All articles tagged with #dna evidence
Tony Carruthers, 57, is scheduled for execution in Tennessee as his lawyers challenge whether the state’s lethal-injection drugs were properly tested and seek DNA/fingerprint testing and a mental-competence ruling; he was convicted largely on informant testimony with no physical evidence after representing himself at trial.
Texas death-row inmate James Broadnax was executed by lethal injection after the U.S. Supreme Court denied his final appeal tied to a cousin’s confession in the 2008 Garland double murder; the case also involved DNA evidence and allegations of racial bias during jury selection. Broadnax, who maintained his innocence in his final words, became Texas’s third execution of 2026, with further executions scheduled, including Edward Busby on May 14.
A former FBI agent says DNA from the Guthrie case and blood-spatter on her front steps point to a single suspect, with the agent predicting the abduction will be solved thanks to the offender’s mistakes. A reward totaling over $1 million remains for information about Guthrie’s whereabouts as the investigation continues and she has been missing for more than 80 days.
Nancy Guthrie, mother of Today host Savannah Guthrie, remains missing nearly three months after vanishing in Tucson. A private Florida lab that works with the Pima County Sheriff’s Department sent a hair DNA sample to the FBI for analysis; the FBI says there is no new DNA evidence and that the sample was transferred to the FBI Laboratory for testing, a process that could take months. Former FBI agent Jennifer Coffindaffer criticized the decision to send the sample to a private lab, arguing the FBI has the necessary advanced technology all along and that this handling should upset those seeking justice in the case.
Rex Heuermann, a Long Island architect, pleaded guilty to murdering seven women and admitted killing an eighth in the Gilgo Beach killings, ending a 17-year string of crimes that left families and investigators seeking closure. He faces life in prison with sentencing later, and the case—solved in part by DNA from a discarded pizza crust—has drawn national attention since the 2010 discovery of remains along Long Island’s South Shore.
A former FedEx driver, Tanner Horner, pleaded guilty to murdering 7-year-old Athena Strand after delivering a Christmas gift to her Texas home; prosecutors say he strangled her in a panic after an initial claim of accidentally striking her, with evidence including DNA under her fingernails and video of the attack, and jurors will decide whether he receives the death penalty or life in prison.
Attorneys for Tyler Robinson, accused of fatally shooting Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University, have asked a Utah judge to push the May preliminary hearing back six months to review DNA evidence on the weapon and related case files from the ATF. The defense says they have not yet access to the ATF case file or weapon protocols, while the FBI is conducting a secondary bullet analysis. They warn the review could determine whether the firearm evidence becomes exculpatory and note the discovery includes extensive digital materials (audio, video, data files) that will require hundreds of hours to process.
After nearly 36 years, authorities charged Floyd William Parrott with the 1990 Lovers' Lane murders of Cheryl Henry and Andy Atkinson; renewed DNA analysis and a 2025 tip led to Parrott's arrest in Nebraska, and he awaits extradition to Harris County as families seek long-awaited answers.
Authorities believe Nancy Guthrie was targeted in her disappearance and warn the suspect could strike again, with Sheriff Chris Nanos withholding some details of their theory; DNA on gloves found near Guthrie’s home has been linked to a person who is not a suspect in the case.
Authorities are pursuing the kidnapping of Nancy Guthrie (Savannah Guthrie’s mother) after ransom notes emerged; DNA evidence on her property is mixed and under testing while surveillance video and blood spatter on the porch suggest she was lured outside, fueling talk of a personal grievance as a motive; volunteers recovered a backpack and the search expanded as investigators continue work.
DNA from gloves found near Nancy Guthrie’s Arizona home did not match any profiles in the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System (CoDIS); there are no confirmed CoDIS matches yet, and the glove DNA did not match DNA from Guthrie’s property, with an unknown male DNA also recovered. Investigators are continuing to analyze other evidence, pursue pacemaker tracking, and identify the Walmart backpack seen in video footage.
DNA recovered from a glove found near Nancy Guthrie’s home appears to match the glove worn by the masked intruder, and the Pima County sheriff says Guthrie’s family members are now cleared as suspects as the investigation, which has drawn scrutiny and involved a Bitcoin ransom note, continues with no arrests.
NBC's Savannah Guthrie released a new video appealing for information about her missing mother, Nancy Guthrie, who vanished in Arizona two weeks ago; investigators found a glove near her home that resembles the abductor's and carries DNA to be loaded into crime databases, with authorities saying there have been no arrests and that Guthrie is believed alive, while a burglary theory is downplayed and speculation about relatives is cautioned.
Investigators in the Nancy Guthrie disappearance believe the suspect’s mask and clothing were bought at Walmart, with the black Ozark Trail Hiker backpack identified in surveillance footage; DNA testing on a glove and other evidence are refining leads as authorities search for the 84-year-old Guthrie.
A black glove found near Nancy Guthrie’s Arizona home contains a DNA profile that appears to match the suspect seen in a doorbell camera video; the DNA is being tested and could be added to the FBI’s CODIS database after confirmation, as investigators collected about 16 gloves in the area (most from searchers). The case concerns the abduction of the 84-year-old mother of Savannah Guthrie, with investigators pursuing leads and a ransom note tied to bitcoin.