Category Archives: DNA

SCOTTSDALE, AZ - A day before the second anniversary of Allison Feldman's unsolved murder, Scottsdale police officers were out canvassing nearby neighborhoods and asking residents for DNA samples.

The mysterious murder of the 31-year-old woman found dead in her home has generated national headlines and several leads but no arrests.

Family members told ABC15 they appreciate detectives' continued work to try and keep the case from growing cold.

"The police said they believed very early on that she was targeted and so do I," said Harley Feldman, Allison's father. "It's frustrating. We'd like it solved a long time ago. But I can't fault the effort (police) are putting in."

A Scottsdale police spokesman said expanding the original canvass area is common in complex investigations and the option for residents to provide DNA is voluntary.

ABC15 witnessed teams of officers walking door to door in the area near the crime.

"We document who we talk with and where, on each canvass contact," said spokesman Kevin Watts. "The DNA samples are what I stated earlier, voluntary. There is no action taken based on someone not providing a sample."

On Feb. 17, Allison Feldman was found dead in her home near 86th Street and Monterey Way.

Police said Feldman died of head trauma. According to court documents, she was found nude, and her body smelled of bleach. There was no sign of forced entry into her home, and it's believed that the person who attacked her suffered cuts to his or her hands.

Harley Feldman said the family is hosting a vigil Friday evening to keep Allison's crime in the public eye with the hope that someone with new information will come forward.

"I just want him caught and punished," he said.

The vigil will take place at 7 p.m. at Scottsdale Justice Center, near Osborn Road and Drinkwater Boulevard. Candles will be provided to those who attend.

"She was a very outgoing gentle person," Harley Feldman said. "Just the kindest person you could ever imagine.

"It's on our minds every day. It just never goes away," he said.

Police are offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest. Anyone who knows anything should contact 480-WITNESS.

Contact ABC15 Investigator Dave Biscobing at dbiscobing@abc15.com.

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Police taking DNA samples from neighbors of Scottsdale woman murdered 2 years ago - ABC15 Arizona

When the victim asked the defendant why he was doing this, he responded he had to do it and that he was going to kill her, according to charging papers filed in King County Superior Court.

DNA found on a shoelace used to choke a woman who was viciously beaten in Redmonds Marymoor Park in August has been matched to a 33-year-old transient who is a patient at a state mental hospital after an unrelated crime, according to King County prosecutors.

Charles Stockwell Jr. was charged Wednesday with first-degree assault in connection with the Aug. 5 attack on a 43-year-old Redmond woman who was walking her dog in the park.

Stockwell is accused of hiding out in bushes, then attacking the victim from behind. He threw her to the ground next to the trail and immediately began punching her in the face and head, and pushing his thumbs into her throat, according to charging papers.

When the victim asked the defendant why he was doing this, he responded he had to do it and that he was going to kill her. At that moment, the victim thought she was going to die, Senior Deputy Prosecutor William Doyle wrote in charging papers.

As the victim tried to fight back, Stockwell grabbed her arm and wrenched it behind her, causing her elbow to pop out of its socket, the charges say.

With the victim screaming on the ground in pain, the defendant took a shoelace out of one of his shoes, put it around the victims neck, and began strangling her with it, Doyle wrote.

As the woman began to lose consciousness, she used her fingers to pull the shoelace from her neck and screamed for help. A man walking in the area heard her screams, ran over and scared the attacker away, the charges say. The attacker fled, leaving behind a pair of white tennis shoes.

That night, a King County sheriffs sergeant went to Overlake Medical Center to interview the woman, who was being treated for her injuries, the papers say. During her medical exam, the shoelace was found in her hair.

The victim met with a police sketch artist, who came up with a sketch of the suspect, the charges say.

The victims DNA was found on the shoelace along with DNA from at least two others, but no matches were found.

Then in December, during a routine scheduled search, the DNA from the shoelace was run through the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), a database of DNA profiles, and hit on Stockwell, the charges say.

Detectives learned Stockwell was in the Thurston County Jail after his arrest in connection with a residential burglary in Tumwater three days after the Marymoor Park attack, say the charges.

Detectives met with Stockwells parents, who said their son had been injured while working as a tree trimmer, then got addicted to pain pills before moving on to heroin and methamphetamine, the charges say. His mother told detectives Stockwell has a violent temper and both parents are afraid of him, say the charges.

