DNA Hit of the Year 2024
The DNA Hit of the Year program continues its tradition as an international collaboration, highlighting the immense value and successes achieved through DNA Databases on a global scale. Through insightful discussions on real cases, Tim Schellberg and Vanessa Lynch from GTH DNA once again co-host this year's DNA Hit of the Year event. Coming in live from Capitol Hill, in Washington DC, where global DNA experts and special guests join them, they will cover several groundbreaking cases, looking at what made them so exceptional.
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[MUSIC]
Welcome to Washington DC for the eighth annual DNA hit of the year.
I'm Tim Schalberg.
And I'm Vanessa Lynch.
We're from GTHDNA and we're here to share this year's outstanding list of
selected cases.
They really are exceptional.
And by sharing the hit of the year cases, we were able to show law enforcement
and
forensic agencies all over the world the value of DNA databases.
Not just to identify suspects, but also to exonerate the innocent and
identify missing people.
It's so exciting to be here in the heart of the United States Capitol,
Washington DC.
The foundations of the American DNA database program all tie back to the city.
Here the FBI established the standards for DNA databases,
shaping the practices used by most countries today, including the development
of codus.
And of course, it's where the United States Congress passed the Debbie Smith
Act,
providing over $1.5 billion to states and local law enforcement.
Thanks to this congressional funding, the United States built the world's
second
largest forensic DNA database with over 23 million profiles,
resulting in nearly 700,000 hits.
Without the tireless advocacy of Debbie Smith and her husband Rob,
the United States DNA database wouldn't be nearly as successful as it is today.
We reviewed numerous cases submitted from all over the world.
After narrowing them down to six finalist cases,
our panel of judges ranked them to determine this year's DNA hit of the year.
[MUSIC]
In sixth place, a case of incest and
Curtis Dan Iraq was solved through a series of complex paternity tests and
a hit in the Iraqi DNA database.
Dealing with multiple levels of incest, the Curtis Dan DNA Laboratory was able
to determine which family members had committed incest,
enabling their Iraqi judicial system to resolve the case.
The hit of the year judges chose to highlight this case for a few reasons.
They were impressed with Iraq's development and forensic DNA programs,
which started gaining momentum after the war.
Since then, they've established DNA labs, trained highly capable DNA scientists
and embraced DNA data basing, successfully identifying criminal suspects as
seen in
this case.
Additionally, the judges recognized the complexities involved in incest cases.
They appreciate the efforts of the Iraqi DNA scientists and
hope their experience can be utilized in other countries facing challenges from
incest cases.
>> And noteworthy that Iraq has found a way to develop its DNA database
programs.
We also recently heard that in 2023, Iraq started to pursue
isoe accreditation for one of their DNA labs, which is another positive step
forward.
[MUSIC]
The fifth place case takes us to Indonesia, the world's fourth most populated
country,
and specifically to one of the DNA labs within the Indonesia National Police.
On December 7th, 2022, a suicide bombing occurred at a police station in the
city of
Bandang located 50 miles southeast of Jakarta.
The suicide bomber and the police officer were killed and he live in more
injured.
Indonesia has been a hotspot for religious based terrorist attacks in the last
50 years
with over 300 bombings.
So they've developed tools to combat and solve terrorist bombing cases,
including the use of DNA databases.
While Indonesia doesn't have a DNA database for criminal offenders,
they do have a database specifically for suspected terrorists.
Like the terrorist databases in Thailand and the Middle East,
this has proven to be effective in matching human remains of suicide bombers
and
bomb components to the database, marking a significant step forward in their
fight
against terrorism.
Following the Bandang bombing, the Indonesian police collected body fragments
from the suicide bomber and compared the DNA profile to the database.
The result was a match leading to the quick identification of the assailant.
This success provided crucial intelligence and enabled the police to link this
to a
terrorist organisation.
Encouraged by this success, they're looking to extend the use of DNA databases
to criminal
offenders and have begun working on DNA database legislation.
Thanks for the use of DNA databases to identify terrorists in bombing cases is
definitely a global trend.
The fourth place case is from East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana.
This case highlights the United States' first codis hit from rapid DNA at a law
enforcement booking station.
