The investigation is conducted by DNA
How to solve the most deaf cases decades later
Recently, with the help of DNA identification, investigative authorities have uncovered a number of serious murders and serial rapes committed many years ago. Before our eyes, a revolution is taking place in criminology, the foundations of which were laid, including in Of Russia. Irina Perepechina, a police lieutenant colonel, Doctor of Medical Sciences, professor of the Department of Criminology of the Faculty of Law of Lomonosov Moscow State University, tells about how genetic methods were introduced into the forensic service, how effective genomic databases are. Tatiana Pichugina was talking.
– Irina Olegovna, UK Russia is increasingly reporting on the disclosure of long-standing crimes based on DNA identification. What is this method? And what is the reason for such a dramatic progress?
– This is natural. We are finally putting into practice the program of state genomic registration, the scientific and organizational foundations of which were developed in Russia back in the mid-1990s. To the Genomic Information Database (FBDGI. – Editor's note) make genetic profiles obtained by analyzing traces from unsolved crimes, as well as genotypes of persons whose contingents are determined by federal law. The coincidence of genetic profiles becomes the basis for starting investigative and operational actions. As a result, it is sometimes possible to solve very old crimes.
A high level of recidivism is typical, for example, for sexual crimes. In my chapter of the monograph "Investigation of crimes related to the unknown disappearance of minors (the initial stage of the investigation)", recently published under the editorship of the head of the IC of Russia A. I. Bastrykin, I included the following case from practice. The criminal abused two boys of twelve and seven years old, skiing in the woods, and disappeared. Experts found traces containing DNA at the scene, obtained a genetic profile and uploaded it to the FBDGI.
Six years later, the same man tried to rape two girls, but ran away when the victims started screaming. On the same day, he abducted another minor, abused her, after which he was detained. The genotype was checked by FBDGI, and it coincided with the previously registered genetic profile of the trace seized in connection with the first episode – in relation to two brothers. During the investigation it turned out that four years ago he committed another crime – he killed and hid the body of a seven-year-old boy.
It is important that initially there was no other data at all regarding the commission of any other crimes by this particular person. The binding appeared only thanks to the use of a DNA database.
We predicted that as the DNA registration system functions, its efficiency will increase. And so it happened. New genetic profiles are being added to the database, and coincidences are happening more and more often. This makes it possible to solve, among other things, crimes committed many years ago.
– Forensic databases are created based on a panel of STR markers. Are there any ideas to expand their number, to extract, for example, also medical information?
Short tandem repeats of chromosomal DNA (STR markers) serve as unique genetic traits of each person.
– The Russian database is formed on the basis of a study of 20 STR loci and the amelogenin gene (for sex determination. – Ed.), which gives a very high identification significance. But these are areas from which it is impossible to extract medical or any other important information about a person. This is done for ethical reasons.
Meanwhile, in medicine, the directions related to the study of genes that determine the development of diseases are very promising. Criminologists do not use this in any way, the topic was immediately taboo, therefore, DNA sections that are not associated with diseases are selected for identification. But since this information can be extracted and it is valuable for investigations, it is worth anticipating that its use in criminology is only a matter of time. At the International Symposium on Human Identification, which took place in 2012 in Nashville, USA, I presented a report on this problem. It is necessary to form a clear legal position in relation to research of this kind in criminology, but first it is necessary to decide in principle whether to invade this area.
– What problems may arise with the expansion of access to genetic information of citizens?
– There are known problems that have arisen in connection with the admission of foreign intelligence services to genealogical data (it began with the Golden State killer case in 2018 - Ed.). Therefore, we should start with legal and ethical issues that will ensure a balance between the interests of criminal justice and civil rights. It is unacceptable to ignore the negative consequences, even if not quite defined now, that may occur for a person as a result of using his genetic information for other purposes. In general, in all areas related to human DNA research, legal regulation and consideration of ethical aspects should go ahead of technology, and not vice versa.
– There are more and more ideas to create a single genomic database of Russian citizens, to conduct genomic certification from birth. It would be ideal for criminology.
