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What Was Once Cold is Now Hot: Solving Cold Cases at the NYC Office of Chief Medical Examiner

Lisa Mertz, M.S. Office of Chief Medical Examiner , New York (c) 2019 City of New York Office of Chief Medical Examiner. All rights reserved. Overview ▪ What is a ? ▪ Cold Case DNA Testing Challenges ▪ Cold Case DNA Testing at the NYC OCME ▪ Cold Case Successes ▪ The Future of Cold Cases

What was Once Cold is Now Hot: Solving Cold Cases at the NYC Office of Chief Medical Examiner

(c) 2019 City of New York Office of Chief Medical Examiner. All rights reserved. What is a Cold Case? Definition varies from agency to agency ▪ According to the National Institute of Justice’s document on The Best Practices for Implementing and Sustaining Cold Cases, in 2015, a Cold Case is: ▪ A case, such as a violent , , or unidentified person, that has remained unsolved for at least three years and has the potential to be solved through newly acquired information or advanced technologies to analyze evidence National Best Practices for Implementing and Sustaining a Cold Case Investigation Unit-NIJ What was Once Cold is Now Hot: Solving Cold Cases at the NYC Office of Chief Medical Examiner

(c) 2019 City of New York Office of Chief Medical Examiner. All rights reserved. What is a Cold Case? ▪ What is Your Definition? ▪ 5 years? 10 years? 20 Years? ▪ After all investigative leads have been exhausted? ▪ If a DNA profile was not determined? ▪ If a profile could not be entered into CODIS? ▪ If a profile did not get a CODIS hit? ▪ The Office of Chief Medical Examiner ▪ Cases from the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s

What was Once Cold is Now Hot: Solving Cold Cases at the NYC Office of Chief Medical Examiner

(c) 2019 City of New York Office of Chief Medical Examiner. All rights reserved. How many Cold Cases are there in the United States? According to data compiled by the FBI in 2017: ▪ 38.4 percent of the 15,657 reported nationwide remain unsolved (approximately 6,012) ▪ The country’s rate has increased from 5 per 100,000 people in 2009 to 5.4 per 100,000 people in 2017 https://nypost.com/2018/09/25/a-shocking-number-of-us-murders-went-unsolved-last-year/

What was Once Cold is Now Hot: Solving Cold Cases at the NYC Office of Chief Medical Examiner

(c) 2019 City of New York Office of Chief Medical Examiner. All rights reserved. How many Cold Cases are there in the United States? ▪ According to the FBI the national "clearance rate" (a case closed usually by arrest) for a is 64.1 percent. Fifty years ago, it was more than 90 percent ▪ Criminologists estimate that since the 1960s, at least 200,000 murders have gone unsolved https://www.npr.org/2015/03/30/395069137/open-cases-why-one-third-of-murders-in-america-go-unresolved

What was Once Cold is Now Hot: Solving Cold Cases at the NYC Office of Chief Medical Examiner

(c) 2019 City of New York Office of Chief Medical Examiner. All rights reserved. How many Cold Cases are there in ? ▪ In 2017, New York City saw 292 murders or non-negligent cases ▪ In 2017, the NYPD cleared 85.3 percent of its murders -249 out of 292 ▪ Since 1985, there have been approximately 9,000 unsolved murders

https://nypost.com/2018/09/25/a-shocking-number-of-us-murders-went-unsolved-last-year/

What was Once Cold is Now Hot: Solving Cold Cases at the NYC Office of Chief Medical Examiner

(c) 2019 City of New York Office of Chief Medical. All rights reserved. Testing Cold Cases Your laboratory has: ▪ Defined a Cold Case ▪ Determined approximately how many there are in your state/county Now What? ▪ Challenges to Cold Case testing: ▪ Legal ▪ Practical ▪ Scientific/Technical What was Once Cold is Now Hot: Solving Cold Cases at the NYC Office of Chief Medical Examiner

(c) 2019 City of New York Office of Chief Medical Examiner. All rights reserved. Cold Case Challenges: Legal Considerations ▪ Chain of Custody issues (handwritten logs?) ▪ Witness/ Issues (dead? relocated?) ▪ Lost or Destroyed Evidence (evidence thrown away? improperly stored?)

What was Once Cold is Now Hot: Solving Cold Cases at the NYC Office of Chief Medical Examiner

(c) 2019 City of New York Office of Chief Medical Examiner. All rights reserved. Cold Case Challenges: Practical Considerations ▪ Collaboration between agencies ▪ A reconstruction of the evidence collection, storage, and analysis process must be done ▪ Emphasis on ‘close contact’ where biological material may have been left behind (sexual assaults, )

What was Once Cold is Now Hot: Solving Cold Cases at the NYC Office of Chief Medical Examiner (c) 2019 City of New York Office of Chief Medical Examiner. All rights reserved Cold Case Challenges: Practical Considerations ▪ Are there original crime scene reports, photographs, diagrams ▪ What is the probative value of the evidence? Can it be located and aid in prosecution? ▪ Is it possible to examine/re-examine the evidence with current technology