In June of 2020, an 80-year-old was carjacked at gunpoint.
In Atlanta, Georgia, the car was found and DNA evidence produced an unknown
profile.
It was searched against codis, but there was no matches, so the case went cold.
Fast forward to August 1, 2022, when the East Baton Rouge Sheriff's Office made
history
by becoming the first location to implement rapid DNA at booking.
This allows for the collection of DNA from an arrestee to be immediately tested
and compared
to codis.
It's two weeks later, an arrestee was booked for the minor crime of being in
possession
of a stolen vehicle.
His DNA was immediately tested using rapid DNA.
What happened next showcases how rapid DNA can keep a violent criminal off the
streets.
Later that day, his DNA was searched against codis and matched to the 2020
Atlanta Carjacking
case.
If rapid DNA at booking hadn't been used, it could have taken months before the
hit would
have identified this violent offender.
The rapid hit confirms the bold vision the FBI had nearly 20 years ago to exped
ite DNA.
Achieving this wasn't easy.
Technology had to be created, laws had to be passed, and a complex system had
to be designed
and built.
Special recognition in this case goes to Major Todd Morris and his team for
paving the way
for other states lining up to implement rapid DNA booking programs.
In Standing Tim, states are using rapid DNA at booking stations for arrestees,
and it's
estimated that over 100 local police departments are starting or planning to
test evidence on
rapid.
The FBI has announced they plan to have rules on place in 2025 to allow
evidence uploads
to codis.
The next case takes us to Tuscaloosa County Sheriff's Office in Alabama, USA,
where our
third place hit of the year unfolds, revealing the extraordinary double life
lived by a respected
French horn musician, Mr. Elliot Higgins.
In 2014, when Higgins passed away in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the news of his
death brought morning
to his family and the music school where he taught for over 50 years and served
as a judge
of music competitions throughout the country.
People did they know about Higgins' double life and dark history.
It was only after his death that his crimes caught up with him.
In 1991, Higgins traveled to Tuscaloosa to serve as a judge at the University
of Alabama.
While there, he planned the rape of a college student who he attacked as she
walked alone
in the dark.
Higgins' DNA was left at the crime scene, but they were not able to develop a
usable
DNA profile.
In 2001, Higgins returned to Tuscaloosa, this time posing as a home buyer.
He raped a real estate agent at 9th point as she showed him a house.
Unfortunately, DNA was not found at this crime scene and both cases in Alabama
went
cold.
In 2004, Higgins was called to judge another music competition, this time in El
Paso County,
Colorado.
He again presented himself as a prospective home buyer, attempting to rape the
unsuspecting
real estate agent.
But she fought back, bloodying his nose while managing to escape.
A sample of Higgins' blood was collected and uploaded to codus, but there was
no match.
That same year, the Tuscaloosa Sheriff's Office resubmitted DNA evidence from
the 1991 rape
to the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences to see if the relatively new STR
technology
could develop a DNA profile.
And it did.
And it matched to the attempted rape in Colorado in 2004.
But Higgins had still not been identified as the rapist because his reference
profile
was not in codus.
Without DNA in the 2001 cases, using sketches from both Alabama attacks, the
sheriff's office
concluded they had a serial rapist on their hands.
With no match in codus, lead detective Captain Jack Kennedy turned to genetic
genealogy to
help solve this case.
And the break came in February 2023 when Higgins was identified as the suspect.
Despite his death in 2014, detectives had obtained DNA from his daughter,
confirming through
the opportunity testing that the DNA collected from both the 1991 Alabama rape
case and
the 2004 Colorado attempted rape belonged to Higgins.
This case shows the value of never giving up on sexual assault cases where DNA
is present.
Much like in homicide cases, if codus fails to identify a suspect, DNA profiles
from unresolved
sexual assaults should be screened in genetic genealogy databases.
And our congratulations go to Captain Jack Kennedy and the Tuskegee Leuser
Sheriff's
Office for the tenacity and dedication in solving this complex case.
The second place case for the 2024 hit of the year is from Guatemala.
Thanks to a partnership between several Central America countries and the
University of North
Texas Center for Human Identification and Press of DNA Database programs are
being established
throughout Central America.
On scene from Guatemala is GTH DNA's Kyle Schroeder.
