In the article posted by Post-Register, it was mentioned that the police force in Idaho will be putting efforts into improving their forensic services. More specifically the forensic service they are putting money into is a new technique called forensic molecular genealogy. The Idaho police force intends to use this technique to solve previously closed cold cases. The usual problem that is encountered with the DNA database is that the criminals DNA is not on file; however with genetic genealogy DNA samples are compared to samples provided for open-access and criminals samples. Therefore, there would be a higher probability that the criminal could be found. I found this article to be very well-written, and I look forward to hearing whether they were able to solve any of the cold cases they reopened. In my opinion I believe the use of genetic genealogy in the forensic field is very novel. However, I find the security behind open-access DNA samples to be suspicious, as it is speculated the information donated may be sold to other companies.
It is very sad that there are many murder crimes that remain unsolved today, especially with all of the testing and technology we have today. Using the new types of genetic genealogy, hopefully they will be able to get more fingerprints and other means of evidence in the systems, to find more murderers out there.
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