The parents said Stockwell had shown up at their house the day before the Marymoor Park attack and his father gave him a pair of white tennis shoes, according to the charges. The father then drove Stockwell to the Port Orchard ferry and told detectives his son had then planned to take the Bremerton ferry to Seattle.

Stockwell called his parents on Aug. 8 from the Thurston County Jail, but they refused to bail him out, the charges say.

In September, Stockwell was sent to Western State Hospital for a competency evaluation and was found not competent to stand trial. In December, he was sent back to the hospital, where he remains.

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Transient charged after DNA on shoelace links him to Marymoor ... - The Seattle Times

MedCity News

Tumor mutation or DNA damage? New study calls genomic workflows into question MedCity News There are well-known limitations when it comes to sequencing old or previously frozen DNA samples. Damage inevitably occurs with age, handling and storage, decreasing the accuracy and sensitivity of the sequencing data. Fresh, high-quality samples, on ... New England Biolabs Study Highlights Extent of DNA Damage in Samples, Resulting Sequencing ErrorsGenomeWeb all 3 news articles »

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Tumor mutation or DNA damage? New study calls genomic workflows into question - MedCity News

Specifically targeting black children for unlawful DNA collection is a gross abuse of technology by law enforcement. But its exactly what the San Diego Police Department is doing, according to a lawsuit just filed by the ACLU Foundation of San Diego & Imperial Counties on behalf of one of the families affected. SDPDs actions, as alleged in the complaint, illustrate the severe and very real threats to privacy, civil liberties, and civil rights presented by granting law enforcement access to our DNA. SDPD must stop its discriminatory abuse of DNA collection technology.

Background

According to the ACLUs complaint, on March 30, 2016, police officers stopped five African American minors as they were walking through a park in southeast San Diego. There was no legal basis for the stop. As an officer admitted at a hearing in June 2016, they stopped the boys simply because they were black and wearing blue on what the officers believed to be a gang holiday.

Despite having no valid basis for the stop, and having determined that none of the boys had any gang affiliation or criminal record, the officers handcuffed at least some of the boys and searched all of their pockets. They found nothing but still proceeded to search the bag of one of the boysP.D., a plaintiff in the ACLUs case. (Its standard to use minors initials, rather than their full names, in court documents.) The officers found an unloaded revolver, which was lawfully registered to the father of one of the boys, and arrested P.D.

The officers told the other four boys that they could go free after submitting to a mouth swab. The officers had them sign a consent form, by which they voluntarily agreed to provide their DNA to the police for inclusion in SDPDs local DNA database. The officers then swabbed their cheeks and let them go.

P.D. was then told to sign the form as well. After he signed, the officers swabbed his cheek and transported him to the police department. The San Diego District Attorney filed numerous charges against P.D., but they were all dropped as a result of the illegal stop. The court did not, however, order the police to destroy either P.D.s DNA sample or the DNA profile generated via his sample. The ACLU seeks destruction of the sample and profile, along with a permanent injunction "forbidding SDPD officers from obtaining DNA from minors without a judicial order, warrant, or parental consent."

The Police Did Not Get Meaningful, Voluntarily Consent For These Highly Invasive DNA Searches

There are a few huge problems with SDPDs actions here. One is that the officers apparently didnt explain to the boys what either signing the form or swabbing their cheeks meanti.e., that they were asking the boys to both waive their Fourth Amendment rights and turn over highly sensitive genetic material. The officers wanted the boys to consent to the seizure of their DNA because consent is an exception to the Fourth Amendments prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures. But a person cant meaningfully consent to a DNA search without fully understanding the serious privacy invasion that accompanies a perhaps seemingly innocuous mouth swab. DNA can reveal an extraordinary amount of private information about a person,including familial relationships, medical history, predisposition for disease, and possibly even behavioral tendencies and sexual orientation. And DNA samples collected via mouth swabs are used to create DNA profiles, which are addedin most cases permanentlyinto law enforcement databases used for solving crimes.

Furthermore, for consent to be valid, it must be voluntaryand not motivated by threats, promises, pressure, or any other form of coercion. Here, the boys were in handcuffs, and the officers made it clear that they could go freely once they signed the form and submitted to the mouth swab. This presents both an implied threat of arrest for failure to cooperate and an implied promise of leniency in return for cooperationtwo distinct types of coercion. California courts have recognized that threats and promises have more of a coercive effect on children than on adults, making SDPDs abuse of the consent exemption in this case all the more appalling.

