Category Archives: DNA

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Ancestry DNA: Shop the Father's Day sale for up to $50 off DNA kits - Reviewed

Jeffrey Deskovic Speaking in Davis in 2019 at the Annual Vanguard Event

by Jeffrey Deskovic

Looking back will feature reprints of articles that Jeff previously wrote while a columnist at The Westchester Guardian, which encompass topics that are applicable here in CA as well as across the country and not simply applicable to NY.

Over the course of slightly more than two decades, DNA testing has proven that wrongful convictions occur much more frequently than was previously believed. The testing has provided wrongful conviction samples to be studied, with the goal of identifying wrongful conviction causes, and recognizable patterns. As a result, we now know many of the causes of wrongful conviction: false confessions, misidentification, junk science, witnesses who lie in exchange for benefit, as well as prosecutorial misconduct and bad lawyering.

As a result, legislative changes are sought to address those causes with the goal of preventing future wrongful convictions. Part of the concern which fuels the effort is the fact that the same deficiencies that have led to wrongful convictions in DNA cases also exist in cases that do not have DNA to be tested. Therefore, clearing the wrongfully convicted in such cases, although possible, is much more difficult. The difficulty is amplified by the fact that there are very few innocence project organizations that are willing to take on non-DNA cases.

Although organizations often assume the label Innocence Project as part of their name, leading casual observers to believe that they take on all cases of wrongful conviction, the sad reality is that almost all of them work with DNA cases exclusively. Given that DNA is only available in 10-12% of all serious felony cases, there is no doubt that factually innocent persons have been turned away by DNA-only innocenceprojects, and that they often have no place else to turn. That is totally unacceptable to me.

This possibility is no mere theory: the recent exoneration of Dewey Bozella in Dutchess County, New York, after 26 years of wrongful incarceration, previously covered in The Guardian, is but one example. Bozella had written to The Innocence Project in New York for help. However, once it became apparent that the physical evidence had been destroyed and that DNA testing would not be an option, the Project no longer provided representation. However, Bozella did get lucky in that the law firm of Wilmer Hale was contacted by The Innocence Project and asked to take his case, which they agreed to do; DNA-only innocence projects usually do not take that step.

Perhaps my own sensitivity can be best attributed to my personal experience. In the course of my 16-year-long incarceration, I reached a point, in 2001, when my appeals were totally exhausted, and I no longer had legal representation. At that point, I had to find an attorney who would be willing to work for me for free, as well as an investigator so inclined, and hope that together they might find some new evidence of innocence.

I was turned down by numerous innocence projects. I know, firsthand, what it is like once one has been turned away by existing organizations. One is then stuck writing long shot, at times even random, desperate letters to any number of organizations and people, most of the time not even getting a response.

I know what that felt like mentally: the level of desperation, frustration, helplessness, constantly having to fight off feelings of wanting to give up, as well as the gnawing and corrosive depression; and how even coming up with another place to seek assistance from became an almost insurmountable challenge. I came up with all kinds of lines of reasoning and angles as to how people or places could possibly help me. I now realize, as well, in hindsight, that, through my desperation, I sometimes ascribed powers to people far beyond their real capabilities.

Existing Non-DNA Innocence Projects

Despite the dearth of non-DNA innocence projects, still there are a few existing organizations worth mentioning. One of them is the Medill Innocence Project, which is housed at Northwestern University, at their Journalism School. Under the supervision of Professor David Protess, students follow up on leads, interview and reinterview witnesses, and investigate alternative suspects, as a practical, hands-on training in investigative journalism. I would like to acknowledge the innovativeness in their approach.

Centurion Ministries, the countrys oldest innocence project, headquartered in New Jersey, takes on DNA and non-DNA cases alike. They have investigators on staff, and when a case is developed enough sufficiently to be taken to court, they proceed to hire an attorney.

The Exoneration Initiative is a new organization which is based in New York City. Professor William Hellerstein, who was formerly with the now-defunct Second Look Program out of Brooklyn Law School that took on non-DNA cases, has helped to develop the new organization.

Although they take on non-DNA cases, they do use DNA as a tool when the result of testing is not dispositive of the question of guilt or innocence but instead opens up other avenues of inquiry. A good example of this was the recent William McCaffrey case in which saliva from a bite mark that the victim sustained yielded a negative result. When confronted with this, the victim recanted, admitting that she lied about the entire matter. The saliva on its own would not have cleared McCaffrey, because theoretically she could have sustained the bite from actions un- related to the alleged rape.

Exoneration in Non-DNA Cases

Although it is harder to clear people in non-DNA cases, it is not impossible. The above-mentioned Bozella case, along with the well- known Marty Tankleff case each illustrate that fact. I wish to briefly review other methods of exonerating wrongfully convicted in non-DNA cases:

Incredibly, it has also occurred that experts either do not have the necessary educational background, or have inflated the statistical significance of a match or other piece of evidence as consistent with victim injuries or a prosecution theory.

