Can DNA be used to generate sketch of possible suspect? Cops in South Carolina give it a try
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Police in Columbia, South Carolina, have released a sketch of a suspect in a 2011 double murder, even though there were no eyewitnesses and no videotape showing a person of interest.
Police relied on DNA phenotyping provided by Parabon NanoLabs, report the New York Times and Fox News. Parabon and Identitas, another company, are offering the service to police, which uses genetic material to determine physical traits.
Police say the sketch released on Jan. 9 produced a couple leads in the murders of Candra Alston, 25, and her 3-year-old daughter, Malaysia Boykin, but they did not result in arrests. The sketch is shown in this press release.
Parabon says its technique is partly based on the work of Penn State University anthropology and genetics professor Mark Shriver, the Times says. His method creates a facial image based on sex and ancestry, then varies the image based on 24 genetic variants in 20 genes.
The Times tried its own experiment, asking Shriver to create a sketch from DNA of two Times employees. The Times sent the sketches to colleagues and asked if they could identify the people, according to this story. About 50 people who ventured guesses were not able to identify reporter John Markoff; most of the votes instead went to business columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin.
About 10 people, however, correctly identified video journalist Catherine Spangler.
