INSIDE TUT'S TOMB  Friday, August 22, 2008

Can DNA remain intact after thousands of years? Egyptian scientists believe so and are embarking on a project that could establish the lineage of King Tutankhamun. DNA testing will be performed on two female fetuses found in Tut's tomb. The fetuses, thought to be stillborn children of the pharaoh's, have remained in storage at the Cairo School of Medicine since the tomb's discovery back in 1922.

[USA Today]
[New Scientist]

FAMILY TREE  Tuesday, August 19, 2008

DNA testing has changed the way families study genealogy. What started as a hobby for Chicagoan Mike Karsen, unearthed a missing piece in Jack Kane's family history. As head of a local Jewish genealogy group, Karsen underwent DNA testing to trace back his family lineage. Those roots connected to Kane, a Wisconsin computer programmer. Kane's father, Gordon, had been abandoned as a young boy in a New York City office building. Later adopted, Gordon Kane, now 82, knew nothing about his biological family. DNA test results show that Kane and Karsen are cousins.

[Medill Reports: Chicago]

FREE AT LAST  Monday, August 18, 2008

Freedom has a new meaning for a man in Dallas, TX. Steven Phillips, 50, was released on parole last year after serving 25 years for a string of sexual assaults. Phillips wasn't exactly free, though, since the crimes he was convicted for meant he had to wear an electronic tracking device on his ankle while on parole. That's all behind him now that DNA testing has cleared him of the crimes that kept him from seeing his three children grow up. His second request to perform DNA testing was finally approved last year. Judge Lena Levario has recommended Phillips conviction be overturned since DNA evidence showed he didn't commit the crimes. Phillips is now awaiting exoneration based on the judge's recommendation.

[NBC: Corpus Christi, Texas]

THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE  Friday, August 15, 2008

Results from a paternity test may be the evidence needed for a conviction in the death of a West Virginia mother. 41-year old Tina Marie Starcher's body was found back in May 2007 near a dam in West Virginia after police received a tip. When authorities were unable to conduct DNA testing on the badly composed body they sought an alternative. Cloth samples found at the scene of the alleged crime were sent for paternity testing to establish a link between the evidence and Starcher. Since results prove that Starcher's family's DNA is connected to the crime scene, prosecutors hope the findings strengthen their case against the men on trial, Anthony Juntilla and Fred Dwayne Douty II.

[CU Community journal]

PATERNITY FRAUD IS AN INTERNATIONAL ISSUE  Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Paternity fraud isn't just an American issue. The Telegraph, a UK newspaper, recently reported that one in five claims investigated by the British Child Services Agency prove to be false. The rate of negative test results has increased from 10.6 percent to 19 percent in the last three years. The findings do not indicate if the false claims were intentional or accidental, although it is considered a criminal act under British child support law to make a false statement.

[The Telegraph]

PORTAL TO THE PAST  Friday, August 8, 2008

Families were torn apart to fuel the slave trade before the civil war. Now DNA testing may be the key to answering the question long-gone ancestors cannot: where did I come from? As part of a series, CNN Presents: Black in America, the Rand family of Houston, TX, is one step closer to learning the truth. Experts swabbed and sent DNA samples from matriarch Mineola Johnson, 102, for mitochondrial DNA testing in hopes of matching it to African Ancestry's database, which reflects roughly 45% of Africa's lineage. The results show a strong likelihood that the Rand-Johnson families originated in Sierra Leone, filling in one more branch of their genealogical tree.

[CNN]

DEAD MEN DO TALK  Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Gerald Abernathy literally got away with murder when Maryland police couldn't solve the death of Wendy Stark back in 1982. That is until Detective Joe Mudano found an evidence box from the cold case last year. Advances in DNA testing since the crime was committed, allowed investigators to make a match to Abernathy from a sample found on a cotton swab taken as evidence all those years ago. The positive identification was made when the test results were run through a nationwide database. Even though Abernathy died in prison last year while serving a life sentence for another murder in 1994, DNA testing brought closure to the case for Stark's family.

[Washington Post]