Forensic DNA ethics_PhaseI

 Crime: The murder of Kathleen Aiello-Loreck in 2003 along a well-traveled walking trail.

Why authorities sought FDP testing: Unknown; see Note below.

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

 Outcome: Police initially identified as a suspect John Kahler, a mentally ill man who resembled the police sketch of the suspect and whose scent was tracked from the murder scene to his home.  Kahler committed suicide the day after Aiello-Loreck’s murder, heightening police suspicion.  However, when the DNA from the case was analyzed, it did not match Kahler’s.  When the DNA recovered from a cigarette butt found near the scene of Aiello-Loreck’s murder was matched to that recovered from Aiello-Loreck’s body, the police returned to witness statements to seek to identify the smoker.  These witness statements led them to Robert Ward Frazier, a drifter then in custody in Indiana.  Authorities obtained a warrant for a DNA sample from Frazier, which matched that found on Aiello-Loreck.  Arrested in September 2003, Frazier was convicted in 2006.

 Note: The only source for the claim that FDP testing was used in the investigation of Aiello-Loreck’s murder that we have been able to locate is a press release from DNAPrint.  We can find no mention of FDP testing in any of the news accounts which describe the investigation.