Kyle is our Director of Central America and Europe.
Great to have you with us today, Kyle.
We look forward to hearing about the Guatemala case and the exciting DNA
database updates
coming out of Central America.
Thank you, Tim.
I'm Kyle Schroeder and I'm here today in Guatemala City to highlight a unique
application of forensic
DNA.
Over the last ten years, migration to the US has surged.
People seeking a better life from all throughout the world make the dangerous
journey every
year.
The US Southern border has seen the most dramatic increase of persons making
the journey by
foot, coming now in groups or even caravans by the thousands.
These migrants have usually been from the Central and South America region.
Now, even persons from the Caribbean, India, Asia and Africa make the trek.
A journey is dangerous, especially in the desert area of the US-Mexico border.
Migrants perish along this route every year and authorities have little to no
means to
identify who these people are.
This has exposed a gap in the United States government's ability to identify
these human
remains which causes the remains to sit in a local medical examiner office with
limited
to no means of identification.
Authorities have been recently trying to fix this.
The Center for Human Identification at the University of North Texas Health
Science Center has been
helping authorities process these human remains for DNA for years.
Recently, it has developed a database of over 6,000 DNA profiles of human
remains under
a special agreement with the FBI.
While promising, the DNA of a missing migrant alone is not enough.
The university needs something to compare these profiles against.
They need the DNA of these migrants' families to come forward.
Under funding from the US government, in 2017, UNT began helping national
laboratories all
throughout Central America build their own forensic DNA capacity.
UNT hoped to have local Central American governments collect and maintain their
own
forensic DNA, in particular from family members of missing persons, so that
someday the DNA
could be shared with UNT for comparison.
Last year, UNT was successful in establishing the first sharing system with
Guatemala, which
had sent over their first batch of a few hundred profiles for searching against
the university's
database.
And miraculously, the UNT found several matches right away.
The first story, the second case in our 2024 DNA hit of the year, details the
very first
of these matches, a case involving a Guatemalan mother seeking her son, who was
lost while
migrating to the United States in 2019.
This case is the first time humanitarian missing persons DNA-debasing has been
used to identify
a deceased migrant in the US border region under this new sharing system, and
is the first
time the body of a deceased Guatemalan migrant has been repatriated home thanks
to DNA in
collaboration with UNT.
I'm here with Nancy Se, the DNA database manager of the National Institute of
Forensic Sciences
of Guatemala.
Nancy, it's great to be here with you.
You submitted this case to the 2024 DNA hit of the year.
Tell me a bit more about it.
Thank you, Kyle.
So about the case is because many Guatemalans migrate every year to the United
States of
America in search of better job opportunities.
The migrant identification project through DNA mechanism was developed between
various
institutions in Guatemala and with funding of the United States of America to
support
these families in search of a missing relative.
Regular migration goes beyond Guatemala.
The cases here in the country are only the tip of the iceberg of this
humanitarian drama
in the region.
Byron, Julius Son, began his trip to the United States in April 2021.
He left full of hope and worked hard and only street to be able to provide a
better quality
of life for his family who leaves him a small town here in Guatemala.
Julius said goodbye to him with a hug and a kiss begging him to contact her in
Byron
because he was a good son.
Did so.
So every single day, Byron communicated with his mother via WhatsApp about how
his journey
was progressing.
Until one day, Julius stopped receiving messages.
Fear and uncertainty took over Julia.
And several weeks later, she decided to seek support in various institutions
hitting Guatemala.
A year later, Julia found out about the new migrant identification project.
So she decided to donate a biological sample for DNA.
Julia was one of the first persons to join this project.
And the efforts she made were rewarded in 2023.
A match between a human, an identifying remains in Texas was found with her
genetic profile.
In the humanitarian genetic database in the University of North Texas.
Now, Byron is home again.
This project has a novel objective and is to timely identify missing migrants
through
science.
This make it possible to reunite families and close cycles of uncertainty that
allow for
a dignifying mourning.
For this reason, I am very proud to work in the National and Institute of
Forensic Sciences
and to be part of this project.
Thank you, guys.
I'm also here today to speak with a mother in this case, Julia, who will
provide in her
own words an accounting of the story and how it impacted her and her family.
