Indiana's Crime Lab Using DNA for Property Crimes
By Deanna Dewberry
WISH-TV Indianapolis, IN
November 16, 2006
Indiana has a crime fighting tool getting national attention. Recently USA Today had a front page story listing our state's crime lab as being one of 10 in the country that solves a large number of property crimes using DNA matches. It is a database that is changing the way Indiana solves crimes and Julia Gaerte's case is just one example.
Julia Gaerte's life was peacefully predictable. Everyday the 86-year-old tended to the trees and bushes that dotted her yard with color in the springtime. Every night she knelt beside the chair where her long-dead husband had once sat, praying for her progeny, calling each by name. And every morning she prayed again, writing in neat script journals of gratitude.
"Thank you for your grace and your mercy. Thank you for your beloved son," reads her journal.
Donald Houser knew her routine, he had been watching her. Detectives say he wore gloves when he broke a window, suffocated Julia and stole her belongings. But he did not realize he had knicked his wrist on the broken glass, leaving a drop of blood the size of the head of a pin. That case went cold, unsolved for four years. Then Houser was booked for burglary in October of 2000.
"Had we not been collecting the samples from non-violent offenders, that case probably would still be unsolved today," said Paul Misner of the State Police Crime Lab.
Forensic scientists at the state crime lab entered Houser's DNA into the state database and found a match.
"It was because we were collecting the DNA of convicted burglars that we end up getting the hit and solving the homicide," Misner said.
Indiana is one of 10 states where the number of DNA matches in property-crime cases exceeds the number of matches in violent crimes.
Federal grants fund much of Indiana's DNA crime fighting efforts, money forensic scientists say is well spent. They point to statistics kept since 2000. The DNA from property crime offenders matches unsolved property crimes 56 percent of the time, unsolved sex crimes seven percent of the time and violent crimes three percent of the time.
And today Indiana's law allows any felon's DNA entered into the data base, but privacy rights advocates inject a word of caution when assembling a vast database of DNA.
"It could be misused because you could find out more information than this is Deanna Dewberry, we could find out more about her. And two, then other agencies might be able to get access to it," said Democratic Representatvie David Orentlicher of Indianapolis.
Forensic scientists say that the state's database interfaces with the federal one and both are completely secure. And scientists and privacy advocates alike celebrate advances science is making to help solve crime and save lives.