AST Digital Magazine July 2017 Digital-July | Page 46

Volume 14 July 2017 Edition Why is it used? The technology has also reportedly been used by police in Florida to make arrests related to a 2011 homicide. Just like how each person’s fingerprint is unique, the same is true for DNA. A forensic DNA sam- ple from a crime scene or terrorist strike can be matched to a database, for example, to try to identify the culprit. Rockingham County Sherriff’s Office in North Carolina also used Parabon technology during its successful investigation into the murders of Douglas “Troy” and LaDonna French. This is a big leap ahead for the use of DNA in capturing terrorists and criminals. But now if there is no match in a database, then there is still a way to use the DNA to put a face to the crime. Investigators can use the DNA as a human blue- print too and have Snapshot transform it into a picture. Capturing criminals Early adopters in law enforcement, military and counter terrorism team have had great success with this new tool. It has been so successful that in that short span of time, Snapshot has been used by more than 80 agencies and Snapshot analysis has been undertaken in ten countries. Although there was lots of different DNA at the crime scene, there was no police database match. In Januray 2015, a month after the de- but of Parabon’s Snapshot service, Rockingham County Sherriff’s Office contacted the company. José Alvarez, Jr. was arrested for the murder in August 2015. In Jul y 2016 Alvarez pled guilty to two counts of first-degree murder and was sentenced to two consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole. Investigators have been using Snapshot to help solve tough current criminal cases as well as crack cold cases. Detectives from the Montgomery County Police Department in Maryland, for example, recently used the Parabon technology to create a com- posite for a suspect in a series of unsolved bur- glaries and rapes that occurred between June 19, 2010 and Sept. 2, 2012. (Learn More. Courtesy of Q13 Fox News, Dark Sleuth and YouTube. Posted on April 6, 2016) Other applications Beyond a military and law enforcement tool, Parabon says it is developing other potential ap- plications for their research, including the ability to predict the risk of developing Alzheimer’s Dis- ease. (The Montgomery County Police Department held a news conference on Monday to discuss an unsolved 1992 homi- cide and to release a new suspect composite that has been produced by Parabon NanoLabs. Courtesy of myMCMedia and YouTube. Posted on June 12, 2017) Original post http://www.foxnews.com/ tech/2017/07/06/new-dna-technology-creates- digital-sketch-terrorists-faces.html To contact Parabon, visit their website at https:// snapshot.parabon-nanolabs.com/. For ordering information, please email snap- [email protected] or call (703) 689- 9689 x251 46