CNY murder cases solved with forensics
By Leeanne Root
Oneida Dispatch (NY)
December 27, 2006
ONEIDA - The Forensic Investigation Unit of the New York State Police,
Troop D has been instrumental in solving a number of murders using
DNA evidence and new technology.
The murder of 19-year-old Regina Reynolds was solved 27 years later
using DNA evidence obtained from a known suspect.
Reynolds' body was discovered by a fisherman Nov. 19, 1975 near Otisco Lake in Onondaga County.
An autopsy revealed that she had been stabbed several times. She was a student at SUNY Morrisville and had last been seen hitchhiking on Nov. 6.
Donald Sigsbee was a suspect during the initial investigation but there was insufficient evidence to arrest him at that time.
In 2001, with the use of new DNA technology a DNA profile was developed from evidence that had been collected in 1975.
A DNA sample was obtained from Sigsbee in 2002 and matched to the DNA profile from the crime scene.
A sample of semen preserved 27 years prior had been his undoing and Sigsbee was convicted of second-degree murder after a jury trial and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.
"It was preserved in 1975 not knowing what DNA technology would be," said Investigator Adrian Grenier of the New York State Police Forensics Unit.
Another murder case occurred in Madison County when on July 4, 1992 the body of 15-year-old Sean Googin was found floating in Cazenovia Lake.
He had been assaulted and his body had been weighted down with rocks.
According to Grenier, over 2,500 leads were followed up, including an effort to locate all known pedophiles in Madison and Onondaga counties for DNA samples.
In Sept. 1999 Jeffrey Clark was arrested for sodomy and jailed at Wende Correctional Facility. Because of the arrest, Clark's DNA was put on file with CODIS, the Combined DNA Index System.
And on Feb. 15, 2001 Clark's DNA was matched to DNA obtained from the Googin crime scene.
Clark was subsequently arrested for second-degree murder and gave a full confession. He pleaded guilty on July 5, 2002 and was sentenced to 23 years-to-life in prison.
"When the Googin murder happened we didn't have CODIS and we
didn't have the refined DNA tests that we have now," Grenier said. "I
remember going to a seminar in 1998 where they told us crime scene
guys for the first time, 'We've got a new test, we've got a better
system and we've got a database.'" I came thinking that's how
we're going to solve Sean Googin right there. And sure enough, that's
what happened."
Cases aren't always solved with DNA technology.
The murder of Anna Petrus was solved using SAFIS, the Statewide Automated Fingerprint Identification System created in 1998.
Her body was found on the office floor of the Cozy Rest Motel in Adams, N.Y. on May 28, 1995. She had been beaten with a claw hammer during what appeared to be a robbery.
Grenier said a fingerprint in blood was discovered at the scene.
"It was an extraordinary effort searching the print," he said.
Because SAFIS had not yet been created, the fingerprint had to be compared to over 460 fingerprint cards by hand and photographs of the bloody print were sent to all other 49 states, the FBI and the United States Secret Service.
On Jun. 25, 1999, during the 27th search of SAFIS, a match was made to Adrian Rusho, who was acquainted with the grandson of the victim.
He was convicted of second-degree murder on May 23, 2000 and sentenced to 25 years-to-life in prison.
Rusho's fingerprints had been entered into the SAFIS database after he was arrested in Nov. 1998 for petty larceny. He had no criminal record before that.
The Troop D Forensic Investigation Unit received the 2000 General Award for "outstanding contribution to the field of automated fingerprint identification."