{"id":5357,"date":"2017-01-26T20:36:02","date_gmt":"2017-01-27T01:36:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=5357"},"modified":"2017-01-26T20:36:02","modified_gmt":"2017-01-27T01:36:02","slug":"nypd-deputy-chief-insists-30-city-murders-may-solved-familial-dna-searches-allowed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2017\/01\/26\/nypd-deputy-chief-insists-30-city-murders-may-solved-familial-dna-searches-allowed\/","title":{"rendered":"NYPD deputy chief insists 30 city murders may have been solved if familial DNA searches were allowed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some 30 murders committed in the city last year \u2014 including the sex assault and strangulation of jogger Karina Vetrano<\/a> \u2014 might have been solved if police were allowed to use familial DNA searching, a top NYPD official says.\u00a0\u00a0 Deputy Chief Emanuel Katranakis plans to make that point when he testifies next month before the state Commission on Forensic Science and its DNA subcommittee.<\/p>\n

When DNA evidence does not yield a match from a database of known criminals, the material can be used as \u201cfamilial evidence\u201d and compared to other databases in hopes of finding partial matches with a suspect\u2019s relatives.<\/p>\n

Katranakis said of the 335 murders logged by the NYPD in 2016, unidentified DNA samples belonging to the killer were recovered in \u201cabout 10%\u201d of the slayings \u2014 not to mention at the scenes of an untold number of rapes and other serious crimes.\u00a0 Katranakis credits Vetrano\u2019s father, Philip Vetrano, a retired firefighter, with advocating for the use of familial DNA searching. But the chief, who heads the NYPD\u2019s Forensic Investigations Division, said the benefits go far beyond one case.\u00a0 He said the 10 states that use the approach have solved a number of crimes. Those include the 2010 arrest of Lonnie Franklin Jr., the Grim Sleeper serial killer, since sentenced to death for killing nine women and a teenager in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a powerful investigative tool that we want made available to the NYPD and the public,\u201d Katranakis said. \u201cThere is clearly a public need for the victims and the victims\u2019 families to bring closure in some cases and to fight crime.\u201d<\/p>\n

Police recovered the killer\u2019s DNA from Vetrano\u2019s body, but the sample didn\u2019t match anyone in the DNA databases of convicted criminals.<\/p>\n

With familial DNA, investigators could theoretically find a relative whose DNA is on file \u2014 giving police a strong lead.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guarantee you that the first day that this is implemented somebody is going to be caught that has been out there hiding,\u201d Philip Vetrano said. \u201cNot just our case \u2014 other cases, too.”<\/p>\n

It can also lead to \u201cmiscarriages of justice,\u201d said Donna Lieberman, head of the New York Civil Liberties Union.<\/p>\n

\u201cA person’s constitutional rights against government invasion of their privacy cannot be suspended simply because a relative had come under suspicion,” she added.<\/p>\n

But Katranakis said police already adhere to strict guidelines when conducting partial DNA match investigations, which experts say is not as effective as familial searching.<\/p>\n

The commission and subcommittee likely won\u2019t make a decision until weeks after the Feb. 10 hearing.<\/p>\n

Vetrano is slated to speak \u2014 and will do so \u201cas a father.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to speak as a scientist,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m just going to speak for Karina.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

BY Edgar Sandoval<\/a> <\/a> Rocco Parascandola<\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n

Source\u00a0 www.nydailynews.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some 30 murders committed in the city last year \u2014 including the sex assault and strangulation of jogger Karina Vetrano \u2014 might have been solved if police were allowed to use familial DNA searching, a […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":5358,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[2709,938],"class_list":{"0":"post-5357","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-usa","9":"tag-familial-dna","10":"tag-nypd","11":"pmpro-has-access"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5357"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5357\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5359,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5357\/revisions\/5359"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}