Why did he decide to leave Guatemala?
Tell me about his journey north.
When did he go missing and how did you find out?
Tell me about your efforts to work with the Guatemalan government to find your
son before
learning about Ina Sif's new service.
This is a very important part of the relationship with the United States.
I am very proud of the United States.
I am very proud of the United States.
What led you to reach out to Ina Sif and donate your DNA sample?
What made you feel confident that that was the right thing to do?
I am very proud of the way that we have been able to work with the United
States.
I am very proud of the way that we have been able to work with the United
States.
What do you think about this collection campaign and do you think the Guatem
alan government
should continue it?
What would you say to other family members of missing persons throughout
Central America
looking to identify their lost loved ones?
Should they also donate their DNA?
What would you say to other governments in Central America when considering a
program
like this?
What would you say to other governments in Central America when they are not
able to
have their own DNA?
What would you say to other governments in Central America when they are not
able to
have their own DNA?
Has this case shown anything to you about the power of DNA and has it changed
your mind
about DNA at all if it were different before?
What would you say to the hard-working professionals of Ina Sif about this case
What would you say to the hard-working professionals of Ina Sif about this case
What would you say to other Guatemalans looking for their lost loved ones?
Would you recommend that they use this system as well?
What would you say to other governments in Central America when they are not
able to have their own DNA?
Thank you.
Thank you for your time.
Really appreciate it.
And Alicia, you are the DNA Laboratory Chief here at Ina Sif and you have been
instrumental
in helping create this collection and sharing program with other countries
around the world.
Tell me a little bit about your institution and the services it offers to
people just
like Julia.
We as the National Institute of Forensic Sciences in A Sif have commitment to
offer our compatriots
like Julia as service with the highest quality standards in forensic genetics.
Decided to find their missing relatives and we do this through having built
multiple
internal laboratory processes and partnerships with the older Guatemalan
government agencies
to make this program effective at national level.
We became aware of a global growing problem related to an unknown but very high
estimated
number of people with missing relatives abroad and on the other hand an
uncomfortable number
of unidentified bodies and human remains in countries of transit or migratory
destination.
The first goal that took by Ina Sif on its way to provide high quality services
with international
recognition was to obtain in 2019 the International Certificate of Quality.
At the same time during the last few years we decided a new whole genetic
database program
with unique services for the collection of biological samples for forensic
analysis in
humanitarian cases focusing efforts on the identification of Guatemalan
possibly missing
outside our borders.
This includes a genetic database completely independent from our criminal
genetic database
which allows families to donate their DNA samples for a cloud base on informed
consent.
Therefore, this service is currently available to Julia and all those Guatemal
ans who are
waiting for news of their missing relatives abroad.
I'm here today with Dr. Michael Coble.
Dr. Coble is the director of the Center for Human Identification at the
University of North
Texas Health Science Center.
He oversees the missing persons in humanitarian DNA database program there and
has been instrumental
in the project to compare missing persons and unidentified human remains
profiles with
other countries in Central America especially Guatemala.
Thank you for your time Dr. Coble.
Thank you Kyle.
Could you tell me a little bit about HDID the humanitarian DNA identification
database and
how it plays in this case and the role in this match?
Well for conventional what I call conventional codas when we have a sculptor
remains that
are found in the US and we obviously try to find family members that we could
make that
comparison to.
The issue here with a lot of the remains that we're recovering in Texas are
those that have
come from Central America, South America and have died within the border of
Texas.
We still test all sculptor remains that are found within the border of Texas
but we can't
necessarily find the family members to associate those remains to because they
're back in their
native country.
So the humanitarian DNA database allows us it is a codus server that has the
codus software.
It's air gap.
It's not connected to the internet.
It's a standalone codus server and we are able to download our local database
of sculptor
remains and we also now can through these collaborations find those family
members that
we can now do those searches within the HDID to find potential matches.
Great.
So in many ways HDID allows Texas and your university to connect with other
databases
throughout Central America and accept profiles to identify these human remains.
Exactly.
You've spoken in the past a little about the danger of fragmented databases.
Could you speak a little bit more about that?
