DNA evidence — a speckle of spit or a drop of blood — can exonerate a suspect or help put them behind bars. Now California voters are being asked to expand the pool of DNA data that law enforcement taps into. A little-noticed provision of Proposition 20 would require law enforcement to...
Utah Professor Developing COVID-19 Sensor to Detect Virus in 60 Seconds
University of Utah electrical and computer engineering professor Massood Tabib-Azar has received a $200,000 National Science Foundation Rapid Response Research (RAPID) grant to develop a portable, reusable coronavirus sensor that people can carry with them. The sensor, about the size of a quarter, works with a cellphone and can detect...
California Man Free After DNA Site Leads to New Arrest in Murder
California authorities used recently developed DNA techniques to free one man and implicate another for only the second time in the United States, officials said Thursday. Ricky Davis, who spent about 15 years in prison after being wrongfully convicted in the slaying of his housemate, was exonerated after authorities used...
Nickey Stane Charged in 1996 Killing of Debbie Dorian
Fresno County District Attorney Lisa Smittcamp formally charged a suspect Wednesday in the Debbie Dorian cold case homicide. Nickey Duane Stane, 52, faces murder and rape charges for the Aug. 22, 1996 killing of the 22-year-old Dorian. She was found bound in duct tape in her apartment near Fresno State....
AP Exclusive: Sierra Skeleton ID'd as 'Ghost of Manzanar'
LOS ANGELES — A skeleton found by hikers this fall near California's second-highest peak was identified Friday as a Japanese American artist who had left the Manzanar internment camp to paint in the mountains in the waning days of World War II. The Inyo County sheriff used DNA to identify...
Russian Scientists Present Ancient Puppy Found in Permafrost
YAKUTSK, Russia — Russian scientists on Monday showed off a prehistoric puppy, believed to be 18,000 years old, found in permafrost in the country’s Far East. Discovered last year in a lump of frozen mud near the city of Yakutsk, the puppy is unusually well-preserved, with its hair, teeth, whiskers...
Man in Madera Jail Arrested in 2002 Rape of 16-Year-old
A man wanted in the 2002 rape and kidnapping of a 16-year-old girl was arrested after DNA linked him to the crime, Sonoma County authorities said Monday. Juan Lopes, 39, of Santa Rosa was in custody in Madera County Jail for public intoxication last month when he was linked to...
Police ID Prime Suspect in 1996 Dorian Cold Case Murder
Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer says his department has identified the prime suspect in the 1996 rape and murder of Debbie Dorian. It is the same suspect that Visalia police arrested Wednesday in four cold-case sexual assaults: 52-year old Nickey Duane Stane. "Nickey Stane is every woman's nightmare," Fresno County...
California Must Finally End the Backlog of Unprocessed Rape Kits. Here’s How
After a sexual assault, survivors undergo an incredibly invasive procedure, typically involving being examined, swabbed and photographed for several hours. The specific purpose is to collect DNA and other evidence used to identify the perpetrator. It is the ultimate injustice to discover that thousands of sexual assault evidence kits collected...
She Swiped Co-Worker's Coke Can. Police Say It Cracked 28-Year-Old Murder Case.
The police were again circling the Franz Bakery Outlet in the spring of 2017, hungry for information, and now she knew why. The shop, a branch of a commercial outfit supplying baked goods to customers across the region, was on an empty two-lane road north of Bellingham, Washington. The investigators...