DNA from a discarded pizza crust and strands of his wife’s hair may have linked the Long Island Serial Killer to the crimes.
in DNA. But it is more robust than other types of cellular DNA, allowing it to withstand environmental conditions that would normally contaminate other genetic material. A centimeter of hair contains enough to generate a mitochondrial DNA profile. This allowed New York City police to obtain DNA from the leftover pizza that Heuermann threw out. Police took the trash back to the lab, where it was swabbed for mitochondrial and autosomal DNA, genetic material inherited by both parents.
Since mitochondrial DNA cannot provide a 100 percent match to the perpetrator, prosecutors need to present some type of statistic on the likelihood the DNA from a crime scene is the same as the defendant. They might explain the chances of being wrong as one in a quadrillion or one in a thousand, for example.The more mitochondrial DNA from different sources, the better.
. “It’s not unusual for hair to stick to your clothing. Possibly his wife’s hair got transferred to him and then those burlap bags where he bound the victims.” Advances in DNA technology are making it easier to identify and convict murderers who could strike again. Mitochondrial tests have higher sensitivity and specificity than 10 years ago, Koblinsky explains.
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