And as the Voice of San Diego reports, this isn't the first time the ACLU has sued SDPD over unlawful DNA collection. In 2013, SDPD paid $35,000 to settle a lawsuit involving a 2011 incident where officers improperly collected DNA without cause from five family members of a parolee.

SDPD's Policy Flouts Protections Built Into Californias DNA Collection Law

SDPDs policy on obtaining DNA from kids specifically provides for the use of these so-called consent searches. The terms of the policy, obtained via a public record act request by the Voice of San Diego, are problematic on their own. For example, the policy fails to require parental notification prior to seeking a childs consent. But whats even more problematic is that SDPDs policy seems to intentionally sidestep the minimal protections the California legislature built into Californias DNA collection law, Cal. Penal Code 296. Californias law specifies that DNA can be collected from juveniles only in very narrowand seriouscircumstances: after theyve been convicted of or plead guilty to a felony, or if they are required to register as a sex offender or in a court-mandated sex offender treatment program.[1] And theres a reason California law limits the situations in which law enforcement can collection DNA from minorsDNA collection involves a serious invasion of privacy. SDPDs actions are in direct conflict with the protections for children built into the law.

SDPDs policy acknowledges the limits in Section 296, but it gets around these limits by keeping the DNA profiles collected via its consent searches in a local database, rather than adding them into the statewide DNA database. As the policy points out, Section 296 only governs DNA seized for inclusion in the statewide database. So, as the Voice of San Diego puts it, "the San Diego Police Department has found a way around state law." SDPDs apparent efforts to flout limitations designed to protect children are deeply troubling.

Targeting Black Children For DNA Collection Is a Gross Abuse of Power

The complaints allegations regarding SDPDs coercive tactics to collect DNA from these children are astounding. But what's even uglier is that, based on the ACLUs allegations, the collection here was racially motivated. Law enforcement believes these databases will help them solve crimes, and it seems that underlying efforts to target African American minors for inclusion in San Diego's local DNA database is the biased assumption that these children are criminalsthat they either have or will in the future commit some crime. So per the ACLUs allegations, SDPD is not only abusing its power, but it's doing so in a racially discriminatory way.

We applaud the ACLU Foundation of San Diego & Imperial Counties and Voice of San Diego for shedding light on SDPDs abuse of DNA collection technology, and well be following this case closely.

[1] Californias DNA collection law does allow pre-conviction DNA collection from adults who are charged with a felony offensea provision that weve argued violates the Fourth Amendmentbut it does not permit the same for juveniles.

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San Diego Police Targets African American Children for Unlawful DNA Collection - EFF

Atlanta police are searching for a man after a DNA match tied him toa nearly 30-year-old rape case.

Because of the age of this case, Sgt. Lucas Wagaman told Channel 2 Action News,we have to move fast.

Police believe Melton Chapman, who has been arrested 27 times on burglary, fraud and drug charges, among others, raped a woman in her 20s at the former Bowen Homes housing project on June 22, 1989, according to Channel 2.

Detectives in the Special Victims Unit this week identified Chapman as the alleged attackerafter DNA evidence in a rape kit was sent to the crime lab, the television station reported.

Police said he broke into the womans home through a window, covered her head and threatened to kill her if she looked at his face.

Detectives believe Chapman may be hiding out in Fulton, Cobb or Clayton counties due to arrest records in those areas.

Anyone with information on the case is asked to call CrimeStoppers at 404-577-8477.

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DNA match ties man to nearly 30-year-old rape case - Atlanta Journal Constitution

February 15, 2017 The fossil skull of the Bahamian tortoise, which yielded the first ancient tropical DNA. Credit: Nancy Albury.

An extinct tortoise species that accidentally tumbled into a water-filled limestone sinkhole in the Bahamas about 1,000 years ago has finally made its way out, with much of its DNA intact.

As the first sample of ancient DNA retrieved from an extinct tropical species, this genetic material could help provide insights into the history of the Caribbean tropics and the reptiles that dominated them, said University of Florida ornithologist David Steadman. It could also offer clues to the region's future, as the tropics undergo significant transformation due to climate change.

"This is the first time anyone has been able to put a tropical species into an evolutionary context with molecular data," said Steadman, an ornithology curator at the Florida Museum of Natural History on the UF campus and co-author of the study discussing the finding.

"And being able to fit together the tortoise's evolutionary history together will help us better understand today's tropical species, many of which are endangered."

