Advanced DNA technology is cracking cold cases once thought unsolvable, Newsmax crime correspondent Jason Mattera reported Thursday on Newsmax TV’s "Wake Up America."
At Othram, an American forensic genetics company based in The Woodlands, Texas, researchers extract DNA from even the most contaminated evidence and then use genome sequencing and forensic genealogy to build an identity hypothesis.
“We infer identity. We don't have to know who the suspect is. We're able to take that DNA left at the crime scene and tell you who left it there,” Kristen Mittelman, the Chief Development Officer at Othram, told Newsmax.
“DNA testing with CODIS looks at 20 markers, and those 20 markers point to one person. We're looking at 500,000 to 1 million markers. Every single crime scene. There is no such thing as a false positive with our type of DNA testing; it's you.”
Othram, founded in 2018, has been hired to crack many cases, including the 1974 murder of Carla Walker.
Using advanced forensic DNA testing, Othram was able to develop a profile from decades-old evidence that had resisted earlier methods, giving Fort Worth police the match they needed to move the case forward and make an arrest, a vivid example of how modern lab science is breathing life into cold cases once considered unsolvable.
Walker was abducted from a Fort Worth bowling alley parking lot and murdered.
“David [Mittelman] called Jeff Bennett, the detective of the case and he said, the last name is McCurley,” Kristen Mittelman told Newsmax.
“Does that mean anything to you? And he said, ‘Oh my gosh, [Glen] McCurley is on our suspect list from the 70s.’ He had the type of weapon, and he said he had lost the weapon, and we just stopped looking at him. Oh my gosh, you solved this case.”
The method could be utilized more in the future – the Carla Walker Act has been introduced in Congress to fund pilot programs that do exactly what Othram does.
“We really are trying to figure out how we can solve high-impact problems, where there just aren't a lot of folks working in, or where the technology has not really helped bring an answer,” said David Mittelman.
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Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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