What was Once Cold is Now Hot: Solving Cold Cases at the NYC Office of Chief Medical Examiner (c) 2019 City of New York Office of Chief Medical Examiner. All rights reserved. Cold Case Challenges: Practical Considerations ▪ Strained resources ▪ Large volume of cases ▪ Budgetary concerns ▪ Backlogs of current cases ▪ New laws on kit backlogs ▪ New laws on gun testing ▪ Evidence retention issues

What was Once Cold is Now Hot: Solving Cold Cases at the NYC Office of Chief Medical Examiner

(c) 2019 City of New York Office of Chief Medical Examiner. All rights reserved. Cold Case Challenges: Technical Considerations ▪ Evidence issues ▪ Evidence may be lost or destroyed ▪ Lack of resources to locate the evidence (personnel) ▪ May need to obtain elimination or suspect samples

What was Once Cold is Now Hot: Solving Cold Cases at the NYC Office of Chief Medical Examiner

(c) 2019 City of New York Office of Chief Medical Examiner. All rights reserved. Cold Case Challenges: Technical Considerations ▪ Condition of the property: ▪ Stored improperly ▪ Commingled with other evidence ▪ Storage may promote growth of bacteria and mold ▪ Degradation due to exposure to extreme heat or sunlight conditions

What was Once Cold is Now Hot: Solving Cold Cases at the NYC Office of Chief Medical Examiner

(c) 2019 City of New York Office of Chief Medical Examiner. All rights reserved. Cold Case Challenges: Technical Considerations ▪ Contamination issues ▪ Evidence in older cases might have been collected in ways that lacked certain safeguards ▪ Going back and re-testing old evidence or old extracts of DNA with more sensitive and newer techniques may give unexpected results

What was Once Cold is Now Hot: Solving Cold Cases at the NYC Office of Chief Medical Examiner

(c) 2019 City of New York Office of Chief Medical Examiner. All rights reserved. Cold Case Checklist ▪ Gather as much information as possible about case ▪ Read through old case contacts and old serology and or DNA reports ▪ Determine what has already been tested and what was never examined ▪ Determine whether there is any biological evidence suitable for testing

What was Once Cold is Now Hot: Solving Cold Cases at the NYC Office of Chief Medical Examiner

(c) 2019 City of New York Office of Chief Medical Examiner. All rights reserved. Cold Case Checklist ▪ Look at crime scene photos, diagrams, etc. with the cold case Detective and the ▪ Meet as a collective unit to discuss the case and what is possible with DNA ▪ In consultation with the Cold Case Detective locate the evidence ▪ Review any legal, practical, scientific or technical impediments to the case

What was Once Cold is Now Hot: Solving Cold Cases at the NYC Office of Chief Medical Examiner

(c) 2019 City of New York Office of Chief Medical Examiner. All rights reserved. How are Cold Cases processed at the OCME? Retained samples at the OCME: ▪ Serology positive or trace evidence samples were retained ▪ fingernails ▪ sexual assault kit swabs ▪ retained stain cuttings ▪ DNA extracts were retained and are still retained from evidence samples for possible additional typing

What was Once Cold is Now Hot: Solving Cold Cases at the NYC Office of Chief Medical Examiner

(c) 2019 City of New York Office of Chief Medical Examiner. All rights reserved. Modern Technologies Then Now ABO blood testing DNA testing 377/3130 3500/next generation sequencing Quad/Co-Pro/Identifiler Fusion/Globalfiler Biological fluid testing Touch DNA Trace-hairs and fibers Exogenous DNA

What was Once Cold is Now Hot: Solving Cold Cases at the NYC Office of Chief Medical Examiner (c) 2019 City of New York Office of Chief Medical Examiner. All rights reserved Modern Technologies at the OCME ▪ Touch DNA processing: ▪ For homicides, assaults, sexual assaults, and property crimes ▪ Collecting skin cells from the assailant ▪ Touched clothing processing: ▪ The perpetrator physically holds the victim’s clothing for more than a fleeting period of time

What was Once Cold is Now Hot: Solving Cold Cases at the NYC Office of Chief Medical Examiner

(c) 2019 City of New York Office of Chief Medical Examiner. All rights reserved. Modern Technologies at the OCME

Exogenous DNA from fingernails ▪ looking for the assailant under the nails of the victim

https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/ocme/downloads/ pdf/technical-manuals/protocols-for-forensic- str-analysis/extraction-of-exogenous-dna-from- nails.pdf

What was Once Cold is Now Hot: Solving Cold Cases at the NYC Office of Chief Medical Examiner

(c) 2019 City of New York Office of Chief Medical Examiner. All rights reserved. Solved Cold Case- Tolila Brown ▪ 36-year-old mother of four ▪ Found November 2,1981 in a shack in the Bronx ▪ Strangled to death ▪ Shack was thought to be a location to purchase discounted blue jeans ▪ Suspect lured Tolila Brown and other victims to the shack and then robbed, sexually assaulted, and murdered them What was Once Cold is Now Hot: Solving Cold Cases at the NYC Office of Chief Medical Examiner (c) 2019 City of New York Office of Chief Medical Examiner. All rights reserved Tolila Brown ▪ A was lifted from a jar in the shack ▪ As a result of a print match to Jesus Aguilera in 2009, the NYPD requested DNA testing ▪ The only evidence located was http://www.nydailynews.com fingernail clippings