He called the finding "boundary-pushing" and said that even after DNA was extracted from the tortoise bones, the researchers were not optimistic that much information could be gleamed from it.

"Not only did we have DNA, we were surprised to find we could amplify it and sequence DNA beyond what we had available," Steadman said.

Most ancient DNA has come from mammals that lived in temperate regions, he said.

"The two things that are really good for the long-term preservation of DNA are coldness and dryness," Steadman said. "And the tropics typically provide neither one."

A plastic 3-D model created from the ancient tortoise's shell rests easily in two hands, about the size of a football. Bite marks from crocodiles and other predators are visible on the surface.

"The tortoise went through a pretty ugly existence," he said.

After retrieving the tortoise from Sawmill Sink, a deep blue hole in the Bahamas with steep vertical walls, scuba divers found not only the shell intact, but the entire skeleton.

"That's really unheard of in the fossil record, especially in the West Indies," Steadman said.

Access to the tortoise's skeleton and DNA enabled Florida Museum herpetologist emeritus and study co-author Richard Franz to describe its anatomy and structure in as much detail as modern species. Divers found other giant tortoises preserved in the water, but performed DNA analysis on only one for the published study.

"In the fossil record, so many species are described just from a few fragments that exist, and while it's a lot better than nothing, you don't get to characterize the entire critter," Steadman said. "Whereas, with this tortoise, well, here it is."

The tortoise skeleton contained bone collagen, a protein, which allowed scientists to radiocarbon date the animal and find out when it died. Several other tortoises that were also found in the Bahamasthough not as well preservedhelped researchers determine the species went extinct about 780 years ago, soon after the arrival of human settlers in the area.

"There's a correlation that the arrival of humans spelled the demise of the tortoises," Steadman said. "It's probably a blend of direct hunting and habitat loss as the humans started burning the forests in the dry season."

The chemical composition of the water in Sawmill Sink prevented the decay of animals that fell into the water, died about fell to the bottom 80 feet down. The secret: water with no oxygen. The water in Sawmill Sink is stratified, or has several layers. The decay of plants and animals removes the oxygen from the water deeper than 70 feet, helping to preserve the fossils.

Although the conditions in Sawmill Sink are an exception rather than a rule, the findings give scientists more hope of finding material from other extinct tropical species.

"We now know so much about the tortoise's anatomy, how it lived and its evolutionary context," he said. "To be able to do that with other species is a goal."

Explore further: Fossils excavated from Bahamian blue hole may give clues of early life

More information: Christian Kehlmaier et al. Tropical ancient DNA reveals relationships of the extinct Bahamian giant tortoise, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (2017). DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2016.2235

ong before tourists arrived in the Bahamas, ancient visitors took up residence in this archipelago off Floridas coast and left remains offering stark evidence that the arrival of humans can permanently change -- and eliminate ...

Many native species have vanished from tropical islands because of human impact, but University of Florida scientists have discovered how fossils can be used to restore lost biodiversity.

A team of Ecuadoran and international scientists said Wednesday they have identified a new giant tortoise species on the Galapagos Islands.

He's over 100 years old, but his sex life is the stuff of legend. Diego the Tortoise is quite the ladies' man, and his exploits have helped save his species from extinction.

The remains of "Lonesome George," the last of a subspecies of Galapagos Islands tortoise, will go on display at the Museum of Natural History in New York this month, Ecuador said Thursday.

As conservationists work to recover endangered species populations, taking individuals that are maintained and protected under human care and reintroducing them into the wild, it becomes apparent that there is a great deal ...

A small crocodile discovered in Germany's Langenberg Quarry may be a new species, according to a study published February 15, 2017 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Daniela Schwarz from Leibniz Institute for Evolutionary ...

French pedestrians have the reputation of being a law unto themselvesbut an unusual study has provided some scientific backing for the stereotype.

An extinct tortoise species that accidentally tumbled into a water-filled limestone sinkhole in the Bahamas about 1,000 years ago has finally made its way out, with much of its DNA intact.

A remarkable 250 million-year-old "terrible-headed lizard" fossil found in China shows an embryo inside the motherclear evidence for live birth.

An unusual and 'confusing' grave site dug up in Romania by a student from The Australian National University (ANU) is helping provide evidence for the first official written history of the Szkely people.

University of Utah mathematicians propose a theoretical framework to understand how waves and other disturbances move through materials in conditions that vary in both space and time. The theory, called "field patterns," ...

