New Forensics Crime Lab to be Built in Olathe

Fox4KC.com
OLATHE, KAN – Metro crime fighters broke ground Friday on a new state of the art crime lab in Olathe, Kan. The building will serve Olathe and 18 other departments involved in solving crimes.

Arrest made in 31-year-old cold case

WTHITV.com Indiana
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) – Indiana State Police detectives from the Criminal Investigation Division at the Putnamville Post, have made an arrest in the 1979 murder of 20-year-old Kathy Jo Baker and the attempted murder of her then nearly 3-year-old son, Kenneth Ryan Baker.

Night Stalker case shows DNA-testing still lags

San Francisco Examiner
SAN FRANCISCO — It took 11 months, but the DNA of infamous “Night Stalker” Richard Ramirez has finally been retested, allowing police to close the case of the 1984 murder of a 9-year-old girl in the Tenderloin.

DNA becomes critical in local criminal cases

Canton-Rep.com
“We’re a victim of our own success,” said Robert Budgake, director of the Canton-Stark County Crime Lab. “The advance in technology has increased the role of forensics” in detective work. Budgake said his agency has seen the number of DNA cases increase by more than 56 percent over the last six years — from 818 cases in 2004 to 1,280 last year.

Assembly urged to support use of familial DNA testing to fight crime

Richmond Times-Dispatch
Richmond, Va. — The Virginia Board of Forensic Science yesterday recommended the Virginia General Assembly consider implementing and funding a crime-fighting tool called familial DNA searching.

L.A. County on track to clear rape evidence backlog

CBS 47TV.com
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department says it has assigned nearly 5,000 DNA evidence kits from rape and sexual assault cases to outside labs for testing, putting the department on track to meet its goal of clearing a big backlog.