5 Jun 2018
NZ DNA software helps conviction in US court case
A New Zealand DNA testing innovation has helped United States prosecutors secure a murder conviction in a Brooklyn courtroom. A 48-year-old man was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for stabbing his estranged wife to death while she sat in the front seat of her car. The forensic software that helped convict him is known as 'STRmix' - it untangles complex mixtures of DNA from minute amounts of genetic material left at crime scenes, and was developed by New Zealand's Environmental Science and Research Institute. ESR manager Hamish Findlay talks through the details with Susie Ferguson.