I have the honor of personally knowing this private Forencis DNA Testing facility in Hilton Head, SC known as Intelligenetics.  The office is friendly, kind and most of importantly very thorough.  You will often get a polite lady on the phone who will be able to talk you through any questions regarding DNA testing, and, as a professional when she thinks your questions should be directed to the Laboratory Director, she coordinates that conversation, too.  A client never leaves without having full understanding of the case and particulars.  The proof is in the pudding as they say.  Intelligenetics has been part of a local police departments system of profiling and matching DNA from an arrestee to items found at crime scenes.  Most recently, in Goose Creek, SC two armed men entered a restaurant, shot one employee and then robbed the restaurant of the day's proceeds as well as other items.  The shooting may have been accidental but nevertheless, the victims were terrified.  Bad enough to have committed such a horrendous act, let alone to do so on Christmas eve.  What kind of evil and desperation in the minds of such men.

The Goose Creek Police have created, with the assistance of Intelligenetics, a forensic DNA database.  In this case, a ski mask was found not far from the restaurant.  Intelligenetics Forensic laboratory was able to extract and profile the DNA on the ski mask and match it to one of the suspects in the Christmas Eve robbery.  It is only 3 weeks out from Christmas Eve, had the Goose Creek Police waited for a State Crime Laboratory to handle the DNA these men would still be roaming the streets and able to commit other crimes. Having Intelligenetics handle the DNA profiling in this case, allows residents of Goose Creek to sleep better at night.

The ability to use a private DNA Testing Facility, to assist in profiling DNA evidence should be a part of every local police department's budget.  Leaving the already back logged States Forensic laboratories to handle the more serious felony work (BARRMs plus K to my forensic professor at Kean University in New Jersey!) allows the capture of these petty criminals, who for all we know would get more cocky with time, if not caught.  In this particular case, one of the victims was shot in the leg - still painful but not fatal (thank god for his family).

Perhaps, NJ Local Police Departments, at least those in the higher crime areas, should be allowed to bring in a local DNA collector to profile items found at crime scenes in order to match the DNA already loaded into CODIS.   Most brick and mortar DNA collection offices, have been trained in Chain of Custody collections and are already providing DNA tests for government offices.  A criminal background check and a fingerprint can be collected on the local DNA collector to insure no conflict of interest in a prior life.  Similar to the process of vetting substitute teachers, local DNA collectors would be more than willing to undergo a background check in order to be eligible for local, forensic DNA collections from police in our higher, crime cities.  While New Jersey has a fantastic, state of the art forensic laboratory - times are tough and bringing in a local DNA collector would only facilitate in the smaller crimes.   Below is a cut and paste of the full news article as it appeared in the local Goose Creek, SC "Post and Courrier" and how the local Goose Creek police use a local forensic lab to expedite such cases. 

 Goose Creek DNA database solves robbery

By Andrew Knapp

<a href="mailto:aknapp@postandcourier.com">aknapp@postandcourier.com</a>

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Goose Creek police's own DNA database helped solve a robbery that left a Zaxby's employee shot on Christmas Eve.

Christopher Darnell Wilson, 25, of Swamp Fox Lane and Donte Samar Brown, 23, of Jean Wells Drive each face seven felony charges, including six counts of armed robbery, five counts of kidnapping and one count of attempted murder. The robbers barged into the St. James Avenue restaurant just after midnight and took five workers' wallets and cellphones, according to the Goose Creek Police Department.

Police Capt. Dave Soderberg said Wednesday that both Wilson and Brown are felons. After one arrest, the police collected Wilson's DNA and added it to a database that the department started more than a year ago.

File

Brown (left), Wilson (right)

Experts from a Hilton Head Island laboratory, Intelligenetics, matched that sample to DNA found on a ski mask discarded in the nearby woods. Subsequent searches of Wilson's home also turned up valuables taken from the restaurant.

Soderberg said that developing the local database and contracting with a private company has its advantages over the State Law Enforcement Department's lab, where backlogs can delay DNA testing for weeks.

"We were able to get the bad guys off the street two days after sending the sample out," he said. "In this day and age, when witness accounts aren't as credible in the courts, DNA is a wonderful thing."

The Zaxby's had closed for the day when two armed robbers walked in and held five employees at gunpoint. As one of the gunmen frisked a worker, his gun went off and a bullet struck the employee's leg. Investigators don't know whether the shooting was intentional.

"They really took advantage of these people," Soderberg said. "They knew what they were doing, and it was terrifying for the victims."

Wilson and Brown were arrested during the first week of January, and they remained jailed without bail Wednesday.

Soderberg said that Goose Creek police officers routinely ask those arrested for DNA and that they often agree. He wasn't sure how many samples the department had gathered. He added that the database targets "10 percent of the population that commits 90 percent of the crimes" in Goose Creek.

"A lot of departments are not using this to the degree they should be," Soderberg said. "But DNA is so specific; you really can't go wrong."

ReachAndrew Knapp at 937-5414 or twitter.com/offlede.