Forensic DNA ethics_PhaseI

Place:  Greater New Orleans, Louisiana

Crime:  A series of murders and sexual assaults from the late 1990s to early 2000s.

Why authorities sought FDP testing:  Since the serial killer’s victims fit no obvious pattern, profiling the suspect proved difficult. Eyewitness accounts led Louisiana police to believe that they were looking for a white man driving a white van, but certain clues seemed to point to a African-American suspect.  With police expenses mounting and no additional leads, Louisiana police decided in 2003 to contact DNAPrint, which promised to analyze DNA found at the crime scenes and confirm the suspect’s race.

Lab that conducted FDP analysis:  DNAPrint, a Florida-based commerical, for-profit laboratory.

Outcome:   DNAPrint reported that the crime scene DNA was “85% sub-Saharan African and 15% Native American” and that the man “could be Afro-Caribbean or African-American but there is no chance he is Caucasian.”  After some initial skepticism, the police reoriented their search and in less than two months identified as a suspect an African-American man, Derrick Lee Todd.  Known to police as a sexual predator, Todd was previously dismissed as a suspect in these murders because of his race.  In 2004, Todd was convicted of two of the murders and traditional DNA-typing linked him to at least five more.