Who Committed the Crime? All the Clues Indicate That Forensic Science Will Help Figure It Out.
By Amy Orndorf
Washington Post
November 7, 2006; C13
To most kids Clue is just a board game. But for Monica Ammann, figuring out whodunit became her career. "I loved the game Clue," Ammann said. "My sister hated it [because] I would always win."
In addition to playing Clue, Ammann says, she loved science and reading murder mysteries. In seventh grade she began researching how she could combine her two passions. She ended up with forensics.
"I was just fascinated by basically using science to figure out who committed the crime, and that is basically what forensics is: using science to really piece together what happened," Ammann said.
Ammann, now 33, is a forensic DNA analyst for the Prince George's County Police Department, which means she uses science to help police officers solve crimes.
DNA is like a tiny instruction manual inside the cells that tells how your body works and looks. Since half your DNA comes from your mom and half from your dad, you probably have features from both of them. Unless you have an identical twin, your DNA is unlike anyone else's.
"Much like a fingerprint, this is a way that we can identify who's been at a crime scene," Ammann said. "If you have left DNA, we know that you have been there because it is unique to you."
At a crime scene, police officers gather evidence that has DNA on it. Just about everything that comes out of a person's body, including blood, sweat and hair, carries DNA. Shirts, hats and even cigarette butts are good sources of DNA for an analyst.
When evidence comes into her lab in Landover, Ammann first decides what might have useful DNA on it. She spends a lot of time talking to police officers about the evidence to decide what she will examine and then conducts tests to determine if there is any DNA on a piece of evidence. Once she figures out what has useful DNA, Ammann uses a process called extraction to get the DNA out of the cells.
Police officers have a big computer database that contains the DNA information of criminals, suspects and unidentified people from crime scenes. Ammann puts the results of her tests into the database. When the evidence matches the DNA of a suspect, police officers often are able to figure out whom to arrest.
But Ammann doesn't spend every day in a lab. When DNA evidence is important to a case, she has to explain the results in court.
"That is what's so fun about this job; every day is something different," Ammann said. "One day I may be in solitude in my lab coat analyzing evidence, working with different tubes, but the next day I may be testifying in court. And the day after that I may be talking to detectives about what I need."
Whether she is in the lab or in court, Ammann said, "there is nothing like matching a profile found at a scene to a suspect's profile. It is the best thing; it is so exciting!"
Like beating your sister at Clue. -- Amy Orndorff