Using big data from probabilistic genotyping to solve crime

Duncan Taylor, Damien Abarno

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

7 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Forensic Science South Australia (FSSA) has been using STRmix™ software to deconvolute all reported DNA mixtures since 2012. Almost a decade of deconvolutions had led to a substantial repository of analysed profile data that can be interrogated to observe trends in case type, location or occurrence. In addition, deconvolutions can be compared in order to identify common DNA donors and reveal new intelligence information in cases where DNA profiling has previously provided no investigative information. As a proof of concept all samples deconvoluted as part of criminal casework (suspect or no-suspect) were interrogated and compared to each other using the mixture-to-mixture comparison feature in STRmix™. Within the Adelaide region there were 32 groups of cases that had evidence samples linked by a common DNA donor with LR > 1 million which was in addition to direct links and mixture searching links identified previously. These groups of cases can then be interrogated to reveal additional information to inform Police intelligence gathering. Our paper reports on the findings of this proof-of-concept study.

Original languageEnglish
Article number102631
Number of pages10
JournalForensic Science International: Genetics
Volume57
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Mar 2022

Keywords

  • Deconvolution
  • DNA mixtures
  • Mixture to mixture
  • Police intelligence
  • STRmix

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