So the danger with fragmented databases and what I mean by that is there's a
lot of different
groups that are trying to sort of create their own missing persons database so
that
for whatever reasons maybe there's a distrust of federal databases but I think
the danger
in going this way is that you potentially may have a set of sculptor remains
that have
been found in Texas that we've put into codus but the family members have given
their DNA
to another group that has their own little database that we'll never see, they
'll never
connect, we may never make an ID.
One thing I wanted to point out about the humanitarian databases we're making
identifications
not from necessarily recent people who crossed into the US, we're making ident
ifications
from people that crossed potentially decades ago so it's a great resource for
making those
connections.
What do you envision for the future of this program in the next couple of years
I think obviously we've had a great success working with Guatemala and NUC.
They've been very good at collaborating with us and going out and getting the
informed
consent, making sure that families understand the purpose of the database and
what we're
doing.
I see that expanding throughout Central America and potentially South America
too because
we know that there are people that are coming from all over Central and South
America.
We're also making those identifications and potentially also increasing the
capability
of us being able to make connections with other skeletal remains that are found
that
we could potentially also include in the database in the future.
Migration to the United States will continue to be something that our nation
and partners
around the world will have to address together.
As we speak, a record number of migrants have already journeyed to the United
States which
will unfortunately in some cases leave families waiting for news of their lost
loved ones.
Fortunately, a tool in forensic DNA now offers a way for authorities to finally
help identify
those who tragically become the victim to this phenomenon.
As this system hopefully expands to other countries thousands upon thousands of
DNA matches
between family members and missing persons certainly await us.
And this number two case for the 2020 for DNA hit of the year shows the power
of this
new tool and that this is only the beginning.
Back to you, Tim.
Thank you, Kyle.
Truly an inspirational case.
As missing person and criminal DNA databases continue to grow rapidly in
Central America,
we anticipate many more success stories like this in the years ahead.
The five runner up cases to this year's hit of the year were really something
showcasing
the power and flexibility of DNA databases to find matches and reveal the truth
These cases demonstrate that with new tools and analysis methods, crime labs
and police
are fully leveraging DNA technology to uncover answers.
Yes, they are, Vanessa.
And our audience will see our top 2024 hit of the year case puts advancements
in DNA technology
and methods on full display.
I'm excited to announce that the 2024 DNA hit of the year is the identification
of private
Glenn A. Harris.
Harris was one of many World War II soldiers who died in the Philippines in a
prisoner of
war camp.
This historically significant case was submitted by the United States Armed
Services DNA identification
laboratory, otherwise known as Aftil.
Before we talk with Aftil about this case, I'm going to hand it to the DNA hit
of the
year co-chair, Rock Harmon, who will kick this case off.
Thanks, Tim.
The day was March 11, 1942.
In one of the most somber moments in American military history, General Douglas
MacArthur
announced the decision to retreat from the Philippines, leaving 75,000 U.S. and
Filipino
soldiers stranded on the Baton Peninsula at the mercy of the invading Imperial
Japanese
armed forces.
What followed was the infamous Baton Death March, where these soldiers were
ordered to march
over 60 miles through a treacherous jungle to the prisoner of war camps that
awaited
them.
While thousands of soldiers perished during this march, American soldier
private Glenn
Harris survived and made it to the Cabana-twan prison camp.
But like so many others, he was unable to survive the harsh conditions at the
camp and died
from malaria in July 1942.
Over 80 years would pass until the body of Private Harris was identified.
The story we're about to explore is the extraordinary determination of the
United States military
and their world-class DNA laboratory to identify Private Harris and bring him
home.
Well Douglas MacArthur famously said, "I shall return after being forced to
retreat from
the Philippines."
I can only imagine the grief General MacArthur felt by leaving so many soldiers
behind.
Thankfully the U.S. military made good on that promise.
Two years and six months after he was forced to flee from the Philippines,
General MacArthur
makes good his promise to return.
They did return and the committed scientists at Aftil returned and brought with
them the
incredible power of DNA to bring home our fallen soldiers.
We owe our military a great debt.
The phrase "no one left behind" expresses our commitment for their willingness
to serve
and sacrifice.
This is not a shallow commitment.
I served as an officer in charge of a Navy swift boat in the Mekong Delta
Vietnam.
