From DNA to fingerprints: Pittsburgh detectives say they've tripled success in identifying suspects (2024)

THAT’S IN YOUR FOUR DAY PLUS FOUR MORE. THANK YOU BRIAN. POLICE HAVE ALWAYS RELIED ON SCIENCE TO HELP THEM SOLVE CRIMES. THE PITTSBURGH BUREAU OF POLICE JUST GOT SOME NEW FORENSIC WEAPONS. ANCHOR SHANNON PERRINE GOT A LOOK BEHIND THE SCENES AT PITTSBURGH’S MAJOR CRIMES BUILDING. SO, SHANNON, HOW DO POLICE FEEL ABOUT ALL THIS NEW CRIME SOLVING TECHNOLOGY? YEAH, THEY ACTUALLY LOVE IT. THEY SAY IT REALLY MAKES THEIR JOB EASIER. AND YOU KNOW WHAT? I GOT A SCIENTIFIC LESSON IN CRIME FIGHTING FROM THREE PITTSBURGH DETECTIVES. TWO OF THEM ARE CRIME SCENE EXPERTS. AND AS A REPORTER, I’VE WATCHED THEM AT CRIME SCENES REALLY FOR DECADES. AND NOW I ACTUALLY GOT TO SEE WHAT THEY DO WITH THAT EVIDENCE. ONCE THEY CAREFULLY COLLECT IT FROM A CRIME SCENE, ALL IN THE NAME OF JUSTICE FOR MORE THAN TWO DECADES, DETECTIVES JOHN ADAMS AND JOHN GODLESKI HAVE BEEN CATCHING CRIMINALS IN PITTSBURGH, BUT NOT TYPICALLY BY TACKLING THEM IN THE STREETS. I’D WALK THE STREETS FOR ABOUT 1010 YEARS ON THE NORTH SIDE. IT NEVER IN MY LIFE HAD CAUGHT A BURGLAR COMING OUT OF A HOUSE. BUT IN THE LAST 20 YEARS THAT I’VE BEEN HERE IN THE CRIME UNIT, I’VE CAUGHT DOZENS AND DOZENS OF BURGLARS. BY WAY OF FINGERPRINTS. CHECK OUT THIS MUG SHOT OF A PITTSBURGH SUSPECT BUSTED IN 1905 BEFORE THE CITY POLICE STARTED USING FINGERPRINTS TO IDENTIFY BAD GUYS AND THIS ROBBERY CONVICT. PRISON DOCUMENTS SHOW ALL KINDS OF MEASUREMENTS, BUT NO FINGERPRINTS, AS THEY WOULD MEASURE DIFFERENT DIMENSIONS OF YOUR ARMS. YOUR EARS, YOUR HEAD, YOUR TRUNK, AND THAT WAS THE BRAZILIAN SYSTEM. AND THEN THAT YEAR, 1903, THEY FOUND OUT THAT THAT WASN’T REALLY THAT ACCURATE BECAUSE IT’S AN ARBITRARY MEASUREMENT. BY 1913, WHEN CITY POLICE BUSTED THIS MAN, THEY USED FINGERPRINT ANTS TO CONNECT HIM TO HIS CRIME AND KEPT HIS PRINTS ON FILE. SINCE THEN, POLICE HAVE BEEN COMPARING LATENT PRINTS, LIFTED FROM CRIME SCENES TO FINGERPRINTS. POLICE TAKE WITH INK FROM SUSPECTED CRIMINALS, STARTING BY JUST USING THE NAKED EYE. SO WE JUST ROLL UP THIS RIDGE RIGHT HERE. THIS ONE RIDGE COMING ALONG, COMING ALONG, ALONG DIVIDES. IT BIFURCATES IT AND IT COMES BACK AROUND TO ITSELF. ALMOST FORMS A LITTLE ISLAND RIGHT HERE. THAT’S A CHARACTERISTIC. WHEN COMPUTER DATABASES CAME ON THE SCENE, THEIR