Finally, yet another method involves learning something that discredits a key piece of evidence used in helping to convict, and/or the discovery that key parts of testimony were perjured.

Jeffrey Deskovic, Esq, MA, is an internationally recognized wrongful conviction expert and founder of The Jeffrey Deskovic Foundation for Justice, which has freed 9 wrongfully convicted people and helped pass 3 laws aimed at preventing wrongful conviction. Jeff is an advisory board member of It Could Happen To You, which has chapters in CA, NY, and PA. He serves on the Global Advisory Council for Restorative Justice International, and is a sometimes co-host and co-producer of the show, 360 Degrees of Success. Jeff was exonerated after 16 years in prison-from age 17-32- before DNA exonerated him and identified the actual perpetrator. A short documentary about his life is entitled Conviction, and episode 1 of his story in Virtual Reality is called, Once Upon A Time In Peekskill. Jeff has a Masters Degree from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, with his thesis written on wrongful conviction causes and reforms needed to address them, and a law degree from the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University. Jeff is now a practicing attorney.

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Looking Back: There Is a Strong Need for Non-DNA Innocence Projects - The Peoples Vanguard of Davis

LocalMarvin C. McClendon Jr. stands in the prisoner's dock during his arraignment in Lawrence District Court, Friday, May 13, 2022, in Lawrence, Mass. McClendon Jr., a 74-year-old Alabama man, was held without bail after a not guilty plea to a charge of murder in connection with the 1988 killing of 11-year-old Melissa Ann Tremblay. Tim Jean/The Eagle-Tribune via AP, Pool

By Associated Press

LAWRENCE, Mass. (AP) A 74-year-old Alabama man was linked to the 1988 killing of an 11-year-old girl in Massachusetts through DNA evidence, a prosecutor said at the suspects arraignment on Friday.

Marvin C. McClendon Jr. was held without bail after a not guilty plea to a murder charge in connection with the death of Melissa Ann Tremblay was entered on his behalf in Lawrence District Court.

Tremblay, of Salem, New Hampshire, was found in a Lawrence trainyard on Sept. 12, 1988, the day after she was reported missing. She had been stabbed and her body had been run over by a train, authorities said.

The cold case unit at the Essex district attorneys office has been working on the case since 2014, and McClendon has long been considered a person of interest, authorities said.

A DNA profile of a suspect taken from the girls body was linked to McClendon, prosecutor Jessica Strasnick said in court Friday. In addition, a van spotted near the scene of the killing was similar to a van that the suspect drove at the time, she said. No motive for the killing was disclosed.

McClendon, a former Massachusetts corrections officer, was arrested at his home in Bremen, Alabama, last month.

A telephone message seeking comment was left with McClendons attorney.

The victim had accompanied her mother and her mothers boyfriend to a Lawrence social club not far from the railyard and went outside to play while the adults stayed inside, authorities said at a news conference last month. She was reported missing later that night. Lawrence, Massachusetts, and Salem, New Hampshire, are just a few miles apart.

McClendon, a former employee of the Massachusetts prisons department, lived not far from Lawrence in Chelmsford and was doing carpentry work at the time of the killing, authorities said. He worked and attended church in Lawrence.

The girls mother, Janet Tremblay, died in 2015 at age 70, according to her obituary.

Her surviving family members thanked law enforcement officials Saturday for making an arrest more than three decades later.

They said they appreciated that police never gave up on the case, adding they look forward to seeing justice finally served.

We never thought that after 33 1/2 years we would finally see someone arrested and facing a judge, the family said in a statement provided by Essex County District Attorney Jonathan Blodgetts office. The fact that technology has advanced and they were able to follow DNA evidence to find this man has brought us great joy.

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Suspect linked to 1988 killing of 6th grader through DNA - Boston.com

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) DNA evidence and cellphone GPS data led to an arrest in the shooting death of a man in February of last year.

Dashaun Donte Hunters DNA was found on bullet casings located at the scene, according to police reports filed in Superior Court. Analysis of his phone revealed it was in the area about the time of the shooting, the reports say.

Hunter, 34, is charged with first-degree murder and held without bail. He has a preliminary hearing scheduled next week.

On the night of Feb. 20, 2021, police received a ShotSpotter activation in which seven shots were detected in the 300 block of South Hayes Street. Officers found Reginald Albert Gordon McCoy Jr., 31, lying in the roadway.

He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Surveillance video captured a blue 2016 Kia Optima speeding from the area, according to the documents. The Kia was registered to Hunter.

Hunters wife told police he left her mothers home in the Optima at about 10:30 p.m. and she didnt know where he went, the reports say. The shooting happened minutes later.