I was wounded during rescue efforts to find a Navy intelligence officer shot
down in November
69.
The remains of that officer, Lieutenant John Graf, have never been found.
Similarly the remains of two of my Naval Academy classmates, Bart Creed and
Dick Dorder, have
never been recovered.
This is a story that demonstrates how one laboratory honors that commitment to
identify
those we've lost during military service.
Now for the details on this case, we welcome SUNY Edson from Aftil.
Back to you Tim.
SUNY, before we get into discussion about this case, tell us a little bit about
yourself,
like what's your DNA background?
Sure.
I've been a contractor with Aftil, the Armed Forces DNA identification
laboratory for nearly
25 years.
I recently completed a PhD in forensic genetics from Flinders University and
also decided to
get a certificate program from University of New Haven in forensic genetic gene
alogy.
Well, wow, 80 years to identify private Glenie Harris.
How did he end up in the Philippines?
Where was he from?
He was from a farming family in Southern California.
In February of 1916 he had four brothers and a sister and he was a truck driver
who decided
in early or late 1940 to register with the Army Air Corps and decided to take
up service.
He wound up in the 93rd Bombardment Group in the Philippines before anything
happened.
In 1940 he was stationed there.
At the beginning of the war when the Imperial Japanese forces bombed Pearl
Harbor in 1941,
they bombed the Philippines the next day.
They were fighting on the ground with the rest of anybody else who was still
there and
was still on the archipelago of the Philippines at the time.
When they were at the prison camp, so many of them were dying from various
causes.
And the other soldiers that were surviving were trying their best to make sure
that the
ones that died had identification.
Can you tell us a little bit about what those soldiers were doing to try to get
them identified?
They went through such extreme measures and tried to work with the Japanese
forces that
were in charge of the prison camp.
In order to keep a record of who died on what day, they would keep their own
lists of information.
And the record for private Harris was written in pencil on the back of a label
for a can
of milk.
And so what they would do is they'd make a record of each day and then try to
hide those
records as best they could.
So then at the end of the war when the camp was liberated, they were able to
turn all
of that information over to the American Graves Registry Service.
And then American Graves went through and associated who they thought should be
there.
And so the records that they have, I mean, it details who he was, who his next
to kin
was.
In this case for private Harris, it was his mother, his mother Myrtle, what he
had on
his person and what he died from.
And those records were instrumental in being able to help us come up with a
system to aid
in the identification.
Because otherwise, you know, you're looking at over 2,700 individuals who were
buried
at the Cabana-Tuan prison camp and then trying to work up a strategy to
identify them.
Now we really have to rely on those kinds of records to at least make a short
list of
who we need to be targeting for DNA testing and anthropology.
We started with one specific grave that a family had raised that we believe our
fallen
service member is in that grave.
We started with this one and it supposedly had 18 individuals in it and then we
find
that we have multiple different sequences.
And so that wound up being a challenge for us, but it also helped us fine tune
our protocols
and our procedures.
But you ran into challenges because typically when you're testing bones, there
's a lot of
DNA here, but these bones were compromised.
Can you tell us about that?
Sure.
The what happened in the camps themselves was that the remains not only are
incredibly
commingled because of the mass grave system, but then they were also often
treated with
lie.
And then what we found out later through historical record searches was that
American
Graves Registry Service treated the remains because they had every intention of
returning
the remains to the United States.
But instead they stayed buried in Manila, but they were treated with a compound
that
contained formalin and formalin binds into the DNA.
And while they're still DNA there, it's bound together and cannot be unzipped
during PCR.
And so that was a huge challenge for us.
And then we also found that Manila is a huge city and the graveyard where a lot
of these
remains are now is in the center of the city and Manila gets an extreme amount
of rain.
So the graves themselves are compromised.
So private heresis common grave.
What number was that?
He's 225.
When you went to try to do this in 225, you were able to, even with these
challenges for
the bones, develop a number of mito hole sequences.
How many did you get total out of 225?
Out of common grave 225 right now we have 27 unique mito profiles.
And now the challenge of course is to match it to the family and try to get
your match.
So walk us through how you did this with Private Harris's case.
When we get a mito profile, what we'll often do is we will search it against
all of the
family references that have submitted.
