A Criminal Was Identified After His DNA Was Extracted From a Discarded Straw at a Restaurant

For 12 long years, former beauty queen and long-time US actress Eva LaRue was being stalked by a psychopath, who regularly sent letters to her southern California home, threatening to rape and kill her and her young daughter. Sustained efforts by law enforcement agencies to nail the perpetrator failed.

The FBI’s sharp minds then turned to genetic genealogy, a science that can be used to identify remains by tying DNA to a missing person’s family member or to point to the likely identity of a perpetrator. They extracted DNA from the envelopes of the threat letters and ran it through a DNA database, which yielded a list of the suspect’s relatives. The 58-year-old stalker was identified after his DNA was extracted from a discarded straw at a restaurant

Details may be found in an article by Vikram Sharma published in the Deccan Chronicle web site at: https://bit.ly/3LfyQRY.