Hunter was charged about a year later.

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Suspects DNA found on spent casings in deadly shooting: reports - KGET 17

When cells reproduce, the internal mechanisms that copy DNA get it right nearly every time. Rice University bioscientists have uncovered a tiny detail that helps understand how the process could go wrong.

In this model, when the incorrect substrate, dGTP, enters the enzyme along with the first metal ion, the primer flips up and misaligns with its target, a phosphate atom on the dGTP substrate. At this state, the incorrect substrate dGTP and template dT form an abnormal shape, called a wobble base-pair. Afterward, the second metal ion pulls the primer into alignment with its target. As the primer begins to align, the third metal ion binds near two oxygen atoms on the phosphate region of the dGTP substrate. Afterward, the third metal ion intercepts these two oxygens, breaking this bond while simultaneously forming a bond between the primer and incorrect substrate. Animation by Caleb Chang

Their study of enzymes revealed the presence of a central metal ion critical to DNA replication also appears to be implicated in misincorporation, the faulty ordering of nucleotides on new strands.

The observation reported in Nature Communications could help find treatments for genetic mutations and the diseases they cause, including cancer.

Rice structural biologist Yang Gao, graduate student Caleb Chang and alumna Christie Lee Luo used time-resolved crystallography to analyze the flexible enzymes called polymerase as they bend and twist to rapidly reassemble complete strands of DNA from a pool of C, G, A and T nucleotides.

All of the proteins involved in DNA replication rely on metal ions -- either magnesium or manganese -- to catalyze the transfer of nucleotides to their proper positions along the strand, but whether there were two or three ions involved has long been a topic of debate.

The Rice team seems to have settled that through studying a polymerase known as eta, a translesion synthesis enzyme that guards against ultraviolet-induced lesions. Those with mutations on the poly-eta gene often have a predisposition for xeroderma pigmentosum and skin cancer, according to the researchers.

Gao said typical polymerases resemble a right-handed shape, and he thinks of them in terms of an actual hand: They have a palm domain that holds the active site, a finger domain that closes up to interact with the new base pair, and a thumb domain that binds the primer/template DNA, he said.

But until now, scientists could only guess at some details of the well-hidden mechanism by which polymerases do their job, and occasionally fail. The type of time-resolved crystallography used in Gaos lab allowed the researchers to analyze proteins crystallized at 34 intermediate stages to define the positions of their atoms before, during and after DNA synthesis.

This kinetic reaction is difficult to capture because there are many atoms, and they work very fast, said Gao, an assistant professor of biosciences who joined Rice as a CPRIT Scholar in 2019. Weve never known how the atoms move together because the spatial information was missing. Freezing the proteins and a small molecule substrate lets us capture this catalytic reaction for the first time.

The study led to their theory that the first of the three metal atoms in eta supports nucleotide binding, and the second is the key to keeping the nucleotide and primer on track by stabilizing the binding of loose nucleotides to the primer located on the existing half of the new strand (aka the substrate). Primers are short DNA strands that mark where polymerases start stringing new nucleotides.

Only when the first two metal ions are in check can the third one come and drive the reaction home, said Chang, suggesting the process may be universal among polymerases.

The researchers also noted poly-eta contains a motif that makes it prone to misalignment of primers, leading to a greater chance of misincorporation.

This is, first, about a basic mechanism of life, Gao said. DNA has to be copied accurately, and errors can lead to human disease. People who study these enzymes know that for DNA synthesis, they always do much, much better than they should because theres a very limited amount of energy available for them to choose the right base pair.

For Gao, the real takeaway is in proving the ability of time-resolved crystallography to observe an entire catalytic process in atomic detail.

This lets us see exactly whats happening in a dynamic catalytic process over time, he said.

The Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (RR190046), the Welch Foundation (C-2033-20200401) and a predoctoral fellowship from the Houston Area Molecular Biophysics Program (National Institutes of Health grant T32 GM008280) supported the research.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-30005-3

https://news-network.rice.edu/news/files/2022/05/0509_DNA-1-WEB.jpg

The structure of poly-eta, an enzyme that helps direct DNA replication. A time-resolved crystallography study of the enzyme at Rice University uncovered the importance of a third metal ion that helps stabilize the process, ensuring accuracy. (Credit: Yang Gao Lab/Rice University)

https://news-network.rice.edu/news/files/2022/05/0509_DNA-2-web.jpg

A set of microscopic crystals like the one above used to freeze the structure of an active enzyme helped Rice University scientists uncover the mechanism in a polymerase that helps direct the replication of DNA. (Credit: Yang Gao Lab/Rice University)

https://news-network.rice.edu/news/files/2022/05/0509_DNA-3-WEB.jpg

Rice University graduate student Caleb Chang carried out time-resolved crystallography experiments to determine the mechanism of a polymerase as it aids in the replication of DNA. (Credit: Photo by Joshua Chang)

Rice lab dives deep for DNAs secrets: https://news.rice.edu/news/2021/rice-lab-dives-deep-dnas-secrets

Yang Gao Lab: http://yanggaolab.blogs.rice.edu

Rice Department of BioSciences: https://biosciences.rice.edu

Wiess School of Natural Sciences: https://naturalsciences.rice.edu

Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nations top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 4,052 undergraduates and 3,484 graduate students, Rices undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is just under 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is ranked No. 1 for lots of race/class interaction and No. 1 for quality of life by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as a best value among private universities by Kiplingers Personal Finance.

