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Colorado has launched a criminal probe into its star forensic analyst Yvonne 'Missy' Woods after 'anomalies' were found in her DNA testing work. Woods, 60, is under investigation for allegedly performing shoddy DNA testing and altering data. Her work and testimonies have sent hundreds of people to jail over her three-decade career - and now thousands of cases may have to be reopened. She has worked in her trade for 29 years, and was considered the state's 'gold standard' by colleagues for helping to put infamous murderers behind bars. The shocking discovery was made in November, when the Colorado Bureau...

In recent times, a noteworthy discussion has emerged across various states regarding the implementation of a new law related to paternity DNA testing before a man signs the birth certificate. The central question being asked is whether paternity testing should be mandatory before the birth certificate is signed, immediately upon the birth of a child. This contentious issue has sparked debates about rights, responsibilities, and fairness. In this blog post, we will delve into the arguments for and against this new law, exploring the implications it might have on individuals and families. The Case for Mandatory Paternity Testing Advocates of...

A leaked memo exposes the federal government’s plan to end familial DNA testing at the United States’ southern border, a policy implemented to deter child trafficking. In 2019, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) began using DNA testing to determine whether or not familial claims made by immigrants were accurate or fraudulent. Not every family unit — loosely defined as a parent with a child — was tested. When Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents suspected that adults claiming to be the parents of young children were fraudulent, agents would refer the family to ICE for testing to confirm that...

The Biden administration is set to end familial DNA testing at the US-Mexico border, which has been key to preventing the fraudulent entry of many illegal immigrants and mitigating child trafficking, according to a memo obtained by Just The News. The DNA testing was originally implemented in the Trump-era and utilized by Customs Border Protection – following a court order related to the separation of migrant children from their families and evidence drug cartels were using children to create fake family units to sneak illegal immigrants across the border. But over the weekend, a CBP memo sent to frontline border...

One of my sisters had put DNA in to 23 & Me sometime in the past (several years ago, maybe). Over the past week, she has been notified of a person who just recently submitted DNA for testing. It turns out that this person seems to be our half-sibling. There are 5 of us from same parents, all born from 1954 to 1960. The newly identified one seems to be related only to our father and born in 1964. I babysat for this person and two siblings, when I was around 10 or 11. Their family moved away around 1969,...

"...The initial DNA test result that helped convict Durham was proven to have been a false positive. The error arose from mis- interpretation. The laboratory had failed to completely separate male from female DNA during differential extraction of the semen stain. The victim’s alleles, when combined with those of the true rapist, produced an apparent genotype that matched Durham’s. The laboratory mistook this mixed profile for a single source result, and thereby falsely incriminated an innocent man..."

Never mind Elizabeth Warren — President Trump could soon have a “Pocahontas” in his own family. And Donald Trump Jr. wants to make a sport of it. In a segment on Fox News Channel’s “The Five,” the anchors took the popular “23 and Me” DNA tests to determine their ancestry. According to the tests, 6.1 percent of Kimberly Guilfoyle’s DNA is “East Asian and Native American,” with 5.3 percent definitely Native American and the rest possibly either. The posting of the results by the conservative site Twitchy prompted the presidential son, who has been widely reported as dating Ms. Guilfoyle,...

Who were your ancestors? What is your ethnic background composed of? Sites like Ancestry.com and 23andme have always been some go to sources in answering all of your toughest questions. But how accurate are they? In a recent interview with Cracked, one of the major ancestry testing companies, (which specific company is unknown) spilled the beans on what really happens when you purchase an ancestry kit. While I can’t say I’m surprised, you may be shocked to learn that these ancestry sites aren’t always as accurate as they claim to be. Beyond this, they’ve also admitted to tampering with the...

MI6 agents could be asked to volunteer DNA as part of a renewed bid to discover how Gareth Williams died, the head of the Metropolitan Police confirmed yesterday.

After nearly 100 years of rumors and historical speculation, DNA testing has confirmed that President Warren Harding had a child out of wedlock – his only biological child – with mistress Nan Britton. Britton first came forward publically with the claim that her daughter, Elizabeth Ann, was Harding’s daughter in a 1927 autobiography “The President’s Daughter.” In her account, Britton detailed a steamy six-year-long affair with the 29th president, including one encounter in a White House closet, before his untimely death in 1923. At the time of its publishing, the book was met with public ridicule and widely discounted as...

