Caylee Anthony case: Contact DNA testing - Valhall

Caylee Anthony case: Contact DNA testing

Posted on September 27th, 2010 by Valhall

Excerpt:

Richard Eikelenboom is the expert Casey Anthony’s defense team would like to perform additional DNA testing on the laundry bag and shorts found with Caylee’s remains. Richard and his wife, Selma, are Dutch forensic scientists who started their own business, Independent Forensic Sciences, a few years back in the Netherlands. They specialize in several areas of forensics including trace evidence, bloodstain analysis, and DNA testing. The type of testing that Casey’s team wants performed by Eikelenboom is referred to as “touch DNA”, or “contact DNA” testing.

Contact DNA testing involves attempting to obtain blood, sperm, saliva, sweat or epithelial cells, (i.e. skin cells) that belong to a perpetrator and were transferred to a victim or an item of or connected with the murder of the victim during the commission of the crime. In other words, when you touch something or someone you almost invariably transfer some amount of yourself (cells) to that surface. In the case of skin cells the issue is that they usually are very problematic in producing a full DNA profile unless you get a significant amount. But if you can get enough of them and you perform an adequate number of cycles of amplification, you have a chance of producing a usable profile for DNA identification. (Please see my former articles pertaining to nuclear DNA testing and mitochondrial DNA testing to refresh your memory on how DNA testing is performed.)

READ MORE: http://www.thehinkymeter.com/2010/09/27/caylee-anthony-case-contact-dna-testing/