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Crystal study may resolve DNA mystery | Rice News | News and Media Relations | Rice University - Rice News

Yashua Kloss first solo museum exhibition, Our Labour, at the Wellin Museum of Art in Clinton, N.Y., is a profoundly meaningful debut. Throughout the show the themes of family and labor are intertwined with the historical circumstance of the Great Migration and the coincidence of a DNA test revealing his blood relatives who had been barely known by the artist.

Klos, 44, who was born to a white mother and a Black father and raised by the mother in Chicago, now has his studio in the Bronx. He primarily works in the medium of prints, which make up the majority of pieces in Our Labour. But the show also includes his hybrid maple wood sculptures that integrate ritual masks signifying Kloss African ancestry, and welding helmets, which are the accouterments of car manufacturing labor the profession that lured his own family from Memphis to Detroit in the 1960s.

Ive long been familiar with Kloss oeuvre after seeing his solo show at Tilton Gallery in 2015, and subsequent group exhibitions at International Print Center New York and BRIC. His work consists of distinctive collages of prints and graphite on paper that most often feature human faces or hands commingled with feathers, rock formations, or pieces of wood and brick, as if he regards people as fundamentally constructed of these quotidian materials.

The shows curator (and director of the Wellin) Tracy Adler, who has known the artist since her days as a curator at Hunter College Art Galleries, says Klos was always a standout to me. She continues, Printmaking can often feel historical and very pristine but his felt improvisational and open-ended. He throws the rule book out when it comes to printmaking.

Recently I spoke with the artist via Zoom about the work that is in the show and how it helped him connect with his family and loved ones. This exhibition will travel to his gallery, Sikkema Jenkins, in Manhattan in October. These are excerpts from our conversation.

So, your show at the Wellin Museum is titled Our Labour. Who is the implied us in that title?

I like titles to have double meanings. If Im lucky, I can find one with a triple meaning. Our Labour is first a reference to my family and the work that my family has done in the auto plants in Detroit. Its a reclamation of a larger history of Black labor in America. But its also a larger historical context of the Black our, which has been excluded from having visual representation [in this nations history].

And then, I think back to the personal this is a new family for me. I mean, theyve been there the whole time, but I am getting reconnected to them, learning about all of the work that they have done to stay together. Its a big-ass family. I recently learned that my dad was one of 15 kids, and they all had a lot of kids.

And think about the migration effort of Black folks moving from the South to the Midwest, maintaining family, raising each others kids, and working, and having these jobs. Im thinking about all that labor, and all the labor that its taken for me and them to also incorporate one another into our lives.

Lastly, my work is explicitly about process, which is why I left alongside the artworks those raw MDF blocks of wood [used to make some of the prints], because I like to unveil some of that labor in my own practice, the hand in the work.

You discovered this family later in life. Is one of the things this show brings to the surface the question of what actually constitutes family?

From being raised by my mother, I learned that your family are the people who you survive with, the people who support you, and who you support, and my moms best friends were my aunties, and their children were my cousins and my brothers.

There was a moment when you had some initial connection through your father, I think when you were 7?

Thats right. I knew they were there the whole time. I just didnt have a way to get in contact with them. I grew up without my father. I met him two times in my life, and when I was 7, he took me on a road trip to Detroit, where I met the rest of the family, but being 7, it all felt like a dream. I wasnt sure how much of it was really real, and of course, as kids, we make our own narratives to protect ourselves. So, I blocked out that that was even a possibility to ever get back in touch.

Then [in February 2019] I did this DNA test, not with the intent of connecting to them, but to find out the African countries that Im connected to. And then a year later, I got a Facebook message from Detroit.

What was the nature of the message?

Hey, we did a DNA test over here. It looks like you might be a close relative. In fact, you look like some of the cousins here in Detroit. They said: Do you know about the McDonalds or the Masseys out of Detroit? And I said, Eureka. My dad is Leon [McDonald], you know? And they said, Well, then, were cousins.

She left a phone number, and my head exploded first, and once I gathered the pieces, I paced back and forth, and I was like, whats going on here? Is this legit? All of a sudden, it seemed so available.

