FYI... DNA Familial Analysis

Over at the Websleuths site someone had asked about the possibility of DNA familial searches being employed to help solve Faith’s murder — the basic idea is that you look for matches to DNA from a crime scene, NOT just from criminal databases, but also from less direct familial matching in the many private databases that now collect DNA for genetic or ancestry study (i.e., you find someone who may be a blood relative to the actual perpetrator of an unsolved crime, thus narrowing your search).

Constitutional and privacy rights make this a highly controversial method in the U.S., though Britain has used it more extensively. Nine states (last I read) in the U.S. currently use the procedure on occasion. North Carolina is not one of them. But, as I understand it, only one state outright bans it, so more may well be employing it in the future, with techniques constantly improving, and population databases becoming evermore widespread.

I understand there are some very difficult issues/concerns involved in its use, but Faith's case certainly seems of the sort where it might be considered.

Anyway, here are a few sites you can read more about the subject:

http://www.dnaforensics.com/familialsearches.aspx

http://www.promegaconnections.com/familial-dna-searching-for-criminal-forensics-qa/

http://www.denverda.org/DNA_Documents/Familial_DNA/families-and-communities-familial-dna.pdf

...And there's much more if you search Google under "DNA familial forensics".