– Here in me the criminologist and the ordinary person will fight again. Proceeding from the interests of the disclosure and investigation of crimes, their prevention, and these issues are very important for each individual, not only for society as a whole – undoubtedly, yes, it is necessary to create. And yet, based on the interests of each individual, I believe – no, the risks for the individual are too great here. Millions of pieces of very different information, including medical information, go to the black market. Genetic – archived, the consequences of access to it can be the most dramatic. Until reliable mechanisms are created to ensure the confidentiality of this information, guarantees of its inviolability, as well as some other important issues are resolved, I believe that the creation of total DNA databases is premature.
– But the database is still expanding – now a bill has been introduced to include DNA profiles of close relatives of missing persons in the FBDGI.
– Such a bill has been prepared, but this is a topic for separate discussion. In the bill introduced and adopted in the first reading, I cannot agree with the additions concerning persons suspected and accused of committing crimes subjected to administrative arrest.
As a professional, I am all for it to be a total base, to include more and more new contingents of people. But I have already said that there are points that need to be resolved.
The attitude to the creation of total forensic databases has always been ambiguous. In 1916, Argentina attempted a general fingerprint registration of the population. However, under pressure from the population, the relevant law was soon repealed. Fingerprint databases were actively created in the United States in the 1930s, when the crime rate was colossal.
This is typical of forensic technologies – as soon as crime rears its head, people begin to be more loyal to the fact that their data will be entered into information repositories. In quiet periods, doubts arise about the need for this.
– What are the main problems of DNA identification and where is the progress in this area?
– Now it is not enough to carry out only DNA identification, since it is important to understand how the DNA ended up in the object under study. If we solve only the identification problem, this will not allow us to use the full potential of the investigation of the material evidence, and may also lead to a misunderstanding of the circumstances under which the traces were formed.
The range of DNA sources has expanded. These are not only tissues, bones, blood, human secretions, but also invisible biological material left as a result of touching the hand, contact with the skin.
Problems may be related to DNA transfer, contamination – contamination, which can cause errors and entail serious consequences for judicial practice. Not so long ago I participated in the process. Traces of the accused's DNA were found on the victim, and as a result he was convicted. However, the whole picture showed that there was a very high risk of contamination of DNA objects during the inspection of the scene. If implemented, this could affect the results of the expert study and the conclusions drawn.
The prospects are largely related to the development of forensic DNA phenotyping, primarily with the prediction of a person's appearance, which has a search value. We are talking about determining the color of the eyes, hair, skin, as well as the age of the individual, in the future – such features of appearance as the shape of the face, baldness in men, the shape of hair and gray hair, the morphology of the auricle. One of the most difficult problems is forecasting growth. Research is underway in the field of genogeographic analysis to establish where a person comes from.
The technologies of molecular genetic analysis for the study of various types of genetic polymorphism are being further developed. Massive parallel sequencing occupies an important place.
– Tell us how you came to DNA forensics? Where did you start?
– I graduated from the medical faculty of the I. M. Sechenov First Moscow Medical Institute. My parents were forensic doctors, and I followed in their footsteps. After graduation, she worked at the Research Institute of Forensic Medicine of the USSR Ministry of Health. In 1988, I was invited to the Research Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR, to the NIL-6, which later became known as the Forensic Center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia - ECC. At the initiative of the head of the ECC, Major General of the militia Vladimir Frantsevich Statkus and the head of the Department of expertise of biological objects Tamara Vasilyevna Stegnova, the Ministry of Internal Affairs then approved a research program to develop a new direction in criminology - genotyposcopy. This was done just three years after the publications of the English scientist Alec Jeffries, where the idea of the method was first expressed.
Together with two colleagues, I was sent to train at the laboratory of Molecular Genetics of the brain of the Scientific Center for Mental Health of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, which was headed by Evgeny Ivanovich Rogaev (carried out the identification of the remains of the Romanov family. – Ed.).
Professor Rogaev is a world–renowned scientist with broad scientific views. His work on the detection of genetic polymorphism, similar to that described by an English scientist, but based on other families of DNA repeats, came out just one year later – in 1986. By the time we arrived at the laboratory, Evgeny Rogaev already had a whole panel of hybridization probes created by him, which we began to use in our forensic research.
Jeffries and other researchers of the initial period used the method of restriction analysis with a radioactive label. As a doctor, I was not set up to work with radioactivity and introduce such a method into a wide expert practice. In addition, having mastered the method, I immediately tested it on forensic samples from my validation panel, which I created before starting work on DNA. The result was disappointing, there were too many negative results. For real expert objects, the method was clearly of little use. Therefore, in 1990 I completely switched to PCR, which at that time was already being worked on in Rogaev's laboratory. It was a completely different matter. It is not surprising that this technology eventually became the basis for DNA identification.
