Genes in

Forensics
 Murder of Krystal
Beslanowitch
• Krystal's boyfriend reported her missing
when she didn’t return home after 2 days
• Krystal's body was then found in the Provo
river with her head bashed in by a granite
rock, on December 6th, 1995
• Any evidence found at the crime scene at
the time was not sufficient
• It turned into a cold case
• 18 years later, in 2013, new DNA analysis
technologies had developed and were
used to solve the case
The Process
 Collection
• Using a swab was the preferred
method for a long time
• When a crime scene has obvious
DNA evidence, like saliva, blood,
and urine, it is extracted using a
swab
• This evidence is preserved by the
forensic scientists wearing
protective gloves, pre wetting the
swab with sterile distilled water
(if the DNA evidence isn't still
wet), and then placing the swab
in sterile packaging and allowing
it to dry
 Collection
• In the case of Krystal Beslanowitch a forensic vacuum
was used to find touch DNA on the granite rock that was
used to kill her
• Touch DNA is a small sample of skin cells left after a
person touches an object
• A forensic vacuum, or M-vac system is a machine that
sprays surface rinse solution onto the object, which
loosens the DNA
• The suction of the vacuum then uses high
efficiency particle air filtration system to ensure there
are no pathogens in the air and suctions the solution
and loosened DNA into the sterile collection bags
• The DNA is then sent off to the laboratory to be
examined
 Examination
• In the lab the solution is run through a filter so all the DNA material
is collected on the filter
• This material is the cut into chunks and run through a
micro centrifuge
• Extraction kits are then used to obtain the DNA
• They use genetic markers called short tandem repeats (str) to create
a unique genetic profile
• A genetic marker is a place on the DNA which usually varies from
person to person
• For example, we would know that CGA appears on every person on
this spot of the DNA, but how many times it repeats in that spot
varies from person to person, allowing you to create a DNA profile
• *An STR hereditary, so it is passed down from your parents. Each
person can have 2 different alleles for each STR that will be read
• They then amplify the DNA in over 13 different STR region using
polymerase chain reaction, or PCR
• PCR is when florescent primers are put on either side of the str
region, which bind with the and it synthetically copies that str
• After a couple rounds they can have 1000s of copies of that str
• A different coloured primer is used for each STR
Examination
• In order to study the DNA they use capillary electrophoresis
• First the fluorescent samples are put into a tray and then loaded into
the CE machine
• Tubes filled with polymer are then injected into each hole and an
electric current is formed
• The STR‘s then migrate through the tube to the endpoint, the shorter
STR‘s move faster then the longer ones
• When they get to the end a camera captures the colour of the
fluorescent dye and how long it took to move through the tube
projecting that onto an electropherogram for analysis.
• Forensic scientists analyze this chart and create a DNA profiling
definition that law enforcement professionals can read
• This definition consists of a simple list of numbers, indicating how many
repeat units are in each allele of 20 genetic marker points throughout
the person’s genome
• This DNA profile can then be compared against those of suspects to
determine if there is a DNA match
The Suspect
• The DNA profile recovered from the rock matched with Joseph
Michael Simpson
• Sherif Todd Borneo who worked the case 18 years earlier
followed Simpson to his home state Florida and recovered his
DNA from a cigarette butt
• The DNA on the cigarette butt matched and proved his guilt
• At the time of Krystal’s death Simpson had been let out of prison
on parole science April of that same year, 1995, for a second
degree murder he had committed in 1987, making the timeline
match up
• With all of that evidence Joseph Micheal Simpson was
sentenced to life without parole for tHe aggravated murder
Krystal Beslanowitch
Benefits
• Many cold cases have been solved numerous years
later
• It is 95% accurate, making DNA evidence some of
the most valuable things in court
• It can be used to prove the innocence of someone
who was wrongfully imprisoned
• You don’t need a lot of DNA, or obvious evidence
Negative
implications
Human Error and Bias
• In 2011 two researchers Itiel Dior and Greg Hampikian
sought to discover if context mattered
• They sent the same DNA mixtures to 17 different experts
and found that they all ended up at different conclusions
• Dior and Hampikian concluded that this means what the
forensic scientist knows about the investigation will
influence the results
• There are many cases in which a scientist has to determine
weather a suspect shows DNA evidence to link them to a
crime, often people are wrongfully convicted and scientist
will insist there is a link when there is none
• Also can be cause by human error, such as mishandling of
the DNA causing cross contamination
• Finding DNA suspects can bring new people into the search
and broaden it , which is the opposite of what we want to
do
 Ethical Concerns
Some ethical concerns of testing DNA for crime investigations are human error, bias,
linking innocent people to crimes, privacy rights, and a disproportionate amount of
people from different races in the database
 Privacy rights and
racial disproportions
• With police being allowed to search public DNA databases if you or a family member
submitted DNA to get tested on ancestry or a similar cite, you could then be subject to
police investigations
• You could become a suspect in a crime you did not commit found innocent and still have
your life ruined through social media and the news
• Giving police access to these data bases makes you more likely to be convicted of a crime
you did not commit and otherwise have no link to
• How the government is securely storing this information, and if it is being traded
• If the scientists accidentally find a mutation or disease if they have a moral obligation to
report that to the person who matches the DNA
• More black and Hispanic people are arrested in comparison using population numbers,
therefore having more of their DNA in the databases
• Researchers are concerned that less people will give DNA for health research afraid that it
will end up in a police database
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