Gaps in DNA databanks have led to tragedy
Posted on 14. Dec, 2009 by Shera Crossan in Events, Hidden Crimes, Science and Technology, Shera Crossan
During what police say was a 20-year killing spree in Milwaukee, Walter Ellis left his DNA behind all along the way – everywhere but the one place where it might have saved a life.
Ellis should have given a DNA sample to the state crime databank during a prison stint in the early part of this decade, but he had another inmate pose as him, authorities say. As a result, when analysts tried to identify DNA in bodily fluids from one of the slayings back in 2003, no matches turned up.
Investigators didn’t connect Ellis to the crimes until this fall, when they seized genetic material from his toothbrush. By then, it was too late for the woman police say was Ellis’ seventh and final victim.
“If they would have got his DNA when they were supposed to get it, maybe my cousin would still be here,” said Sarah Stokes, whose cousin, 28-year-old prostitute Ouithrean Stokes, was found beaten and strangled in an abandoned rooming house in 2007.
The case against Ellis, who is set to go trial this spring, prompted an audit in Wisconsin that found 12,000 convict samples are missing. The AP review further found that Illinois failed to get DNA from about 50,000 offenders, Colorado from 2,000, and Virginia from about 8,400.
Exactly how many samples are missing across the country is unknown. The National Institute of Justice estimated in 2003 that offenders owed up to 1 million uncollected samples and as many as 300,000 samples may be waiting for processing. The backlog grew to about 450,000 by 2008. The institute had no updated estimate of uncollected samples.
At least 13 states are dealing with more samples than they can handle. Kansas, for example, has nearly 40,000 on its crime lab shelves, waiting for upload.
Police in Columbus, Ohio, say Robert N. Patton Jr. committed 37 rapes over a decade and a half. More from source
You know why there are 12,000 samples missing, the black lab techs.
DNA samples with fingerprints so you know who the chimp is you are dealing with is in order.
Better yet round them all up and back to Africa where they can do that voodoo that they do
I would give anything if all the blacks would go to Africa. We have had to dumb down this country to an incredibly substandard level compared to some European countries. If this country were all White the United States would be colonizing other planets by now.