What is Familial DNA and Why is it important?
Thu, Jan 02
|Learn more about Familial Searching
Legislation: S2480 An Act permitting familial searching and partial DNA matches in investigating certain unresolved crimes
Time & Location
Jan 02, 2025, 4:00 PM
Learn more about Familial Searching
About the Event
is an additional search of a DNA profile in a law enforcement DNA database that is conducted after a routine search does not identify any profile matches.Familial searching (FS)
*Potential to identify of the source of obtained from crime scene evidenceclose biological relativesan unknown forensic profile
*Process entails ranking potential candidates in the database using autosomal STR data followed by lineage marker (Y-STR) testing to reduce the candidate list to individuals who have of being a relative of the donor source of the evidence DNA profilea high probability
*Essentially another tool for utilizing a DNA database to generate investigative leads and identify perpetrators of crime, and just as importantly, to help exonerate wrongfully convicted individuals
Why hasn't a policy been implemented?
An absence of clear guidance and documentation of the policies and practices currently employed to ensure proper FS utilization, despite previously federally funded resources designed to provide direction concerning…