assault kit in 2023 excluded Mr. Wright as the perpetrator and his sentence was subsequently vacated.

November 2023

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Highlights

The City of Charlotte’s Coverdell funds help support evidence documentation that led to a U.S. Postal Worker being indicted for stealing business checks worth over $1.9 million

In 2023, the DCS5 Fingerprint Enhancement System, which was funded by the City of Charlotte’s Coverdell award, was used to document processed evidence in a case involving financial crimes and fraud. The case involved 1.9 million USD in checks that were stolen and fraudulently deposited. A single fingerprint impression developed from the evidence led to the arrest of a United States Postal Service employee.

October 2023

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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

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

Category: Highlights