Rapid DNA simply enhances our biometric forensics capability. It is absolutely proving its worth in solving mysterious crimes relegated to the RCSD Cold Case Unit
New DNA technology aids in fighting crime and thwarting terrorism
Last week, the Richland County Sheriff’s Dept.’s (RCSD) Cold Case Unit solved a murder case that had baffled investigators here in South Carolina for 30 years, and it might never have been solved had it not been for DNA.
In 1987, Patricia Ann Green – a 34-year-old woman – was shot to death and left in a roadside ditch in Sumter County near the main gate of Shaw Air Force Base. She was shot in the face at pointblank range. The motive for Green’s gruesome killing? She was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and she had encountered the wrong man, a cold-blooded killer Phillip Johnson – today a 53-year-old inmate serving life-terms for four other murders – who was then on a killing spree.
