Solving Human Crimes with Animal DNA
by Beth Wictum & Trina Wood
Her body was found nude in a wooded area of Florida, wrapped in a bed sheet and shower curtain that was secured at the head and feet with duct tape. Shantay Leann Huntington’s cause of death: asphyxiation. Male DNA was recovered from the duct tape and shower curtain, but the profile didn’t match known samples in CODIS. After her male traveling companion was eliminated as a suspect, the case went cold.
Three years later, the Veterinary Genetics Laboratory Forensic Unit (VGL Forensics) at the University of California, Davis received 13 dog hairs from the bed sheet for DNA analysis. Two of the hairs contained enough DNA to profile. Although they weren’t an exact match to the two dogs who lived across the street from where Huntington was found, there was enough similarity to suggest that the hairs came from a full sibling of those dogs. Upon further investigation, it was discovered that two pups from that litter had been given to the homeowner’s brother-in-law, Guillermo Romero, whose wife had a restraining order against him by the time of testing. Law enforcement obtained samples of Romero’s DNA and matched it to DNA found on the shower curtain and duct tape used to wrap the young woman’s body. In 2013, Romero pled guilty to manslaughter.
Short URL: http://caninechronicle.com/?p=49045
Posted by chesliepickett
on May 19 2014. Filed under The Buzz.
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