• 
  
  
  Home
• 
  
  Backlog
  Reduction
• Laboratory
  Assessment &
  Enhancement
  Services
• 
  
  Customized
  Training
• 
  
  Biometric
  Identification
  • What is it?
  • Why Is It Important? »
    • Corporate Responsibility
  • What Is It Used For? »
    • Kidnap/Ransom
    • Disaster Situations/
                     Incident Investigation
  • Modes of Identification »
    • DNA
    • Friction Ridge Skin
    • Facial Recognition
    • Iris Capture
    • Dental X-Ray
    • Other Modes
  • Risk Assessment & Custom BI
  • FAQs
• 
  
  Other
  Services
  • Law Enforcement
  • Corporate/Insurance
• 
  
  
  Resources
• 
  
  
  About Us
  • Matt Schwarz
• 
  
  
  Contact

In The News

2016-07-01 | Crime Scene Investigation: Blood Analysis May Soon Reveal Originator’s Age Range
Scientists have come up with a way to determine a person's age range based on blood. This can be very useful in crime scenes since it would be easier for investigators to determine if the blood belongs to a juvenile or an adult. Moreover, the method can determine the time when the blood was deposited at the scene. "It was recently shown that biomarkers present in blood can also identify characteristics of the originator, such as ethnicity and biological sex," reads the abstract of the study. "A biocatalytic assay for on-site forensic investigations was developed to simultaneously identify the age range of the blood sample originator and the time since deposition (TSD) of the blood spot."

2016-06-27 | Convicted Killer Gets New Trial after DNA Expert Testified Over Skype
A convicted killer will get a whole new trial, since the forensic DNA expert testified at trial by Skype - thereby depriving him of his Sixth Amendment right to confront his accusers, the New Mexico Supreme Court recently ruled. Truett Thomas, convicted of first-degree murder and serving life in prison, will get a whole new trial because the expert had moved out of state and was conferenced in via the video-conferencing program, according to the decision. Thomas’s defense attorney initially found the request to be “just weird.” But a week before the expert was to testify, objected to it on Sixth Amendment grounds.

2016-06-27 | How Science Is Putting a New Face on Crime Solving
Bouzigard’s assailant had also left behind a promising clue. From tissue caught under her fingernails as she struggled for her life, the detectives were able to pick up a clear DNA sample. To find the killer, all they needed was a match. The number she had dialed led police to a crew of undocumented Mexican workers. “So we started getting warrants for DNA swabs, getting translators, working with immigration,” Mancuso recalls.

2016-06-23 | 11,431 RAPE KITS WERE COLLECTED AND FORGOTTEN IN DETROIT. THIS IS THE STORY OF ONE OF THEM
Because there are no consistent federal requirements for law enforcement to track rape kits that haven't been tested, it's impossible to know the exact size of the national backlog. Sitting at her computer, Worthy learned that Detroit wasn't the first municipality to confront the issue: New York City had a backlog of 17,000 kits in 1999, but after the local government spent $12 million to process them, it was cleared by 2003.

2016-06-21 | Analyst unable to match prints to Brantner
According to Harrington, some of the latent prints that were developed from the van's doors matched now-retired Fond du Lac police detective Milt Swantz, one of the first officers to handle Beck's van in July 1990. Swantz apparently did not take enough precautions to avoid contaminating the van with his fingerprints. Most of the fingerprints Harrington identified from the van matched the fingerprints of Beck. A handful of additional fingerprints from the van belonged to the victim's younger brother, Ben, who was also a teenager at the time. But other latent prints were a source of mystery to Harrington for many years.

2016-06-21 | Quantifying the Weight of Forensic Evidence
On May 5 and 6, 2016, NIST hosted a technical colloquium on an important question facing virtually every branch of forensic science today: How should forensic examiners quantify the weight of evidence they find in a case? This was the first technical colloquium in the United States to focus specifically on this issue, and it generated an animated and much needed exchange of ideas.

2016-06-20 | Oregon DA is gunning for justice in review of convictions
District Attorney John Hummel is vowing to re-examine each conviction, arguing that revisiting them is critical to ensure that the public has confidence in the justice system. So far, he has recommended 10 convictions be overturned. "I want people to say: 'You know what? When the DA stands up and says he thinks someone is guilty, he is doing that based on solid evidence,'" said Hummel, whose county's natural beauty belies a reputation for misdeeds by its own lawmen.

2016-06-15 | Prosecutors Misrepresented Forensic Evidence in ‘Beatrice 6’ Case, Scientist Testifies
White was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. The other five pleaded guilty and were sentenced to shorter terms in prison. But DNA testing in 2007 determined that Bruce Allen Smith was the lone rapist and killer of Wilson. Smith died in Oklahoma in 1992. The Beatrice 6 – White, Winslow, Gonzalez, and also Ada JoAnn Taylor, James Dean, and Debra Shelden – were eventually released and completely cleared of the crime in 2009.

2016-06-14 | DNA samples in Travis County cases will undergo extra scrutiny
On Monday, the Travis County District Attorney’s Office said they have hired a leading expert in forensic DNA to review all casework by the APD DNA lab before the plea or trial of pending cases. Last week, APD suspended operations at its DNA lab after an audit conducted by the Texas Forensic Science Commission determined the lab did not have enough properly trained staff. The report also indicated the lab was not up to date on standard protocols.

2016-06-13 | Austin Crime Lab Shut Down Over 'Concerns'
The Austin Police Department is closing for most of the rest of the year, as it revamps its system of DNA analysis, according to officials. The shutdown will last four to six months, and will involve new training, certification, re-certification, auditing, and the hiring of a new lab director, Chief Art Acevedo announced at a Friday press conference.