The $126 million genetic-testing company can tell you how to live smarter, better, and longer. It can also tell you what might kill you. You can purchase 14 gallons of organic milk or 396 lollipops. You can give her 33 rides on the Ferris wheel at the state fair, or you can get him a couple of violin lessons. You could put the money in a savings account, you could buy her her very own LeapFrog LeapPad Explorer digital learning tablet, or you could buy enough pizzas to feed all of her friends on the block. So many options, so...

Dr Steven Greer, who led the project and documentary, has hit back at critics who claim the body is a hoax. 'The CAT scan clearly shows internal chest organs -lungs and what appears to be the remains of a heart structure,' he said. 'There is absolutely no doubt that the specimen is an actual organism and that it is not a hoax of any kind. 'This fact has been confirmed by Dr. Nolan and Dr. Lachman at Stanford.'

The skeleton showing curvature of the spine (scoliosis) consistent with historical accounts © University of LeicesterThe mortal remains of England's warrior king Richard III have been found, bringing to a close a mystery that has puzzled scholars for centuries. Analytical tests on a skeleton found under a Leicester car park have confirmed the last resting place of the final king in the Plantagenet line.The announcement comes after months of feverish speculation. In September 2012, the University of Leicester announced that its detective work combing ancient texts had led its team to conclude that the King was buried at Greyfriars Monastery...

Do you think immigration reform should include criminal background DNA testing? Yes No

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — It is a sign of the times — getting a quick DNA test is now as easy as walking up to a truck. The “Who’s Your Daddy” recreational vehicle is selling DNA tests, mostly to fathers who suspect their children may not actually be theirs. “They flag us down, they pull us over, they talk to us,” owner and operator Jared Rosenthal said Wednesday. . . “There’s a lot of difficult situations and tough moments and heartbreak,” Rosenthal said, adding that there are happy endings as well. “There’s a lot of good news that we’re...

I am currently witnessing a neighborhood drama that I’m sure plays out on a daily basis in communities across the country. Neighbor A is originally from Wyoming. This probably means nothing to most of you, but having lived in that state for a while, it conjures up a specific archetype for my family — a person who prefers to keep to him or herself but is friendly when forced into proximity with others and figures that laws perceived to be absurd or overreaching are not worth following. This doesn’t present much of a problem in Wyoming where there are more...

My print column examines the math of DNA-based identity testing, in light of the technique's use by the U.S. to confirm the identity of the body believed to be Osama bin Laden's. Though a government official said that an initial test showed with 99.9% certainty that bin Laden had been killed, and later tests were "absolutely conclusive," not all details have been released, including whose genetic material was used for comparison. ABC News reported that investigators had subpoenaed a DNA sample from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, where a sister of bin Laden's had died of cancer. But a spokesman...

The Supreme Court opened a legal avenue Monday for prisoners to try to gain access to DNA evidence that might prove their innocence but noted that their chances at success might be slim. The court ruled 6 to 3 in favor of Texas death row inmate Henry Skinner, who has maintained that he did not kill his girlfriend and her two sons. Skinner came within 45 minutes of being executed last spring before the Supreme Court took up his case. There was no guarantee in the court's narrow ruling that Skinner, convicted in 1995, will ever gain access to all...

The Supreme Court may answer that question in a case it heard today.Does the U.S. Constitution permit an innocent person to be imprisoned or executed? Seems like a question with an obvious answer. Here’s another question: If a convict can establish irrefutable proof of his innocence with a simple DNA test, does he have a constitutional right to that test, even if he has exhausted his legal appeals? The answer to both questions isn’t at all clear, and may depend on how the Supreme Court rules in the case of District Attorney's Office v. Osborne, which it heard today. Surprisingly,...

A01 Twenty years after DNA fingerprints were first admitted by American courts as a way to link suspects to crime scenes, a new and very different class of genetic test is approaching the bench. Rather than simply proving, for example, that the blood on a suspect's clothes does or does not match that of a murder victim, these "second generation" DNA tests seek to shed light on the biological traits and psychological states of the accused. In effect, they allow genes to "testify" in ways never before possible, in some cases resolving long-standing legal tangles but in others raising new...