State police to use grant for DNA tests

AUGUSTA – Maine State Police will use a federal grant to reduce a backlog of 150 cases where DNA testing is needed.

The $375,554 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice is earmarked for cases in which investigators have no suspects but have gathered evidence that requires DNA testing.

David Muniec, forensic biology supervisor for the state police crime lab, said testing for cases involving property crime have piled up as priority has been given to assaults, rapes and other violent crimes.

The backlog of cases is the largest in the lab’s five-year history.

Results generally take two to six months for crimes against people and up to one year for property crimes. Muniec would like to reduce the wait to 30 days.

DNA testing by forensics scientists in Maine involves 13 tests, which produce a series of graphs with numbered peaks.

Those results become part of a statewide system nicknamed CODIS. The database has the DNA of every person in Maine convicted of murder, manslaughter, assault, rape, arson, robbery, burglary and some other crimes since 1996, as required by Maine law.

The database has DNA profiles of 4,354 Maine people. As of June 20, Maine had used the system to connect 43 convicts to crimes where police had no suspects.

“A lot of times you’ll get a guy who’s in jail for burglary and you’ll find an unsolved rape case connected to him,” Muniec said.

In May, scientists matched a semen sample taken from a woman raped in a Bates College bathroom to Christian Charles Averill of Sabattus, according to Tim Kupferschmid, the crime lab’s director.

In April, DNA lifted off a lip balm container connected a convicted burglar to a new burglary. The previous month, an earring left behind at a robbery linked a convicted offender to the scene.

Five years ago, scientists profiled 200 crime-related samples of DNA a year, Muniec said. The number is expected to be 400 this year.

Muniec thinks the increase is the result of more police officers statewide realizing the potential of DNA technology.

The Justice Department grant will allow the lab to pay 12 scientists to work six hours of overtime each week for the next year. The lab also will be able to hire a new DNA analyst and an administrative assistant, and buy new equipment.