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Extinct tortoise yields oldest tropical DNA - Phys.Org

Charles Stockwell

SEATTLE Charles Stockwell, 33, was charged Wednesday with first-degree assault in the brutal and merciless attack on a woman walking her dog in Redmonds Marymoor Park last August, the King County Prosecutors Office announced.

Bail was set at $1 million.

According to court documents, on Aug. 5, 2016 at about 6:45 p.m., while the victim was walking her dog on a trail in Marymoor Park, the defendant rushed at the victim from behind, grabbed her, lifted her off her feet and threw her to the ground. The man began punching the woman in the face and then tried to strangle her by pushing his thumbs into her throat.

When the victim asked the defendant why he was doing this, he responded that he had to do it and that he was going to kill her, the documents say.

During the attack, the man grabbed the womans arm, wrenched it behind her back and popped her elbow out of her socket. With the victim screaming on the ground in pain, the defendant took a shoelace out of one of his shoes, put it around the victims neck, and began strangling her with it, the documents say.

The attacker fled when a man walking in the area heard the victims screams and ran over.

A mixed DNA profile was obtained from the shoelace used to strangle her and a during a routine CODIS search, the profile hit on the defendant, Charles Stockwell, as a possible contributor.

Three days after the attack, Stockwell was arrested for burglary in Thurston County.

He was transported to Western State Hospital on Dec. 16 and has remained there since. He has been found incompetent to stand trial so far.

In December, the victim of the attack, who does not want to be identified, issued this statement:

First I want to thank the King County Sheriffs office and the King County Prosecutors office for their continued work, diligence and support over the last six months. Many other local police departments, FBI, Crime Stoppers and the media did their part in getting the word out, assisting in the investigation and trying to keep the public safe from this man.

Photos show the facial injuries of the victim and a police sketch of the attacker.

I want to thank my family, friends and community for your continued support.

My focus has been on recovery, protecting the public from this man and on making a strong case for the prosecution. I continue to recover physically and mentally. The public is safe with the man identified and in custody. Now I want to focus on what I can do to ensure he is in prison and off the streets for as long as possible.

I have faith in and support the Prosecutors plan and reasons behind not releasing additional information at this time. I hope and ask that the public and media give them the time needed so they can do their part preparing the best possible case.

It is not over yet we still need to put him in prison for a very long time so that he is not able to hurt anyone else ever again.

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Police: DNA from shoelace led to man now charged with brutal Marymoor Park attack - Q13 FOX

Science Daily

DNA patterns can unlock how glucose metabolism drives cancer, study finds Science Daily Now, a new multi-year study of DNA patterns in tumor cells suggests that these aberrant genetic signatures are not random but reflect selective forces in tumor evolution. The findings also demonstrate that these changes drive glucose metabolism in ... and more »

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DNA patterns can unlock how glucose metabolism drives cancer, study finds - Science Daily

JERSEYVILLE Authorities suspect a person whose body was found Friday in a burned-out car drove into an embankment and was uable to get out as grass under the engine caught fire.

The Illinois State Police Crime Scene Investigation Office and Illinois State Fire Marshals Office have not made a final determination on what caused the fire on Phils Creek Road, a dead-end road near Jerseyville.

The car belonged to Betty A. Short, 85, of Carrollton. She had been missing for several days.

DNA tests are being conducted to confirm it was Short who was found inside the car. Coroner Larry Alexander said identification could not be made visually, which is why the DNA test is necessary.

Short disappeared from her home last week and a family member found her car Friday morning in rural Jersey County.

We performed an autopsy on Sunday and we are waiting for some test results to get back before establishing a cause of death, Alexander said.

Sheriff John Wimmersberg said the car was the Chevrolet Impala that Short had been driving.

We have no reason to believe it isnt Betty Short, Wimmersberg said.

While a specific time of the fire has not been determined, Wimmersberg said he believes the fire likely took place during the night or early morning hours.

A fire like that would have had thick, black smoke billowing up, Wimmersberg said. There was nothing reported, so we believe it would have taken place at night, when you wouldnt have seen the smoke.

The area around the accident scene is fairly isolated, but Wimmersberg said there are a few residents who could have seen the smoke if the fire had been during the day. Because the area is low-lying, Wimmersberg said it would have been difficult to see the glow of a fire from any of the nearby houses.