What was Once Cold is Now Hot: Solving Cold Cases at the NYC Office of Chief Medical Examiner (c) 2019 City of New York Office of Chief Medical Examiner. All rights reserved Tolila Brown ▪ Four fingernail samples resulted in mixtures of DNA ▪ Mixtures were comprised of the victim and a male donor (Male Donor A) ▪ Statistics were 1 in greater than 6.80 trillion people ▪ Profile was sent to CODIS and

resulted in a match to Jesus Aguilera https://strbase.nist.gov//fbicore.htm

What was Once Cold is Now Hot: Solving Cold Cases at the NYC Office of Chief Medical Examiner (c) 2019 City of New York Office of Chief Medical Examiner. All rights reserved Tolila Brown ▪ Jesus Aguilera originally pled not guilty ▪ In 2015, just as trial was about to begin, Jesus Aguilera pled guilty, in large part due to the

DNA evidence www.nypost.com ▪ Sentenced to 15 years to life

What was Once Cold is Now Hot: Solving Cold Cases at the NYC Office of Chief Medical Examiner (c) 2019 City of New York Office of Chief Medical Examiner. All rights reserved Solved Cold Case- Marleny Cruz ▪ 14-year-old from the Dominican Republic ▪ Lived with her foster mom in the Bronx after the death of her mother ▪ Reported missing on February 23, 1998 ▪ She was found bruised, strangled, and sexually abused on a Bronx curb

What was Once Cold is Now Hot: Solving Cold Cases at the NYC Office of Chief Medical Examiner (c) 2019 City of New York Office of Chief Medical Examiner. All rights reserved Marleny Cruz ▪ In 1999, semen was found on the vaginal swabs ▪ DNA testing was done ▪ A partial male DNA profile was determined ▪ The case became cold until new testing was requested in 2011

What was Once Cold is Now Hot: Solving Cold Cases at the NYC Office of Chief Medical Examiner (c) 2019 City of New York Office of Chief Medical Examiner. All rights reserved Marleny Cruz ▪ In 2011 additional testing was performed on the vaginal swabs ▪ Mixtures of DNA were found ▪ The mixtures were comprised of the victim and a male donor (Male Donor A) ▪ Statistics were 1 in greater than 6.80 trillion people ▪ The Male Donor A profile was sent to CODIS in 2011 and resulted in a match to James Martin What was Once Cold is Now Hot: Solving Cold Cases at the NYC Office of Chief Medical Examiner (c) 2019 City of New York Office of Chief Medical Examiner. All rights reserved Marleny Cruz ▪ In 2012, DNA testing was also performed on the fingernails of Marleny Cruz ▪ James Martin was included in a mixture of DNA on one of the fingernails ▪ In 2016, he pled guilty to first degree manslaughter

▪ He will serve an additional 20 years to https://www.dnainfo.com the sentence he is currently serving

What was Once Cold is Now Hot: Solving Cold Cases at the NYC Office of Chief Medical Examiner (c) 2019 City of New York Office of Chief Medical Examiner. All rights reserved The Future of Cold Cases? Then Now DNA testing Genealogy? ▪ Crime scene DNA is ▪ Detectives across the country said they run through a genealogy database were able to locate in 28 Cold and family trees are Cases in 2018 after uploading crime reconstructed looking scene DNA to GEDmatch.com for a suspect through Example: common ancestors ▪ Golden State Killer ▪ Currently not allowed ▪ committed 50 and 12 murders in in New York State from 1974 to 1986 https://www.foxnews.com/us/dna-genetic-genealogy-made-2018-the-year-old-the-cold-case-biggest-crime-fighting-breakthrough-in-decades What was Once Cold is Now Hot: Solving Cold Cases at the NYC Office of Chief Medical Examiner (c) 2019 City of New York Office of Chief Medical Examiner. All rights reserved Thank you ▪ National Institute of Justice (NIJ) ▪ New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner ▪ New York City Department and the Cold Case Squad ▪ New York City District Attorney’s Offices

What was Once Cold is Now Hot: Solving Cold Cases at the NYC Office of Chief Medical Examiner OFFICE OF CHIEF MEDICAL EXAMINER THE CITY OF NEW YORK Questions? Contact Information Lisa Mertz Criminalist Cold Case Liaison Office of Chief Medical Examiner Department of Forensic Biology [email protected] 212.323.1317

What was Once Cold is Now Hot: Solving Cold Cases at the NYC Office of Chief Medical Examiner

(c) 2019 City of New York Office of Chief Medical Examiner. All rights reserved. For more information about Cold Cases please tune into our webinar- How to Thaw Out Cold Cases Using DNA Lisa Mertz and Heather Nelson- O’Connor Office of Chief Medical Examiner October 22nd, 2019 Please see Promega’s website for more information We would love your participation in our online polls What was Once Cold is Now Hot: Solving Cold Cases at the NYC Office of Chief Medical Examiner

(c) 2019 City of New York Office of Chief Medical Examiner. All rights reserved.