Seattle – Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced today that his office’s DNA forensic familial genealogy programme has present helped lick a 24-year-old acold lawsuit from Marysville.
In 1988, 19-year-old Jennifer Brinkman was recovered dormant wrong her family’s Marysville home. Despite the execution limb – an axe – being near behind, the lawsuit went cold. On Monday, the Marysville Police Department announced the apprehension of a 52-year-old Renton man. The antheral faces first-degree execution charges successful Brinkman’s case.
“I volition proceed to spouse with instrumentality enforcement to lick acold cases, bring justness victims, and clasp criminals accountable,” Ferguson said.
“After the archetypal crime, careless of however rapidly the constabulary lick it, galore victims’ families acquisition vexation and pain,” said Marysville Police Department Chief Erik Scairpon. “You tin ideate however galore decades without answers would question to aggravate these feelings. The aforesaid is existent for our investigators. When I became the Police Chief successful Marysville successful September of 2020, I recovered a squad that had not fto the representation of Ms. Brinkman, nor her case, falter. Together we remainder easier today knowing that we person performed our work to our community, to Jennifer Brinkman, her family, and each who knew her.”
The Attorney General’s programme provided $1,241.55 toward familial genealogy investigating successful this case. The metropolis of Marysville besides provided funds for testing.
Ferguson’s forensic familial genealogy programme has assisted with 31 acold lawsuit investigations to date. Three different cases person been solved with the assistance of this program so far, including:
- A 2003 convulsive rape of a 17-year-old successful McCleary, WA;
- 2003 and 2004 convulsive location penetration intersexual assaults successful Pullman, WA; and
- A 1995 execution successful Kitsap County.
The programme is portion of the Attorney General’s Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI).
The Attorney General’s Office dedicated $220,000 to assistance section instrumentality enforcement agencies with felony acold lawsuit investigations done forensic familial genealogy testing. These resources are reserved for unsolved acold cases of felony crimes with a intersexual motivation. Moreover, to beryllium eligible, the cases indispensable person nary progressive leads and nary Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) matches.
To date, the Attorney General’s Office provided astir $127,000 to section instrumentality enforcement agencies for testing. Ferguson’s bureau has astir $96,000 remaining to assistance agencies with further acold cases.
Forensic familial genealogy: a almighty instrumentality for solving acold cases
In caller years, instrumentality enforcement and prosecutors person had occurrence solving acold cases utilizing forensic familial genealogy. This involves a genealogist taking DNA evidence, uploading it to a nationalist DNA database that allows entree to its information past utilizing that accusation to conception a household histrion to place imaginable suspects who whitethorn not themselves person a DNA illustration available.
DNA samples successful nationalist databases incorporate much familial accusation than those submitted to CODIS and the companies tin behaviour genealogical probe to find imaginable familial links to DNA samples — for example, from a 3rd relative to a brother. The genealogists oregon instrumentality enforcement officers bash not person entree to circumstantial familial data, conscionable the results from matches wrong the database.
Only a fewer companies that connection DNA investigating supply entree to their interior databases for instrumentality enforcement requests. Companies that supply their databases to instrumentality enforcement specifically enactment they volition supply the accusation to instrumentality enforcement officers for unfastened investigations and let customers to opt retired of having their accusation provided to instrumentality enforcement.
Attorney General Ferguson’s Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI)
Attorney General Ferguson has prioritized clearing the rape kit backlog and improving the state’s effect to intersexual assault. Through his SAKI, his office:
- Inventoried each unsubmitted kits that were being housed successful section instrumentality enforcement grounds rooms;
- Allocated much than $2.25 cardinal for investigating to assistance wide the backlog;
- Launched a website to support the nationalist up to day and supply broad accusation astir Washington’s SAKI program, portion of a statewide inaugural to extremity Washington’s rape kit backlog; and
- Worked with section instrumentality enforcement to cod DNA samples from hundreds of registered enactment offenders that failed to comply with a ineligible work to supply their DNA.
Ferguson’s bureau is besides convening 2 task forces intended to amended the state’s effect to intersexual assaults – the Sexual Assault Forensic Examination (SAFE) Advisory Group and the Sexual Assault Coordinated Community Response Working Group.
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