I remember one of the first examinations that I conducted with the help of PCR in the very early 1990s. It was a case of a robbery in Moscow. There was blood on the frame. There were no suspects, and therefore no samples for comparison, but the gender was established. When it turned out that the blood was female, this fact already helped the investigative task force to reach the suspects. However, it's not just that. The gender identity was established earlier, cytologically, but then the investigator himself saw the result, very visual, on the photo table. This is really very important – the results of DNA analysis are well documented, especially in the conditions of a modern instrument base. The data attached to the expert's conclusion remains in the materials of the criminal case, they can be checked at any time.
The method made a great impression, especially at the very beginning. There are several suspects, and you can eliminate all of them with one reaction, except, for example, one, and then work with this sample. There were many such cases. For example, the case of infanticide, where five women were involved. Now it is possible with the help of one PCR to obtain a result with the highest identification significance.
In 1995, for the first time, we conducted an examination on bones. They found a burned car, and there were remains in it. So that the victim could not be identified, the criminal crushed the bones of the facial skull, about 80 charred fragments were submitted for examination. By traditional methods, criminologists were unable to establish the identity. Despite the condition of the objects, I managed to isolate DNA and obtain a genetic profile, compare it with the genotypes of relatives and identify the deceased – it turned out to be a woman. The case was later included in my doctoral dissertation, the scientific consultant of which was Professor Rogaev.
Then almost every new examination set a new scientific and methodological task. At the very beginning, there was no expert methodology for probabilistic and statistical data analysis, and we created it together with mathematician Sergey Alekseevich Grishechkin, at that time a doctoral student at the Moscow State University. The methodology, with its absolute correctness, is accessible to experts who are not experienced in probability theory. It is still being used.
– DNA fingerprinting began with Jeffries' 1985 articles. In Russia, they almost immediately joined these studies. Why did our DNA identification fire only now with such a delay?
– Depends on what to mean. The introduction of DNA identification into the domestic forensic practice was carried out as early, by world standards, as it was fundamentally possible at all. Having taken a course on PCR in 1990, and not on restriction analysis, which was mainly relied on in the West at that time, the ECC was ready to introduce DNA identification into the practice of the forensic service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs already in 1993 (!). In order for this to have grounds and opportunities, it was necessary to go a long way – both scientific and organizational: to develop forensic techniques, to validate them, to test them on expert material, to create a material and technical base. In 1993 we spent in Barnaul All-Russian seminar of experts of the internal Affairs bodies of Russia on PCR. After that, expert internships began at the ECC, 15 DNA laboratories were formed in the regions in the next three years, and this work continued further.
We were among the first in the world to develop a state system of forensic DNA registration. This task was set before the Ministry of Internal Affairs by the Federal Program of Russia to strengthen the fight against crime for 1994-1995. We have reached the international level. In 1995, within the framework of the European Network of Scientific Forensic Institutions (ENFSI), a working group on DNA analysis was established, the participants of which were the forensic services of most European countries. I was appointed a representative of the forensic service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia. The Working Group ensured the integration and compatibility of forensic DNA databases generated in the countries Europe. But in general, its strategic goals were more global – coordination of the activities of European forensic laboratories in order to achieve maximum efficiency of DNA analysis, unification and standardization of methods. This allowed us to bring research to the highest level and make it reliable. It is not surprising that, with the development of the "whole world", DNA identification in a matter of years has become the gold standard for criminology and forensic examination.
For our part, we, the experts, did everything in our power to give the practice a new and most effective type of forensic registration. But it was necessary to switch to automated technologies, and no funds were allocated for this. In the 1990s, we didn't have a single sequencer in the program. At the same time, examinations were carried out, the number of laboratories where DNA analysis was carried out grew, the law (No. 242-FZ) "On State Genomic Registration" came into force on January 1, 2009). When funding appeared, the technology also fired in a new format – in the form of a state genomic registration system.
In my five-volume monograph "Forensic identification of a person based on his genetic properties (Selected works)", published several years ago, I showed how this direction developed. It is also associated with a whole range of developments that are being conducted at the Department of Criminology of the Faculty of Law of Moscow State University.
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