Private Harris hit one of the bone samples from his references hit that bone
sample from
common grave 225.
And it was the only one, not only in 225, but it was unique in all of the Cab
ana-Tuan
bone samples, which made it very exciting for us.
We're like, look, we have him, it's 225, it was recovered from 225, we have a
reference.
But the problem is we don't have mitochondrial DNA references for all of the
people, not
only in Cabana-Tuan, but for 225.
So we needed additional information in order to be able to say it was him.
And we have great historical records.
So we have this great line of communication between us and the Defense POW MIA
Accounting
Agency, which is the Anthropology Lab, where we're saying, hey, this is
probably him.
But they say, well, we don't have enough information to say for sure.
So they could say, well, we think it's somebody who's a certain height.
So the problem with Cabana-Tuan is that STR testing doesn't usually work.
We took the four samples that we had, but one of them gave us an almost entire
LCNY protocol,
or LCNY profile, and a fusion profile.
And that let us down the path of it was private hair, because by matching NYSTR
s, we were able
to exclude the other four service members who were believed to be associated
with 225.
And our successes just are so rewarding for all of us, and to be able to bring
anybody
home is amazing.
What do you know about Private Harris' homecoming?
He was welcomed home.
Unfortunately, all of his siblings are now deceased.
His parents both died in the '70s and '80s, but he was welcomed home by a whole
bunch
of NYSs and nephews and grand NYSs and nephews.
And the Patriot Guard came out and had flags and escorted his casket.
And so he is currently buried in the Plato Cemetery in Santa Barbara,
California.
And it was wonderful to have him come home.
We actually have a bell that we ring in the lab.
So when we have a bell that sits there, when we have an identification, we ring
the bell.
So there were about a thousand remains which you still had to identify out of
the camp.
How many have you had so far with positive identifications and what's the prog
nosis
for the rest of them?
A little over 200 sequences, mito sequences.
So we're just making a dent in it.
And so one of the problems with Cabana-Tuan is not only do we have unresolved
persons
in the graves, there still remains left over from people who are resolved.
And so we have to find the unresolved individuals as well as the resolved.
Imagine that one of your best friends in this process is next-generation
sequencing.
Tell us what that meant to your operations when that came into being.
It has made it possible to identify people that we had not given up on but had
decided
that we had to wait.
And so it was incredible for Cabana-Tuan because it got us around all of the
problems
with the treatment of the samples, the water exposure.
But then it also helped us with other cases.
So it was originally developed to be part of, we have a set of remains from the
Korean
War that are buried in the punchbowl in Hawaii.
And these remains have been soaked and formaldehyde.
So much more than what we have for Cabana-Tuan.
And they've never worked.
We've never been able to get a DNA sequence out of it.
And now with NGS for the whole mito genome, we're able to identify these people
And it's been amazing and just completely game-changing for us.
Yeah.
So the technology has helped you, the evolution of the technology from all you
've done.
But that only is good as the family reference samples coming in to match these
individuals.
Can you tell us what the US military does to assist with getting families to
participate?
We have a lot of public outreach.
We have service casualty offices for each branch of the military.
And they are the contacts with family members.
And at present, like we're always trying to work with families to get
additional samples.
We have every month there's a family member update in a different part of the
country.
And so all the government officials fly out to meet with family members,
present their
cases, talk to them about what we as AFTIL and then the rest of the accounting
community
as a whole are doing and provide them with information and then get references
from people.
Because then it becomes such a news story for the area.
And maybe somebody who never thought that their brother, cousin, uncle could be
identified
will come to us or come to a service casualty officer and submit a reference.
Because you're right.
I mean, without the DNA from family members it doesn't mean anything for us.
So you've supervised and been involved with many different cases of ident
ifications.
You submitted this case to the DNA hit of the year.
What about this case made it special to you?
Cabana Tuan and Private Harris, I mean this is, we want people to see that we
never stop.
That we're speaking for the families and we're speaking for the military and we
're speaking
for the dead.
And that's our goal is we want people to realize that we're not forgetting
about them.
What are the challenges of tackling all this globally that the AFTIL and the US
military
has?
It's a big project.
DPAA is bringing on additional partners.