So, I jumped on FaceTime. My cousin Paige was on the other end, Hey, this is my mom, your auntie. Look, thats your Uncle George that just walked in. Thats your It was, like, people just popping in the house. In my mind, I had written them off as being similar to the stories I heard of my dad. But it turns out theyre the most generous people I ever met in my life. Its been like hitting the lottery.

So, lets talk a bit about whats in the show. You have a mural that is a kind of family tree, Our Labour (20202021). What inspired the composition?

The composition is inspired by Diego Riveras Detroit Industry Mural, made in 1933, on the walls at the Detroit Institute of Art. The second time I went to see my family I saw this mural and was just blown away by how large it was. Months later, I said: That mural could be the composition for my family tree, because I was trying to wrestle with understanding my relationship to all these people.

Being a visual learner, I need to see these faces and memorize their relationships. So, the mural is divided using some of the main components of Diegos mural for the factory background, with Grandma [his fathers mother] in the center, dropping the motor, and then her first four Massey boys on the left side, the 10 McDonalds in the center, and then she had one last, Paul Green, all the way to the right. Then, on the plant floor, where Rivera placed workers, I placed first cousins, nieces, nephews, and then, of course, a sneaky self-portrait.

Could you talk about what else is in the show and how they relate to the central theme?

There is an image Vein Vine (2021) with the hand taking a moment to hold and admire those [Michigan] wildflowers we talked about labor and being compelled to fulfill this representational need of Black folks in this historic space [of fine art portraiture]. I dont want to continually replicate images of Black folks working the assumptions of the Black body as a body for work. So, that hand isnt working, its taking a break.

So, its a moment of leisure. Its a moment of appreciating beauty that is actually available to that Black person?

Absolutely. Im thinking about all these residential areas where theres abandoned properties, weeds and wildflowers that are growing over things and reclaiming them, and thinking about those as symbols of reclamation, not only a reclamation of nature after capitalism has collapsed, but a sort of reclamation of Blackness.

Is there anything else you want to tell us about Our Labour?

I started this during Covid, Im sure a lot of us were feeling a need for connectivity in a new way during Covid, and Im pretty sure that my reconnection to family really helped sustain me through that. The project became a way of bridging that space between us, became a way of communicating, of building a relationship, of needing each other. You know, we needed each other to make this thing happen.

Our Labour

Through June 12, Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College, 198 College Hill Road, Clinton, N.Y.; (315) 859-4396; hamilton.edu/wellin.

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DNA Test Led Yashua Klos to New Connections and New Art - The New York Times

The search for the father she never knew only took seven decades to accomplish for 99-year-old Margaret Bette Clayton Hults.

The former longtime Walla Wallan never met her father, but she gained newfound family members through DNA research.

Many in the clan came to town on May 8, the day before Mothers Day, to meet, said Hults daughter Sarah Sally Sumerlin of Walla Walla.

What started out as a small gathering of six or so people grew into a crowd of at least 60, Sumerlin said. That includes Hults daughters Sandra Torres of Waitsburg and Maxine Walker of Nebraska, and son Dan Hults, with whom Bette lives in Everett.

Originally planned for a rendezvous in Wildwood Park, cold, rainy weather chased the group to Sumerlins home.

It was a fun day gathering, visiting and learning about the family tree with Hults relatives, Sumerlin said.

Hults 80-year-old nephew, Alan Thompson of Spokane, composed a song for her to play on his newly acquired lute. Hults is already looking forward to her 100th birthday.

About three weeks before the gathering, Hults told Sumerlin, I dont know if I will make it. But then the next day she reported she felt great.

The family has done due diligence with genealogy research, Sumerlin said. Our family goes back to almost God 1022, (before William the Conqueror left Normandy, France, and stormed across the English Channel in 1066).

I dont know if Gods on there, but that family tree goes way back, Sally Sumerlin said of the chart behind her mother, Bette Clayton Hults, 99. The extended, multi-generational family, numbering about 60 or so, gathered the day before Mothers Day, on May 7, 2022.

Hults said the family tree with the John Howland family (he died in 1673) indicates he was aboard the Mayflower. He and his sons are forefathers to such leaders as Bush, Roosevelt, Nixon, Ford and Churchill, Sumerlin said.

My mother is a member of Daughters of the American Revolution. Ancestors came over on the Mayflower. Its a respectable family.

But then theres Hults father, about whom she knew nothing, other than the name Rex Clayton listed on her birth certificate.

(My grandfather) was someone who wasnt the most scrupulous of persons, Dan Hults said in a Sept. 4, 2016, Everett Herald article about Hults DNA odyssey. George Harpley Pidd II, Claytons real name, was 71 when he died in 1968 in Cupertino, California.

So the man had an alias, was a bigamist, was convicted of a crime and tried to break out of jail. Thats a rather noisy closeted skeleton.