SUCCESS RATES SKYROCKETED. AND THAT IN 2022, SOMETHING ELSE IS MULTIMODAL. BIOMED CARRICK IDENTIFICATION SYSTEM IN THE FIRST HALF OF 2022, THEY IDENTIFIED 50 SUSPECTS WITH THE TRIED AND TRUE FINGERPRINT MATCHING SYSTEM IN THE SECOND HALF OF THAT YEAR, THEY TRIPLED THEIR SUCCESS RATE. WELL, IT’S REALLY NOT ANY DIFFERENT THAN WE WERE DOING IT. IT’S JUST OUR SUCCESS RATE IS MUCH HIGHER THAN IT WAS TRIPLE. TRIPLE. THEY SCAN AND PRINT AND SEARCH THE STATE DATABASE. THEY SOMETIMES EXPAND THAT SEARCH TO THE WHOLE COUNTRY THROUGH THE FBI. NOW, WITH THE ALGORITHMS AND THE TECHNOLOGY TORI, THIS SYSTEM IS IT’S LIGHTS OUT. IT IS HELPING US SOLVE A LOT MORE CRIMES. CITY POLICE SAY NEW FINGERPRINT AND DNA SEARCHING TECHNOLOGY HELPED THEM SOLVE TWO COLD CASES. 30 YEAR OLD SAMANTHA POE, KILLED IN 2013 AND 68 YEAR-OLD FLORENCE SIMON, KILLED IN 1994. SO. SO, UM, I GOT EXCITED THAT I KNEW THERE WAS THIS NEW TECHNOLOGY THAT OUR FINGERPRINT EXPERTS. SO I BROUGHT IT DOWN TO OUR GUYS, AND THEY WERE ABLE TO IDENTIFY A SUSPECT FROM THAT FINGERPRINT. PITTSBURGH POLICE JUST STARTED LEVERAGING GENETIC GENEALOGY, PARTNERING WITH A PRIVATE COMPANY CALLED AUTUMN DETECT. GEORGE SATTLER SAYS THIS COMPANY HELPED IDENTIFY THE SUSPECT IN THE IDAHO COLLEGE STUDENT MURDERS. AUTUMN TAPS INTO PUBLIC DNA TO ISOLATE CRIMINALS DNA, LINKING THEM TO FAMILY MEMBERS WHO HAVE SUBMITTED THEIR DNA PUBLICLY, ONLY TO FIND OUT ABOUT THEIR ANCESTRY IN PITTSBURGH. THAT NEW DNA MATCHING TOOL COULD MEAN A LOT OF FAMILIES OF MURDER VICTIMS SEE JUSTICE SERVED. THAT IS VERY GRATIFYING. IT JUST YOU HOPE THAT IT GOES TO THE PROSECUTION STAGES AND AND AGAIN, IT HAS TO BE SO MUCH MORE GRATIFICATION GRATIFYING FOR THE FAMILY MEMBERS THAT KNOW FOR, YOU KNOW, 20, 30 YEARS THAT THERE’S BEEN NO JUSTICE. AND ALL OF A SUDDEN WITH THE HELP OF THE NEW TECHNOLOGY AND THE DETECTIVES THAT WE CAN NOW PROCEED, THEY’RE NOT FORGOTTEN. RIGHT. IT. THEY ARE NOT FORGOTTEN. COMING UP AT 11:00 TONIGHT, 11:00 TONIGHT, I SIT DOWN WITH THE NEPHEW OF 68 YEAR-OLD, FLORENCE SIMON. HE REMEMBERS THE LAST CONVERSATION THEY EVER HAD, AND I SAID, YOU KNOW, INFLOW. I CAN GET YOU OUT OF THIS NEIGHBORHOOD IF YOU WANT TO MOVE. AND HER LAST WORDS WERE TO ME WERE, EVERYBODY LOVES ME HERE. WELL, HE FOUND HIS AUNT MURDERED IN HER HOME AT 11:00 ON PITTSBURGH’S ACTION NEWS FOUR, HOW CITY POLICE SAY SOME OF THIS NE