Greene County Sheriff Rob McMillen said he spoke with a Jerseyville resident who said Short had pulled into her driveway late Tuesday.

The location of the accident was south of the house where Short stopped and in the opposite direction of where Short told the resident she was going.

[She] told the woman that she was lost and trying to find her sister, who lives in Carrollton, McMillen said. The lady said she left and said she knew where she was going and was heading back to town.

McMillen said this is the first time Short had been missing.

Her family said she had been getting a little forgetful, but nothing extreme, McMillen said. It was likely old age. She drove into town the day before she went missing and picked up her medication.

http://myjournalcourier.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/web1_web-art.jpg

Samantha McDaniel-Ogletree can be reached at 217-245-6121, ext. 1233, or on Twitter @JCNews_samantha.

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Authorities awaiting DNA results in deadly car fire - Jacksonville Journal Courier

For a decade, Art and Lois Serrin have desperately sought the identity of the man they found having sex with their daughter moments before discovering her lifeless body.

Now, innovative DNA technology may have finally revealed his face, officials said Tuesday.

Jodine Serrin, a 39-year-old Carlsbad woman with developmental disabilities, was found beaten and strangledin her condominiumon Feb. 14, 2007.DNA evidence collected from the bedroom where she was found was analyzed numerous times over the years, but it never led to a suspect.

Recently, detectives on the case submitted that DNA to Parabon NanoLabs,which has developed a test that transforms genetic material into a digital image of an unknown suspect.

Investigators believe its the first time the technology has been used in San Diego County, and called it a game changer for unsolved cases especially ones that have gone cold, like Jodine Serrins death.

Carlsbad police Chief Neil Gallucci said any tool that gets detectives one step closer to catching and prosecuting a suspect is a worthwhile investment.

"To create a profile that someone out there recognizes, that sparks even one phone call that helps our detectives thats an awesome possibility, he said.

The process, called phenotyping, uses DNA to predict a suspects skin color, eye color, hair color, gender, ancestry and face shape. It can even determine if someone has freckles or not.

According to the analysis, the man who killed Serrin has very fair to fair skin, green or blue eyes, blonde or brown hair and some freckles. He is likely in his 40s and of Northern European descent.

Using information from Jodine Serrins father, who may have caught a glimpse of the killer that Valentines Day night,police also believe the suspect is heavyset with a fat stomach and disheveled hair. He is between 5 feet 8 inches and 6 feet tall and likely has a history of mental health issues.

We believe the suspect was an acquaintance of, or had just met the victim, said Tony Johnson, an investigator with the San Diego District Attorneys Office.We believe there are friends of Jodine who will recognize the composite, and we urge them to call us.

Officials released the suspects imageon Tuesday, the 10th anniversary of Serrins death, and asked anyone with information to call (760) 931-2225. Her parents said the image has given them hope that their daughters murderer may one day be brought to justice.

We feel that somehow, somewhere hes out there and somebody knows something whatever that might be, it will help, said Art Serrin.Its been toughwaiting. Ten years is a long time.

Usually on the anniversary of their daughters death, the Carlsbad couple gets out of town to insulate themselves from anything that might remind them of that horrific day.

It was Valentines Day 2007. The parentswere celebrating the holiday at the movies, but Lois Serrin couldnt shake the feeling that something was wrong.

Although Jodine had lived independently for 15 years, she had mental disabilities that called for extra care. It was very unusual to go a day without hearing from her, and they hadnt spoken since the night before.

They left the theater before the movie was done and went to their daughters condominium on Swallow Lane. When they unlocked the door, a chainlock was in place. They called out to her, but there was no answer. Thats when Art Serrin kicked open the door.

The parents rushed in, and stumbled on their daughter apparently having sex with aman who looked vaguely familiar.Startled, they went to another part of the residence to wait, but their daughternever emerged.

When they peeked in on her again, she was dead and the man was gone.

Since then, the couple has partnered with police to solve the case.

They created a website where people could learn of the case and submit information. With help from the Governors Office, a reward of $52,000 was put together for anyone who provides information that leads to an arrest.

The couple is holding out hope that the new image will finally lead to their daughters killer.

We need to get this monster out of the woodwork and off the street, Art Serrin said. Thats whats kept me and my wife going.

Twitter: @LAWinkley

(619) 293-1546

lyndsay.winkley@sduniontribune.com

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DNA technology gives new face to decade-old cold case - The San Diego Union-Tribune