But until age 93, Hults knew none of this. Her father was a mystery.

Her mother, Fannie Mae Janes Netherland, married Rex Clayton in Casper, Wyoming, on April 3, 1922. They ended up in Ogden, Utah. Mae was pregnant with Bette Clayton, who was born in November 1922.

George left her that year and went as a railroad strike breaker to California and sent money for Mae to join him, but she didnt go, Sumerlin said.

Curiously, George told Fannie Mae to look for an ad in True West or Old West magazine if he didnt come back. Mae never spoke about this time in her life and subsequently divorced Clayton.

Before Mae, George married Mirth Woodall Pidd and was stationed with the U.S. Army at Fort Lewis, now Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Tacoma, Washington.

Mirth wanted money to go to Portland so he decided to mug a taxi driver. They were probably still married when he married Mae.

The Everett Herald story cites a 1918 Tacoma Times article that reported Pidd was court-martialed, sentenced to life imprisonment and dishonorably discharged.

Furthermore, the Evening News in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, reported in 1919 that Pidd was found guilty of beating taxi driver Lawrence Berquist into insensibility with a gas pipe for the purpose of robbery, which netted about $10.

The Evening News continued, reporting that Pidd was freed after the sentence was declared invalid because Pidds wife had testified against him. It said the court couldnt try him again on the charge because of a technical violation of the law.

While in jail at Fort Lewis, he and two other inmates plotted to break out of the slammer.

They were served pancakes with bottles of syrup in their cells every morning, Sumerlin said.

Using the same bean-the-victim-over the head modus operandi, the jailer was conked with a syrup bottle, and the inmates got his keys to open the cell doors. Oddly, Georges door lock was stuffed with paper, which prevented the key from working. The other inmates got away, and he was left to face the music.

Hults, who had been looking for any information about this man, had her DNA evaluated through Ancestry.com when she was 93. She found Rex, the name of her father. But his name is really George, Sumerlin said.

They discovered cousins and visited them in California. Sumerlin located a nephew in Spokane, and before the COVID-19 quarantine, she took her mom to meet him.

Bette and her husband, Thomas Hults, moved to Walla Walla in 1963-64. We were dirt poor. We came out to see the Seattle Worlds Fair, Sumerlin said. They liked Walla Walla so much they settled here.

Bette Hults was a saleswoman and taught sewing at the Singer Sewing Machine Company on Main Street. She was a bookkeeper for Burbee Candy Co. and later worked at Blue Mountain Action Council. She was a 4-H and Campfire leader. Thomas Hults died in 1990.

My mother was on hospice care in her early 90s and recovered. It shows a woman with a strong constitution. Shes a character, Sumerlin said.

This story is incredibly crazy, Sumerlin said. I wish she could have found (her dad) before he died.

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'Incredibly crazy' 70-year-old mystery solved through DNA research - Walla Walla Union-Bulletin

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A new study reveals the strongest evidence to date that all bison in North America carry multiple small, but clearly identifiable, regions of DNA that originated from domestic cattle.

Researchers compared genome sequences among the major historical lineages of bison to 1,842 domestic cattle, establishing that all analyzed bison genomes contained evidence of cattle introgression.

This comparative study clearly documents that the people responsible for saving the bison from extinction in the late 1800s are also responsible for introducing cattle genetics into this species, says James Derr, a researcher with the Texas A&M University College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences (CVMBS).

The study updates findings from a series of studies published 20 years ago in which Derrs team revealed that only a few bison herds existed that appeared to be free of domestic cattle introgression. Now, with better genetic technology, these researchers have shown that even those herds are not free from hybridization.

Today, it appears that all major public, private, tribal, and non-governmental organization bison herds have low levels of cattle genomic introgression, says Sam Stroupe, a PhD student in Derrs lab and first author of the study in Scientific Reports.

This includes Yellowstone National Park, as well as Elk Island National Park in Canada, which were thought to be free of cattle introgression based on previous genetic studies.

These new findings will also have ramifications for bison conservation efforts; in this case, their findings could actually make conservation efforts easier, since certain herds will no longer need to be isolated, Derr says.

This shared genetic ancestry is the result of multiple hybridization events between North American bison and cattle over the last 200 years, which followed the well documented bison population crash of the 1800s.

Those hybridization events were mostly human-made, as cattle ranchers in the late 1800s intentionally bred domestic cattle with bison in an effort to create a better beef-producing animal. While the crossbreeding was successful, it failed to achieve their main purpose, and the effort was largely abandoned.

At the same time, William Hornaday and the American Bison Society were beginning national conservation efforts, sounding the alarm that North American bison were being driven to extinction. As a result, a national movement began to establish new bison conservation populations and preserve existing bison populations.

