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Investigators have found female DNA on a fragment from one of the two bombs used in the attack on the Boston Marathon two weeks ago, according to a U.S. official briefed on the probe.

The genetic material may have come from a number of sources and its discovery doesnt necessarily mean that additional people were involved beyond the two brothers suspected in the bombing, said the official, who asked not to be identified in discussing an open case.

The DNA find emerged as authorities continue to investigate whether the suspects, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, had help in planning or carrying out the April 15 attack. So far, according to a second U.S. official who asked not to be identified, theres no evidence of such assistance.

Among those under scrutiny is Tamerlans wife, Katherine Russell Tsarnaev. Agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation visited her parents home in North Kingstown, Rhode Island, yesterday and took a DNA sample from her, according to one of the U.S. officials briefed on the probe.

Amato DeLuca, a lawyer for Katherine Tsarnaev, said in an e-mail yesterday that she was continuing to assist in the investigation in any way she can. Last week, he said in an interview that she knew nothing about the attacks beforehand and was as shocked as anybody when they happened.

Jason Pack, an FBI spokesman, declined to say whether Katherine Tsarnaev was cooperating voluntarily and said that the bureau cant discuss specific aspects of the case.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed in a police shootout April 19. He and his brother are suspected by U.S. authorities of setting off the bombs at the Boston Marathon finish line that killed three people and wounded 260.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, was apprehended on April 19 after a manhunt that paralyzed the Boston metropolitan area. He was found hiding in a boat in the backyard of a Watertown, Massachusetts, home and taken to the hospital for treatment of gunshot wounds.

The younger Tsarnaev, now being held at a federal prison west of Boston for inmates needing medical care, is charged with using and conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction.

As part of the investigation, the FBI wants to interview family members including the suspects parents, who are in Russia, said an official familiar with the probe who asked not to be identified. Friends, associates and others who were part of the suspects lives are also being sought for interviews, the official said.

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Authorities Said to Find Female DNA on Boston Bomb Piece

Apr. 29, 2013 DNA evidence is invisible and remarkably easy to transfer, making it possible for a sample to be spilled or even planted on a piece of evidence.

Boise State University professor Greg Hampikian has now developed a solution that permanently marks DNA samples to prevent contamination. Hampikian has used nullomers, the smallest DNA sequences that are absent from nature, to create the DNA bar code.

He has been working on the invention for more than a decade and recently demonstrated its results for the first time in his Boise State lab. His research will be published by The Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine.

U.S. soldiers must give DNA samples, and Hampikian's research has been sponsored by the Department of Defense.

"The truth is that DNA contamination is a fact of life in all laboratories," Hampikian said. "This problem is compounded by techniques that make billons of copies of DNA, and new instruments that detect even just a few molecules. Unfortunately, samples taken from victims and other innocent people are still processed in the same place as samples from weapons, bodies and other evidence."

Hampikian has joint appointments in the departments of biology and criminal justice at Boise State and also is the director of the Idaho Innocence Project. In his Boise State lab, Hampikian and student and faculty collaborators work on diverse DNA projects, including developing new cancer drugs, discovering new species of single-celled organisms in Idaho, studying Basque sex chromosomes and inventing micro devices.

Several years ago, Hampikian and Boise State computer science colleague Tim Andersen identified tiny DNA and protein sequences that were absent in nature and Hampikian termed these sequences 'nullomers.' The researchers proposed that these sequences could have properties that were incompatible with life, and might serve as drugs to kill pathogens and even cancer.

The first results of nullomer-based drugs were published in October 2012 in the peer-reviewed journal Peptides and showed that these compounds killed breast and prostate cancer cells in the laboratory

In addition, Hampikian was a key member of the Amanda Knox defense team and continues to work on cases of wrongful conviction. He also was inducted as a Charter Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors this year.

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Researcher reveals new way to safeguard forensic dna samples against contamination

Federal investigators have gathered a DNA sample from Tamerlan Tsarnaev's widow, but they may be grasping at straws

On Monday, federal investigators disclosed that a bit of female DNA was found on a fragment of at least one of the pressure-cooker bombs that killed three people and wounded more than 200 others at the Boston Marathon. Also on Monday, the FBI visited suspected bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev's widow, Katherine Russell, to collect a DNA sample to see if it matches the material found on the bomb.

Russell, 24, has been staying at her parents' home in Rhode Island since her husband's death, and the focus on her "is part of the wider effort by the FBI to determine who else may have played a role aiding the bombers," say Michael S. Schmidt and Serge F. Kovaleski in The New York Times.

