Cape Cod DNA Sweep fails to net suspect in reasonable time
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Gotta love this one. I'm sure that George W. Bush and the cheap and heartless bastards (Republicans in Congress) are responsible for this somehow, though I can't quite figure out how. (Because they aren't taking enough of our money to hire 10x as many people to work in the criminal investigations and prosecutions area??).
Some background of the original story.
From The News Standard DNA ‘dragnet’ resumed in Cape Cod rape-murder case
An excerpt from the article:
Jan 12 - The American Civil Liberties Union has asked police to halt a DNA sweep being conducted as part of an investigation into a three-year-old murder case in the small Cape Cod community of Truro, Massachusetts.
Police launched the sweep last Wednesday in the hope that DNA testing will identify the person who had sex with Christa Worthington around the time she was stabbed to death on January 6, 2002. The police are looking for DNA that matches semen found on the woman’s body.
"The mass collection of DNA samples by the police is a serious intrusion on personal privacy that has proven to be both ineffective and wasteful," wrote John Reinstein, legal director of the state's American Civil Liberties Union chapter, in a letter to local District Attorney Michael O’Keefe.
Reuters reports that police began asking male residents to voluntarily submit saliva samples after a $25,000 reward and three years of investigation failed to produce the killer. According to the Cape Cod Times, at least 77 samples have been collected in the town of 1,600, and police might expand the sweep to surrounding communities.
From The Washington Post Baffled Police Try DNA Sweep Town's Men Asked to Give Samples in Murder Case
From Time Magazine The DNA Dragnet
And today, CBS evening news (without Dan Rather, apparently becoming a somewhat more reliable source) has this update on the original story (headline is linked).
Man Charged In Cape Cod Murder
ORLEANS, Mass., April 15, 2005
(CBS/AP) Three years of intense murder-mystery investigation, including analysis of hundreds of men's DNA, culminated Friday with the arrest of a local garbage collecter.
The Cape Cod trash hauler was charged Friday with murder in the 2002 stabbing death of a fashion writer, a case that turned a national spotlight on the isolated outer Cape and inspired a best-selling book.
Christopher M. McCowen pleaded innocent and was ordered held without bail. He has been arraigned on charges of first-degree murder and aggravated rape.
Christa Worthington, 46, was found dead on Jan. 6, 2002, in her secluded Truro home, clothed only from her waist up and lying in a bloody pool on her kitchen floor. Her then 2-year-old daughter, Ava, was unhurt but smeared in her mother's blood as she clutched the lifeless body.
McCowen was charged with first-degree murder, aggravated rape and armed assault. His court-appointed lawyer, Francis O'Boy, described McCowen's mood as "somber."
As CBS' Scott Rapoport reports, McCowen's DNA was tested along with the genetic evidence from hundreds of other area men. Authorities now say his sample might have been collected more than year ago, but wasn't matched to the evidence until recently.
The forensic lab blames the lag on its workload.
"It took a year to have the result come out," Cape Cod area District Attorney Michael O'Keefe told Rapoport. "That is the resource issue that we are talking about."
The victim's family breathed a sigh of relief at the news of the DNA match.
... more at linked articles
So the forensic lab blames it's over-loaded slate of work for not catching this guy -- who was a suspect early in the case -- until well after several others were co-erced into giving DNA samples in the hopes that someone might be caught through a massive DNA sweep. (Even if massive only means approximately 175 people).
What a complete crock. I actually almost feel like I should be supporting the ACLU in this case, and I almost never agree with those people (I tend to think of them as Americans without a CLUe). 170+ innocent individuals have had their DNA collected, and who knows for sure what that DNA will be used for (admittedly, if someone is truly innocent they should have nothing to worry about, but once DNA has been collected.....)
Gotta love problems like this, which most definitely shouldn't be issues we have to encounter.
Some background of the original story.
From The News Standard DNA ‘dragnet’ resumed in Cape Cod rape-murder case
An excerpt from the article:
Jan 12 - The American Civil Liberties Union has asked police to halt a DNA sweep being conducted as part of an investigation into a three-year-old murder case in the small Cape Cod community of Truro, Massachusetts.
Police launched the sweep last Wednesday in the hope that DNA testing will identify the person who had sex with Christa Worthington around the time she was stabbed to death on January 6, 2002. The police are looking for DNA that matches semen found on the woman’s body.
"The mass collection of DNA samples by the police is a serious intrusion on personal privacy that has proven to be both ineffective and wasteful," wrote John Reinstein, legal director of the state's American Civil Liberties Union chapter, in a letter to local District Attorney Michael O’Keefe.
Reuters reports that police began asking male residents to voluntarily submit saliva samples after a $25,000 reward and three years of investigation failed to produce the killer. According to the Cape Cod Times, at least 77 samples have been collected in the town of 1,600, and police might expand the sweep to surrounding communities.
From The Washington Post Baffled Police Try DNA Sweep Town's Men Asked to Give Samples in Murder Case
From Time Magazine The DNA Dragnet
And today, CBS evening news (without Dan Rather, apparently becoming a somewhat more reliable source) has this update on the original story (headline is linked).
Man Charged In Cape Cod Murder
ORLEANS, Mass., April 15, 2005
(CBS/AP) Three years of intense murder-mystery investigation, including analysis of hundreds of men's DNA, culminated Friday with the arrest of a local garbage collecter.
The Cape Cod trash hauler was charged Friday with murder in the 2002 stabbing death of a fashion writer, a case that turned a national spotlight on the isolated outer Cape and inspired a best-selling book.
Christopher M. McCowen pleaded innocent and was ordered held without bail. He has been arraigned on charges of first-degree murder and aggravated rape.
Christa Worthington, 46, was found dead on Jan. 6, 2002, in her secluded Truro home, clothed only from her waist up and lying in a bloody pool on her kitchen floor. Her then 2-year-old daughter, Ava, was unhurt but smeared in her mother's blood as she clutched the lifeless body.
McCowen was charged with first-degree murder, aggravated rape and armed assault. His court-appointed lawyer, Francis O'Boy, described McCowen's mood as "somber."
As CBS' Scott Rapoport reports, McCowen's DNA was tested along with the genetic evidence from hundreds of other area men. Authorities now say his sample might have been collected more than year ago, but wasn't matched to the evidence until recently.
The forensic lab blames the lag on its workload.
"It took a year to have the result come out," Cape Cod area District Attorney Michael O'Keefe told Rapoport. "That is the resource issue that we are talking about."
The victim's family breathed a sigh of relief at the news of the DNA match.
... more at linked articles
So the forensic lab blames it's over-loaded slate of work for not catching this guy -- who was a suspect early in the case -- until well after several others were co-erced into giving DNA samples in the hopes that someone might be caught through a massive DNA sweep. (Even if massive only means approximately 175 people).
What a complete crock. I actually almost feel like I should be supporting the ACLU in this case, and I almost never agree with those people (I tend to think of them as Americans without a CLUe). 170+ innocent individuals have had their DNA collected, and who knows for sure what that DNA will be used for (admittedly, if someone is truly innocent they should have nothing to worry about, but once DNA has been collected.....)
Gotta love problems like this, which most definitely shouldn't be issues we have to encounter.