They've set up a partner group where they can send out other anthropology teams
to help
do recovery.
And our group is trying to expand as much as we can.
We're kind of limited in our space.
So we're always looking at new technologies to make things be more efficient
and to go
faster.
But you're right, we have projects everywhere.
We just finished working on the USS Oklahoma about two years ago and we're able
to identify
the majority of sailors and Marines from that incident.
And we're still working all over the world.
We currently have teams in Korea all over the teams involved for the Vietnam
War, so
in Cambodia and Laos and Vietnam.
And there are teams in Europe as well doing specific conflicts for a Hertgen
Forest, Germany,
Italy.
So they're doing disinterments from cemeteries, but also still crash recovery
losses.
When you don't get a matched-year reference sample, we've seen in other
databases around
the world in the United States that there's a plan B and that is genetic gene
alogy.
What has AFTIL done with genetic genealogy and where is it headed with genetic
genealogy
as an option when you don't have a matched-to-reference sample?
We're really hopeful to be able to bring that kind of technology online.
Out of the issue with forensic genetic genealogy is the DNA that we recover
from the bones
is highly fragmented.
And so there's not a lot of labs in the world that can get all of the SNP panel
for genetic
genealogy off of skeletal remains.
We did tests a few years ago using a standard kit.
Right now we're in the middle of actually finishing a protocol that -- for SNPs
, that
weds a capture protocol that we use for NGS, and how to be able to use that for
SNPs as
well.
So we hopefully will have that online within the next year.
And so that will help us use for family references that we might have collected
already that
are paternal nieces, say, because that doesn't have a value when you're looking
at lineage
markers.
You can't use it for YSTRs, you can't use it for MITO, and so that'll help us
be able
to use SNPs to identify somebody.
And it's not particularly forensic genetic genealogy.
We'd like to be able to use that in the future.
And part of it is because of the way we have our databases set up, and to be
able to -- what
we can put into external databases.
And so we see that as a goal in the future once we get the actual protocol for
SNPs online
with skeletal materials.
Tell me about the discussion about what you can put into these external
databases.
Are there certain policies that Aftil follows that limit your access to these
databases?
Well, you know, there are codis -- the FBI guidelines right now for being able
to use
external databases.
And one of the rules is you have to have an STR profile searched against codis
and no
hits, and then it has to be a crime.
And so you can use missing persons data, but that's a rule we'll have to work
with.
And in terms of our accreditation and seeing how we can make that all work
within a standardization
and being accredited.
Is Aftil looks as one of the most technological advanced DNA laboratories in
the world for
human identity.
What do you guys see as the next big thing in helping you make identifications
down the
road?
We're really hopeful for SNPs.
Like that really is on our radar as being quite a fantastic thing.
If we can get that to work well, it -- because it looks at the entire DNA
genome within somebody's
cells.
And now if you can say, "Oh, well, we have a cousin," but they're not sure how
they're
related.
They might be somebody's brother's son.
Now we know, "Okay, well, I know I'm a cousin," and we can use the SNP testing
to
re-associate that.
It'll give us much better statistics.
It's such a wealth of information for us that we're really hopeful that that
will completely
not change what we do, but improve what we do.
Well, thank you, SUNY.
It's been a pleasure sitting down with you today, and thank you for all you do
and all
Aftil does to bring our missing servicemen and women home.
Thank you.
Thank you for having me.
I really appreciate it.
Now we'd like to present you with the 2024 DNA Hit of the Year award.
Congratulations.
Well, thank you so much.
This is wonderful.
Thank you.
Really appreciate it.
Great cases and such impressive work by all those who brought these cases to a
close.
We're so happy you choose to share your experiences with the world.
Sharing these stories makes such an impact.
As we've seen over the last few years, the number of countries pursuing DNA
database
programs has grown exponentially.
We'd like to thank all the agencies that submitted cases and took part in this
year's
event.
And a special thank you to ThermoFisher Scientific for allowing us to feature
the DNA Hit of the
Year program as part of the HIDS conference.
We're already looking forward to next year.
GTH DNA is pleased to announce that starting today, we're accepting new cases
for 2025.
Please visit DNAHitOfTheYear.com to submit your case.
See you next year.
See you later.
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