However, the only bison available to establish these new conservation herds were almost exclusively animals from the cattlemens private herds.

As a result, these well-intentioned hybridization efforts leave a complicated genetic legacy, says Brian Davis, a CVMBS researcher. Without these private herds, it is possible bison would have become extinct. At the same time, this intentional introduction of interspecies DNA resulted in remnant cattle footprints in the genomes of the entire contemporary species.

We now have the computational and molecular tools to compare bison genomic sequences to thousands of cattle and conclusively determine the level and distribution of domestic cattle genetics in bison that represent each of these historical bison lineages, he says.

Its important to recognize that although hybridization between closely related wildlife species has occurred naturally over timewell-known examples include coyotes and eastern wolves, grizzlies and polar bears, and bobcats and Canadian lynxthe bison-cattle hybridization is almost entirely a purposeful, human-made event that happened to coincide with the tremendous population bottleneck of the late 1800s, Derr says.

Two primary events, an extremely small bison population size and widespread interest in developing hybrid animals, changed and shaped the genomes of this species in ways we are just now starting to understand, Derr says. Nevertheless, this species did survive and now they are thriving across the plains of North America.

As one of the worlds most iconic animals, bison play a number of important, and sometimes conflicting, roles in society.

While some consider them a wildlife species that shouldnt be domesticated, others consider them an important economic livestock animal; although bison are raised as wildlife in state and federal parks and wildlife refuges, most bison alive today are owned by private ranchers and are raised for meat and fiber production.

To others, they hold religious and spiritual roles, as well as being icons of continental pride. In 2016, bison were even named the US national mammal.

Though viewed in different ways, bison conservation is a priority to many different groups, and it is imperative that we agree to use the best available scientific information to make decisions moving forward, Stroupe says.

These findings clearly show that, using modern genomic biotechnology, we can uncover many historical details regarding the past histories of a species and use this information to provide informed stewardship in establishing conservation policies into the future.

Source: Texas A&M University

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All N. American bison have a bit of cattle DNA - Futurity: Research News

Theres an obvious similarity between the murders of Erin Gilmour and Susan Tice.

Both murders were horrific, Det. Sgt. Stephen Smith of Toronto Police said in an email.

Both women were bound and stabbed repeatedly in their Toronto homes in late 1983.

Both scenes represent a sadistic offender, Michael Arntfield, a Western University criminologist and former police officer, said in an interview.

Gilmour was 22.

Tice was 45.

Gilmour was a single, aspiring clothing designer from an extremely wealthy family.

Her father, David Gilmour, was the business partner of tycoon Peter Munk, co-founder of the mining company, Barrick Gold.

Tice was a recently divorced social worker and mother of four teenage children.

Tice earned a nursing degree from McMaster University and a Masters in social work from The University of Toronto.

They were similar in death if, not in life.

Both Erin and Susan were found in their beds and both suffered significant physical and sexual violence, Smith said.

Both women lived alone.

Both Gilmour and Tice lived low-risk lifestyles.

In 2008 a quarter-century after the murders improvements to DNA testing and filing allowed police to conclude that both women were assaulted and murdered by the same man.

How did their killer connect with each of them?

Why did the killer seem to disappear after the murders?

Theres no indication that the two women knew each other.

Where did Susan Tice and Erin Gilmours lives intersect?, Arntfield asked. They had dramatically different lifestyles.

Tices body was discovered in the upstairs bedroom of her home on Grace Street near Harbord Street on Aug. 17, 1983.

Her uncle checked on her after she missed a family dinner. Her mail had piled up. Her back door had been left open.

Four months later, on Dec. 20, 1983, Gilmour was murdered in her nearby Yorkville apartment.

Gilmour lived in a particularly high-rent part of town, above the clothing boutique where she worked as manager.

Gilmours killer had a tight window of opportunity to take her life and then escape.

On the final evening of her life, Gilmour finished work at 8:45 p. m.

Thirty-five minutes later, her body was found by her boyfriend.

Her door was also ajar.

On the surface, Tice and Gilmour appeared quite different.

There is no record of Susan and Erin having anything in common, Smith said.

There was, however, one notable difference in the two murder scenes.

Gilmours body was covered by a comforter, while there was nothing to cover Tices body.

Thats open to different streams of thought.

We are unsure the significance of the blanket over Erin, Smith said. It could have been shame or it could have been an attempt to conceal her body.

Arntfield doubts the killer felt any particular guilt or closeness to Gilmour.

This is more of a compulsion than any act of remorse, Arntfield says.

So why wasnt Tice covered too? One can only guess.

And where did the killer go after the two murders?

No third or fourth victim with the same DNA appeared in police databases. Is this simply a sign of Canadas relatively soft DNA testing procedure, compared to the U.S.?

