'SNAPSHOT' OF MURDER DNA could reveal face of killer in unsolved SC case

There were no witnesses to the gruesome murder of a South Carolina mother and her 3-year-old daughter inside a busy apartment complex four years ago. But a new technology that can create an image of someone using DNA samples left at crime scenes might bring police closer to catching the killer.

Reston, Va.-based Parabon Nanolabs, with funding from the Department of Defense, has debuted a breakthrough type of analysis called DNA phenotyping which the company says can predict a person's physical appearance from the tiniest DNA samples, like a speck of blood or strand of hair.

The DNA phenotyping service, commercially known as "Snapshot," could put a face on millions of unsolved cases, including international ones, andgenerate investigative leads when the trail has gone cold.

"This is particularly useful when there are no witnesses, no hits in the DNA database and nothing to go on," Dr. Ellen McRae Greytak, Parabon's director of bioinformatics, told FoxNews.com.

- Dr. Ellen McRae Greytak, Parabon Nanolabs

"Traditional forensic analysis treats DNA as a fingerprint, whereas Snapshot treats it as a blueprint -- a genetic description of a person from which physical appearance can be inferred," Greytak said.

Parabon's new technology reads the parts of the human genome that code for the differences in physical appearance between people. Snapshot is able to predict such critical traits as skin color, hair color, eye color and face shape. It can also predict the individual's ancestry as well as highly-detailed traits, like freckles.

Using sophisticated computer algorithms that have been trained on thousands of reference samples, Snapshot translates this raw genetic code into predictions of physical traits. These are then combined to create a composite profile, or "digital mugshot" of an unknown suspect -- with remarkable accuracy, according to the company.

"Traits are generally predicted with more than 80 percent confidence, and importantly, Snapshot also reports which phenotypes can be excluded with more than 95 percent confidence," said Greytak.

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'SNAPSHOT' OF MURDER DNA could reveal face of killer in unsolved SC case