The World Leader in Private DNA Testing

In March 2007, the identity of a 19-month-old English boy who was believed to have died in the Titanic shipwreck of 1912 was confirmed. The child, who was found floating in the water off the coast of Nova Scotia six days after the ship sank, was originally buried in grave marked “The Unknown Child.” After determining his approximate age by examining his teeth, scientists used a type of maternal-lineage DNA testing called mitochondrial DNA testing, or mtDNA, to establish his identity. Scientists compared the boy’s DNA to a surviving maternal relative and were able to conclude that he was Sidney Leslie Goodwin, and was not a member of the Swedish Panula family, who also lost a boy his age during the boat’s demise. According to ship records, Sidney was apparently traveling to the U.S. with his parents Frederick and Augusta, and their five other children, to start a new life in New York. Ironically, the family was originally booked to board another ship, but was moved aboard the Titanic because of a coal shortage at the time of departure.

Also this time last year that investigators in Vallejo, Calif., turned to DNA testing in their pursuit of the elusive Zodiac killer who killed at least two but as many as 37 people from 1969 to 1974. Investigators submitted the stamps from his infamous “Zodiac letters” for DNA testing of the saliva used to adhere the stamps to the envelopes. The killer, who called himself “Zodiac,” sent numerous letters to the media and law enforcement personnel throughout the course of the killings, essentially taunting them while striking fear into Northern Californians. In 2002, preliminary DNA testing failed to establish a connection between the writer of the Zodiac letters and their sole suspect in the killings. Presently, it appears that investigators are no closer to finding or apprehending the man who called himself Zodiac.

For more information on the types of DNA tests mentioned here, please view our web resources on Mitochondrial DNA Testing and Forensic DNA Testing.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 20th, 2008 at 3:29 pm and is filed under DNA Paternity Testing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.