Whoever killed Gilmour and Tice was obviously extremely angry. Both women were stabbed repeatedly. The word overkill has been used to describe the murders.

Did the killer just go away?

If so, where? Prison on another charge? Another country? The grave?

These two (murders) are related but theres no other crime scene that we know of, Arntfield said.

Since there was no sign of forced entry in either of their homes, its natural to assume that the killer was allowed inside and then attacked.

Tice and Gilmour were intelligent women. What sort of man would be able to easily enter both homes?

Did they have a common delivery person? Repair person? Arntfield asks.

Could the killer have been an electrical worker? Plumber? Property manager?

There are countless potential names, Arntfield says. What happened to this person?

Both women were relative newcomers to their homes.

In the month before her death, Tice had moved to Toronto from Calgary after splitting from her husband.

Gilmour had barely settled into her apartment on Hazelton Avenue in the two months before her death.

Could the killer have something to do with the moving business?

They were both attacked in a new home where they should have felt safe.

Gilmours aunt Shelagh Vansittart told Judy Nyman of the Star shortly after her murder that she was a gentle person and by no means a spoiled brat or a socialite.

She was one of the sweetest, most understated girls you could find, her aunt told Nyman. She was always thinking of things she could do for you.

Gilmours aunt ran a furniture store on Hazelton, steps from Erins new home.

The reason she lived here was because she was surrounded by us and we felt she was protected by us, Vansittart said.

Did the killer live near Gilmour and Tice? The two murder sites were just a few kilometres apart.

Gilmour had recently gotten obscene calls. This was in the days before ubiquitous cell phones. Her phone number wasnt listed.

Tracking the killer is the sort of thing that haunts investigators.

Could he have been arrested since the murders? If so, was he savvy enough to plead out to a reduced charge to dodge a DNA testing order?

These people dont just stop after two, Arntfield said. The question is what happened to this person?

Police hope advances in DNA research lead them all the way to the killer.

Perhaps the answers may come from a form of DNA analysis called genetic genealogy.

Genetic genealogy draws from DNA voluntarily submitted for family tree research to sites like 23andMe or Ancestry.ca.

Earlier this year, Toronto police announced they used a genetic genealogy database to identify a homeless woman whose body was found in June 2020 with no identification and few belongings in Trinity Bellwoods Park.

The same technique also solved the 1984 murder of nine-year-old Christine Jessop of Queensville. Police announced in October 2020 that her killer was Calvin Hoover, a family acquaintance who committed suicide in 2015.

We are still working through the genetic process, Smith said. We are making good progress but there are a number of challenges that have made things difficult to account for. We are hoping to have answers for the families sometime in 2022.

Smith doesnt go into detail about the number of challenges that have made things difficult to account for.

This is still an open ongoing investigation, Smith said. The challenges will eventually be clarified but at this time all we can say is that there is significant challenges in the investigative process.

The murders of Erin Gilmour and Susan Tice remain unsolved.

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Killers dont just stop after two: DNA proves one man killed these Toronto women. Does it say where he went? - Toronto Star

The Washington state Attorney General's office identified 635 registered sex offenders who lawfully owed a DNA sample.

SEATTLE The effort to end the rape kit backlog has been a focus for Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson, whose office runs the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative.

Eight years ago, Washington had more than 10,000 untested rape kits.

"We had a number of kits sitting on shelves for a number of reasons, state Representative Tina Orwall said in March.

Lawmakers like Orwall pushed for change, and progress has been made with thousands of kits tested, but there is still plenty of work to do.

"There is another problem that's related, which is convicted felons in our state are legally required to provide their DNA to law enforcement, but the reality is many thousands have slipped through the cracks, said Ferguson.

A team working inside Attorney General Bob Ferguson's office has been on a mission to follow up on cases where sex offender's failed to provide DNA.

Recently, the team produced results, identifying 635 registered sex offenders who lawfully owed a DNA sample. Of that number, 257 offenders could not provide samples for reasons like they were incarcerated in another state or they passed away. There are six offenders law enforcement have not reached yet; one in Clark County, two in Columbia County, and three in Snohomish County. There were 372 new DNA samples collected.

"If local law enforcement is trying to solve a cold case, they can put that DNA in and see if there's a match, said Ferguson.

So far there have been eight matches that are now under review. Three "hits" are for unsolved sex offenses in Washington. In two of the cases, the offender was already convicted, or a confirmed suspect. Three hits are from out-of-state offenses.

"Each of these numbers is some individual story right, a sexual assault survivor who really needs justice and accountability for what happened, said Ferguson.

Ferguson said his offices next focus will be on collecting DNA from people convicted for other serious offenses, like homicides, so it can also be added to the national database. He said that part of the project should be done by early Summer.

Read the original here:
Owed DNA from registered sex offenders already producing 'hits' in Washington - KING5.com