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| Tweet Topic Started: Mar 3 2007, 09:00 PM (405 Views) | |
| ELL | Mar 3 2007, 09:00 PM Post #1 |
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Investigators use forensic tools to solve cases DNA profiling can identify crime victims, causes of death, county investigators say By Marjorie Hernandez, mhernandez@VenturaCountyStar.com January 29, 2007 Senior Deputy Medical Examiner Armando Chavez looked through pictures of the badly decomposed remains of an unidentified man who was found in Dome Springs in Los Padres National Forest just north of Ojai. Records show the man died of gunshot wounds to the head and abdomen. His body was found in a shallow grave in the forest by some hikers on Nov. 28, 1987. Despite a full investigation and coverage from local media, the case has remained in the Ventura County Medical Examiner-Coroner's Office's "Jane and John Doe" files for almost 20 years. "One of the most interesting things about this case was that he was a very big guy," Chavez said. "You wonder how some people go unnoticed, but this was a guy about 5-11, between 250 to 300 pounds with a full leg cast on. When stories went out on this one ... you would think someone in a doctor's office ... some nurses would have remembered a 250-to-300 pound man with a walking cast." Unlike in popular television shows like "Crime Scene Investigation" and "Bones," where DNA samples are identified quicker than a two-minute commercial, for officials at the Coroner's Office, identifying the departed and the cause of their untimely deaths could take weeks or even years. Several investigative steps are needed to identify Jane and John Does with no immediate next of kin. For cold cases, officials depend on a DNA profiling program, which can shed light into the death of an unidentified person in the county as far back as 30 years ago. Officials with the local Coroner's Office handle an average of 485 autopsies a year, said Chief Deputy Medical Examiner James Baroni. Since 2000, there have been nine unidentified cases, which involve mostly a single bone or skeletal remains. "One of the most important things in our office is not just making phone calls but actually hitting the streets and talking to people who might have known (the deceased)," Chavez said. "When you work on a case long enough, and you make many efforts to try to identify somebody ... and when you finally get to tell a family ... it's a very rewarding feeling." In the case of an unidentified person, medical examiners on-site must first examine the body for any clues that could lead to the person's identity. Items could include a wallet, address book, medication bottles, and court or medical records. When no items are found, investigators look at the surrounding area for clues, Chavez said. Some bodies never claimed Once the site investigation is completed, the remains are sent to the morgue where the body is weighed, measured and undressed. Fingerprints and pictures are taken. A physical examination of the body or an autopsy is performed, which could include laboratory tests of tissue or bodily fluids. Forensic odontologist Dr. Michael Bowers is often called to the office to help identify bodies through dental X-rays. The body could be kept in refrigerated storage at the Coroner's Office for months, or even years if needed, said Chavez. If attempts to find a relative are unsuccessful, the case is handed over to the County Public Administrator's Office, which assists in the cremation and interment of the unidentified person if next of kin cannot be found. The cremated ashes are then inurned at Ivy Lawn Memorial Park in Ventura, where several urns are placed in a casket and then buried in an unmarked grave. Ivy Lawn officials keep records of the inurnment just in case a family member is found. "Even though they had a million loved ones or none, people still deserve the respect of a burial," said Ivy Lawn General Manager Terri Gonzalez. All efforts were exhausted In November, the Coroner's Office made numerous attempts to reach the family of a World War II veteran who died after a fall in his apartment. According to officials, 88-year-old Joseph Cavestri was living on his own in his apartment in Ventura. On Nov. 2, Cavestri fell off the stairs and suffered blunt-force head and neck injuries. He died a few hours later at the Ventura County Medical Center. Cavestri, who was married twice, never had any children, Baroni said. Investigators were able to contact the wives' family members, but they had no information about Cavestri's immediate family. Investigators even found the birth certificates of Cavestri's parents, but there were still no other leads. Before his death, Cavestri had made arrangements with a local mortuary. Since all efforts to find a blood relative were exhausted, Cavestri's estate was turned over to the Public Administrator's Office, Baroni said. Sent to state for more analysis Although some of the cold cases go as far back as the 1970s, forensic pathology technician Shasta Gainer still considers them "active" because DNA samples collected from the bone or remains are sent to the California Department of Justice for further analysis. There are currently about 30 John and Jane Doe cases in the Coroner's Office files that include unidentified remains that are either missing persons or victims of homicide. The Department of Justice Missing Persons DNA Program stores the samples under two files, Gainer said. One consists of DNA profiles from relatives of a missing person, which will be used as a reference file. There is also a national data bank of missing persons, which is operated by the National Crime Information Center under the FBI. When a person has been missing for at least 30 days, officials from local police departments and the Ventura County Sheriff's Department could collect DNA samples from family members, Gainer said. The samples are then sent to the Department of Justice. Months before sample cleared The other section of the department's DNA program involves unidentified remains. In those cases, the Coroner's Office must collect the DNA sample, which also is sent to the Department of Justice. "It's a multilevel system," Gainer said. "Once it's integrated, then it works effectively, and in theory, it could identify a missing person who is found deceased in our county who is from another state. By no means do we receive the case and send the DNA sample the same day. It's usually months before a sample is even cleared." The advent of DNA profiling also has allowed investigators and forensic pathologists to re-examine bone samples that have been sitting in the Coroner's Office for almost 30 years. The whole process could take months, because some of the older bone samples are sometimes in very poor quality. "It's pretty impressive that we are still able to submit some DNA for profiling considering that it's 30 years later and there are no other investigative leads," Gainer said. Gainer used the DNA program with a case of an unidentified leg bone found in boat wreckage in 1982. Officials had suspected the wreckage, which was found near Anacapa Island, might have been the lost sailboat that carried three young men who were on a fishing and surfing expedition. Family members said Rick Delmore, 25, Michael Stalnaker, 24, and Jeff Day, 23, all from Santa Barbara, set out in a sailboat called the Wild Wind on May 31, 1982. A massive search for the three young men was futile, until the boat's anchor was recovered by a fishing boat off Anacapa Island. The wreckage was eventually recovered and it included a single tibia. It was never established whose tibia was found in the wreckage. Last spring, Gainer decided to use the DNA program to re-examine the case. She contacted family members of two of the men and collected their DNA samples, which were sent to the Department of Justice along with DNA samples from the tibia. Instrumental in recent cases Gainer said this was the only case in the Coroner's Office's unidentified persons files where investigators had some idea of who the remains might belong to. She hopes the samples will garner a positive match. Collecting and matching DNA samples have been instrumental in more recent cases. On Dec. 8, the lower half of a torso was found floating in the water off Hollywood Beach. The Coroner's Office received a number of calls from people who saw news reports about the remains. Many were from family members who had reported their loved ones missing. Almost a month after the remains were found, officials from the Ventura County Sheriff's Department Crime Lab determined the remains belonged to 18-year-old William Schneider, who drowned Dec. 23, 2005, after a boat he was in capsized about 100 yards off the mouth of the Santa Clara River. The Sheriff's Crime Lab compared DNA samples obtained from Schneider's family members and a biopsy from the bone to make the match. Three other members of the Schneider family, including the boy's father, also were in the boat but were able to make it to shore. Leads from the public "We give them kudos for getting on it and getting results faster than the usual time it would take," Baroni said. Although technological advances through DNA have greatly helped with the identification of bodies, Coroner's Office officials said some of their most baffling cases are solved with the help of leads from the public. "Most of the cases we have solved were done with public's help," Chavez said. "They see the news reports or read it in the paper. The public's help is really important." http://www.venturacountystar.com/vcs/count...5310336,00.html |
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