Mesa police use DNA technology to create composite sketch of man wanted in sex assault – AZCentral.com

Paragon NanoLabs specializes in DNA phenotyping, which is the process of predicting physical appearance and ancestry from unidentified DNA evidence. The result is called a Snapshot prediction of what a person is likely to look like.(Photo: Mesa Police Department)

UsingDNA technology, Mesa police investigators have come up with a composite of a man in a Mesa sexual assault who has been at large since early January, police said.

On Jan. 9, a man entered a home in the 500 block of EastBroadway between 2 and 4 a.m., Mesa police said.

The man then sexually assaulted a 4-year-old in the home while the child's family was asleep, police said.

The man was described by witnesses as Hispanic, 18-30 years old, short build, with short brown curly hair, police said.

Using DNA evidence that was collected at the scene, investigatorssought the services of Paragon NanoLabs.

The companyspecializes in DNA phenotyping, which isthe process of predicting physical appearance and ancestry from unidentified DNA evidence.The result is called a Snapshot prediction of what a person is likely to look like.

An artist's sketch of a man wanted in a Mesa sexual assault.(Photo: Mesa Police Department)

Through using DNA evidence from this investigation, a Snapshot composite was produced depicting what the manmay have looked like at 25 years old with an average body-mass indexof 22, police said.His genomic ancestry matched a Latino with some African-American mixture, police said.

Snapshot composites are scientific approximations of appearance based on DNA and are not likely to be exact replicas of appearance, police said.

Silent Witness is rewarding up to $5,000 for information leading to the arrest and/orindictment of the suspect.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Mesa Police Department at 480-644-2211 or Silent Witness at 480-WITNESS.

Read or Share this story: http://azc.cc/2oX7g3V

See the original post:
Mesa police use DNA technology to create composite sketch of man wanted in sex assault - AZCentral.com