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Home // News & Announcements // Forensic DNA Ethics News // Crime Scene DNA Could Create Image of Suspect's Face: Scientists to Develop Method to Sketch a Criminal's Face by Unraveling DNA
Feb 18, 2009 ABC News
Crime Scene DNA Could Create Image of Suspect's Face: Scientists to Develop Method to Sketch a Criminal's Face by Unraveling DNA

Russell Goldman

Taking the police sketch artist's drawing into the 21st century, scientists are developing a new method that will allow cops to create an image of a suspect's face by reading the genes he leaves behind at a crime scene.

Scientists are working to use DNA left at the crime scene to construct an image of a suspect's face. In 2004, police captured convicted serial killer Derek Todd Lee using science that helped determine the suspect's race.

Unlocking the genes in a single strand of hair or drop of blood to construct an image of the donor's face is a process called "forensic molecular photo-fitting," which could be "used to figure out what someone looks like based on their genetic markers," said Mark Shriver, an anthropologist and geneticist at Pennsylvania State University who is leading the research.

Read the full story:  http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/AheadoftheCurve/story?id=6897788&page=1

 

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