A scientist has created a revolutionary technique to extract DNA from hair that has long fallen from someone’s head, and is using it to solve cold cases.
Ed Green, a paleogeneticist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, is an expert in finding DNA where others can not and his skills are now being used by law enforcement.
Nuclear DNA is a person’s unique genetic material which can identify them beyond doubt, and can be taken from any part of the body.
However, extracting it from hair has always been a challenge unless it still has the root attached.
Now, Dr Green, who helped sequence the entire genome of the first Neanderthals and Denisovans, has found a way to do what most experts thought impossible.
His expertise, and innovative new technique, allowed him to identify three of the four victims of the Bear Brook murders whose names had not been known for decades.
His ongoing work remains confidential, but Dr Green is now being sent various locks of hair as detectives aim to unpick the mysteries of various other cold cases.
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Ed Green (pictured), a paleogeneticist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, is an expert in finding DNA where others can not and his skills are now being used by law enforcement. He has helped sequence the entire genome of the first Neanderthals and Denisovans
Dr Green has found a way to do what most experts thought impossible. His expertise, and an innovative new technique, allowed him to identify three of the four victims of the Bear Brook murders (pictured, left Marlyse Elizabeth Honeychurch and right, her daughter Marie Elizabeth Vaughn)
‘It was kind of written in stone that you can’t do it, and now he’s doing it,’ said Deputy Pete Headley of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department in California, who was involved in a case that was solved, in part, by Dr Green’s technique.
Justin Loe, the chief executive of Full Genomes, a genetics services company, told the New York Times that it is a bona-fide ‘game-changer.’
He added: ‘Criminals think of wearing gloves or wiping down blood, but fewer think to shave their head.’
The breakthrough could also change how crimes are investigated, opening up the possibility that all hair found at a crime scene will be swept up and analysed.
Dr Green’s background is not in forensic applications of DNA, but investigating ancient remains.
A decade ago he was involved in research which successfully sequence the entire genome of a neanderthal from bone fragments.
At the time, he was the first in the world to manage this.
Dr Green was brought in on the Bear Brook murders in an attempt to gain new insight into who the victims were.
The police were in the bizarre situation of knowing who the killer was, genomic analysis had found serial killer Terry Peder Rassmussen to be responsible, but not knowing who the victims were.
Rassmusen died in prison in 2010 while serving a conviction of another crime.
Dr Green knew little of the saga but was tasked with finding out to whom the hair belonged.
The hair was rinsed in a bleach solution before seeking out the nuclear DNA.
Most existing methods focus on mitochondrial DNA, a piece of genetic data which resides not in the cell’s nucleus but in in their mitochondria, and is passed directly from mother to child.
The police were in the bizarre situation of knowing who the killer was, genomic analysis had found serial killer Terry Peder Rassmussen 9pictured0 to be responsible, but not knowing who the victims were
This presents a very limited picture to the researchers and investigators, with nuclear DNA giving a far more complete picture.
For hair to be a viable option for this, the root normally must be in tact.
However Dr Green’s previous work had shown this not always to be the case.
He is somewhat of a trailblazer in the world of DNA analysis and in 2005 managed to obtain DNA from fossilised bones and in 2010 completed his work on neanderthals.
The use of hair for ancient finds is often negligible as, in the words of Dr Green, it blows away.
He tweaked his method to be suitable for hair after Dr Rae-Venter, a genetic genealogist, contacted him about the Bear Brook murders.
Months later, the police announced they had finally found the identity of three of the four victims.
Marlyse Elizabeth Honeychurch and her two daughters, Marie Elizabeth Vaughn and Sarah Lynn McWaters were finally named as the victims, after being Jane Does’ for 30 years.
