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Who is d.b. cooper the man who vanished in the skies.

The identity and whereabouts of D. B. Cooper remain one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in the history of American criminal investigations. D.B. Cooper is the alias used by an unidentified individual who, in 1971, hijacked a commercial airplane, extorted a ransom, and then parachuted out of the plane, disappearing without a trace. On November […]

Bitcoins and Bazaars- The Silk Road Saga

The digital era ushered in a wave of technological advancements that revolutionized the way we communicate, conduct business, and share information. From the early days of the internet to the emergence of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, the digital landscape promised unparalleled connectivity and convenience. It transformed the world into a global village where information could […]

The Tragic Tale of Amarjeet Sada: World’s Youngest Serial Killer

In the eerie realm of true crime, one name stands out with chilling distinction – Amarjeet Sada, the world’s youngest serial killer. This is not just a story of horrifying acts but a dive into the psyche of a child whose actions defied understanding. Early Years and Innocence Lost Amarjeet’s journey into infamy began in […]

The World’s Oldest Forensic Case – The Iceman’s Mystery

In the annals of forensic science, one of the most remarkable and oldest solved cases revolves around the mysterious death of a man who lived over 5,000 years ago. Discovered in the Alps in 1991, the ancient remains, aptly named “Ötzi the Iceman,” have provided an astonishing window into our distant past and offered valuable […]

The Burari Tragedy: A Quest for Salvation

In the quiet neighborhood of Burari, a suburb in North Delhi, a chilling incident unfolded on the morning of July 1, 2018. What appeared to be an ordinary family home concealed a dark and mystifying secret. Eleven members of the Bhatia family, including seven women and four men, were discovered hanging from an iron grill […]

eRaksha Competition 2021 by NCERT & CyberPeace Foundation

NCERT in collaboration with CyberPeace Foundation is organising eRaksha Competition 2021. About eRaksha Competition 2021 CIET-NCERT in collaboration with CyberPeace Foundation has been spreading awareness amongst children and young adults on the need to be safe, smart and resilient in the cyber space through the ‘e-Raksha Competition’. Thee-Raksha Competition2021has been launched and the theme of […]

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Forensic Case Files

Delve into the intriguing world of forensic science and criminal investigations with our comprehensive collection of case studies. Explore real-life examples of serial killers, unsolved cold cases, missing persons, and other true crimes. Gain insight into the forensic techniques and investigative strategies used to analyze evidence, identify suspects, and...

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A Case Study on Murder Mystery Solved by DNA Typing

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• Subhasish Sahoo 4 &
• Rashmita Samal 5  

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DNA evidence plays the role of a powerful tool in linking a suspect to the crime. DNA typing in forensics is used for identification and paternity and immigration cases. It helps not only in identifying the culprit but also in exonerating the innocent. DNA typing and its continuous advances in forensic science and genetics have made these techniques almost foolproof to be applied in various complex cases. Here, we will discuss a murder case where a newlywed woman killed her husband on the first night but concealed it as death due to snake bite. Injection syringes used by her for injection of drugs were recovered from the backyard. The injection syringes contained a speck of dried blood, which came out to be a good source of DNA evidence. DNA was extracted from the dried blood, quantified, amplified, and sequenced on automated DNA sequencer. The short tandem repeat (STR) profile generated matched with the profiles of parents of the deceased at 21 autosomal STR loci and additionally 3 gender loci. DNA typing could confirm the alleged murder of the deceased by the newly wed woman and her accomplice by administration of drugs leading to cardiac arrest.

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A glimpse of famous cases in history solved by dna typing.

Hagelberg E, Gray IC, Jeffreys AJ (1991) Identification of the skeletal remains of a murder victim by DNA analysis. Nature 352(6334):427–429. https://doi.org/10.1038/352427a0

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National Crime Records Bureau (2019) Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India

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National Research Council (U.S.) (1992) DNA technology in forensic science. National Academy Press, Washington, DC

Philip B (2014) Solving cold cases with DNA: the Boston strangler case. NIJ J 273:48–51. Available at http://www.nij.gov/journals/273/pages/boston-strangler.aspx

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HOD DNA Division, State Forensic Science Laboratory, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India

Subhasish Sahoo

DNA Division, State Forensic Science Lab, Rasulgarh, Bhubaneswar, India

Rashmita Samal

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Scientific Officer, Regional Forensic Science Laboratory, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India

Hirak Ranjan Dash

DNA Fingerprinting Unit, Forensic Science Laboratory, Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, India

Pankaj Shrivastava

University of Granada, Granada, Granada, Spain

José Antonio Lorente

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Sahoo, S., Samal, R. (2021). A Case Study on Murder Mystery Solved by DNA Typing. In: Dash, H.R., Shrivastava, P., Lorente, J.A. (eds) Handbook of DNA Profiling. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-9364-2_22-1

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-9364-2_22-1

Received : 20 February 2021

Accepted : 01 March 2021

Published : 25 July 2021

Publisher Name : Springer, Singapore

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Online ISBN : 978-981-15-9364-2

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Solving a Case of Murder by DNA Fingerprinting: A Case Study

Series: Springer Protocols Handbooks > Book: Principles and Practices of DNA Analysis: A Laboratory Manual for Forensic DNA Typing

Protocol | DOI: 10.1007/978-1-0716-0274-4_27

• DNA Fingerprinting Unit, State Forensic Science Laboratory, Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, India
• Department of Life Science, National Institute of Technology, Rourkela, Odisha, India

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Solving Cold Cases with DNA: The Boston Strangler Case

This was a ghastly crime.

