Solving Cold Cases with DNA (Anna Palmer in a yearbook. Pat Reavy Deseret New Utah) “One out of every 1,300, of the 4.9 million crimes carried out” is solved by using DNA or forensic science, and just “one in 350 of the 1.3 million crimes solved by police” according to Jack Doyle of independent.com. The type of science that police uses to try and catch criminals is known as forensic science. Forensic scientists “often testify in court, particularly if they have specialized areas of expertise such as fingerprinting, biochemistry, DNA analysis, blood spatter patterns, chromatography analysis,” of handwriting analysis says Criminal Justice Degree School. Science helps solve and reopen cases if there is even a smidge of DNA left at the scene to identify a criminal. About one-third of all murders in the US go unsolved, according to a segment Monday morning on NPR according to Christina Sterbenz. Marianne Vaatstra was 16 years old when she was murdered in 1999. The police made many arrests and even did a “large-scale DNA test”, but the killer was never found. A large-scale DNA test means that the police took many samples of DNA from a variety of people and compared them to another or a specific person. Years later in 2012, the police did a “DNA relationship testing” within 3 miles of the crime scene and in those 3 miles, there were 8,000 men. The police took the DNA of the men who voluntary gave a sample. They compared these samples to the killers and waited for a match. On November 19 they found a match. The match belonged to Jasper Steringa, a local farmer. He later confessed to committing the crime of rape and murder. Steringa was sentenced to 18 years in prison.
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