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The authorities are looking at a range of possibilities, two senior law enforcement officials said, including that she could have wittingly or unwittingly destroyed evidence, helped the bombers evade capture, or even played a role in planning the attacks.... While the authorities do not believe the bombers were tied to a larger terrorist network or had accomplices, they remain skeptical that others did not know of their plans or did not help them destroy evidence. [New York Times]

Oh boy, says Allahpundit at Hot Air, "I sure hope there's more to this than the Journal is letting on, because if the odds of a completely innocent explanation are as high as they imply, it's a major cloud of suspicion over Tamerlan Tsarnaev's wife for no reason at all." Even if Russell's DNA is found on the bomb fragments, why would that even be surprising? he asks.

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Not every component in the device had a nefarious explanation. There's a chance, I suppose, that one of the pressure cookers came from the family's own kitchen. Tamerlan, who was famously domineering according to people who knew him, also might have told his wife to go out and buy one of the components he needed without explaining what it was for. Unless her DNA's on the explosive itself, how would the feds ever prove that it didn't end up there innocently? [Hot Air]

"Given the level of sophistication of this device, the fact that the pressure cooker is a signature device that goes back to Pakistan, Afghanistan," House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) said onFox News Sunday, it seems likely "that there was a trainer, and the question is where is that trainer or trainers."

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What female DNA on the Boston bombs does, and doesn't, mean

By Ronnie Cohen

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Fingerprints and DNA evidence from the northern California home where an eight-year-old girl was stabbed to death over the weekend, apparently by an intruder, were sent to a state crime lab on Tuesday as detectives sought to identify a suspect, police said.

The death of Leila Fowler, who was home alone with her 12-year-old brother when she was slain on Saturday, has jarred the town of Valley Springs, a community 60 miles southeast of Sacramento in the Sierra foothills where many residents are reported to leave their doors unlocked.

The Calaveras County Sheriff's Office has asked the public for help in solving the crime, and state authorities have made the case a top priority, promising to hasten the processing of any physical evidence gathered by investigators.

Leila's brother has told investigators the two siblings were in the house when he heard an intruder, saw a man in the living room who fled on foot, then checked on his sister and found her injured, said Sergeant Chris Hewitt, a sheriff's spokesman.

The boy called his parents, who were away at a nearby ball game, then called emergency-911, and his parents also called 911, Hewitt told Reuters.

The girl was rushed to a hospital where she was pronounced dead within several minutes. An autopsy report on Monday found that she died of "shock and hemorrhage due to multiple stab wounds." The deputy coroner, Steve Moore, said he could not say anything about the murder weapon.

The victim's parents appeared with the county sheriff, Gary Kuntz, at a news conference about the case on Monday night but were too distraught to speak with the media. "We will not rest until we capture the responsible person," he said.

Asked whether the 12-year-old brother was considered a possible suspect, Hewitt said he was "still being interviewed as a witness."

At least two neighbors appeared to have corroborated the boy's account of an intruder. According to Hewitt, the neighbors told detectives they saw a stranger, roughly matching the description of the man the brother reported seeing in the home, running down the street near the Fowlers' house at about the time of the killing.

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DNA, fingerprints collected in fatal California child stabbing

Investigators have found female DNA on a piece of one of the pressure cookers used as bombs in the Boston Marathon attacks, but its unclear whether the new evidence points to a third suspect, officials briefed on the probe told The Wall Street Journal.

The DNA does not conclusively indicate that the bombing suspects brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev had an accomplice who helped to either build the bombs or dispose of the evidence. Officials said that the DNA could have come from a store clerk who handled the materials, or from a spectator at the bombing site.

But investigators are using the DNA evidence, as well as a fingerprint found on a bomb fragment, to probe several potential associates, including Katherine Russell, the widow of deceased suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, two senior law enforcement officials told The New York Times.

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FBI agents visited Ms. Russell at her parents home in North Kingstown, R.I., on Monday. They left the house carrying bags labeled DNA samples, which will be used to see if the DNA belongs to Russell or the couples 3-year-old daughter, officials told CNN. Russell has been staying with her parents since April 19, when Tamerlan Tsarnaev died after a shootout with police.

"The FBI is there as part of our ongoing investigation, but we aren't permitted to discuss specific aspects of the case," FBI spokesman Jason Pack told The Journal.

Russell has not been charged in the plot, and investigators say she is not currently a suspect. Her lawyer, Amato A. DeLuca, has said that his client was shocked to learn of her husbands alleged involvement in the attacks, and she has been cooperating with the investigation.

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We want to state what we stated before: Katie continues to assist in the investigation in any way that she can, he said in an e-mail to The New York Times on Monday.

Police found materials used to make the bomb in the apartment where Russell and her husband lived in Cambridge, Mass., Reuters reported. But Mr. DeLuca said Russell did not know about her husbands activities because she worked when Mr. Tsarnaev was at home watching their daughter.

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Did Boston bombers have help? Investigators checking female DNA evidence