Nineteen-year-old Mary Sullivan had just moved from Cape Cod to Boston, where she rented an apartment in the bustling Beacon Hill neighborhood. Within a few days of her arrival in January 1964, she was found dead. Her attacker raped her and strangled her to death.

Sullivan was one of 11 women whom Albert DeSalvo — known as the Boston Strangler — would later confess to killing. However, he then recanted, leaving lingering doubts about the possibility that the real assailant had eluded capture.

DeSalvo was never convicted of any of the Strangler killings, but he was sentenced to life in prison on other rape charges. He was stabbed to death in 1973. For decades after his death, experts argued about whether he really was the Strangler or whether someone else committed the crimes and got away.

Evidence that finally linked DeSalvo to the Sullivan assault emerged in July 2013.

DNA Provides Answers

Over the years, NIJ has funded the examination of "cold cases" across the country through its Solving Cold Cases with DNA program. The funding helps police departments identify, review, investigate and analyze violent crime cold cases that could be solved through DNA analysis. Sometimes the cases are so old that DNA testing did not yet exist when the crimes were committed, and testing biological evidence now might show a match with a suspect.

In 2009 and 2012, the city of Boston received competitive grants under NIJ's cold case program. The Boston Police Department's cold case squad decided to use some of the NIJ funding to test DNA from a nephew of DeSalvo's and look for a match with seminal fluid that had been found on Sullivan's body and on a blanket at the crime scene. When forensics experts ran the test, they got a hit.

The match was possible because of tests that zero in on short tandem repeats (STRs), which are patterns found on DNA strands. Forensic scientists use a specialized test that focuses on male (Y) chromosomes. Y-chromosome DNA comes from fathers who pass their Y-STR DNA profiles to their male offspring. Barring a mutation, the profiles remain unchanged. Every male in a paternal lineage has the same Y-STR DNA profile. This includes fathers, sons, brothers, uncles, nephews and a wider group of male relatives, even out to third and fourth cousins.

NIJ has funded research on Y-STRs for years, believing that it would give forensics experts a powerful and important tool in certain cases.

Testing of Y-STRs in the Mary Sullivan case showed a match between DNA from the crime scene and DeSalvo's nephew. According to Boston officials, this match implicated DeSalvo and excluded 99.9 percent of the male population. But because a Y-STR profile is common to a group of male family members, it does not yield the more precise match to a particular individual available in other DNA tests.

Armed with the Y-STR testing results, Boston authorities went a step further and exhumed DeSalvo's body in July 2013 so they could conduct a confirmatory test using a DNA sample directly from DeSalvo. DNA extracted from a femur and three teeth yielded a match — specifically, DNA specialists calculated the odds that a white male other than DeSalvo contributed the crime scene evidence at one in 220 billion — leaving no doubt that DeSalvo had raped and murdered Mary Sullivan.

NIJ's Solving Cold Cases with DNA Program

Since 2005, NIJ has awarded more than $73 million to more than 100 state and local law enforcement agencies through its Solving Cold Cases with DNA competitive grant program. This funding has allowed the agencies to review more than 119,000 cases. The funding has also facilitated the entry of almost 4,000 DNA profiles into the FBI's Combined DNA Index System, yielding more than 1,400 hits.

The program has given agencies the opportunity to put resources toward solving homicides, sexual assaults and other violent offenses that otherwise might never have been reviewed or reinvestigated. Crime scene samples from these cases — previously thought to be unsuitable for testing — have yielded DNA profiles. And samples that previously generated inconclusive DNA results have been reanalyzed using modern technology and methods.

Thanks to these cold case funds and the latest Y-STR technology, the Boston Police Department was able to solve the mystery surrounding Mary Sullivan almost 50 years after her death.

For More Information

• Read more about the Solving Cold Cases with DNA program.
• To learn more about STR analysis, read "STR Analysis" from issue 267 of the NIJ Journal .

About This Article

This article appeared in NIJ Journal Issue 273 , March 2014.

About the author

Philip Bulman is a former NIJ writer and editor.

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Case-Based Instruction in the Forensic Chemistry Classroom: Effects on Students' Motivation and Achievement

International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research

Forensic chemistry students need to be motivated and develop critical thinking, problem-solving, and higher-order thinking skills and not just accumulate many facts to be good evidence collectors and investigators in the future. As case-based instruction has been utilized in various fields to this effect, this study aimed to determine the effects of such a method on students' motivation towards forensic chemistry learning and their success in understanding the taught concepts through their achievement scores. A pre-test post-test control group design was employed to involve two forensic chemistry classes with 42 students each, identified through the purposive sampling technique. One class was taught through case-based instruction, while the other through the lecture method. The classes were assigned to experimental and control groups to examine the study's treatment process effects through a coin toss. The t-test for independent samples was used to determine significant diff...

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