INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana police have matched 46 crimes to DNA samples in the first three months since the introduction of a state law requiring DNA swabs to be taken from anyone charged with a felony.
The 46 matches came from 3,350 DNA samples taken from Jan. 1 through March 31.
Also, nine matches from unsolved crime scenes involved investigations of separate crimes, including a rape. Those cases could be investigated by the same police agency or a different one.
“You’ve got people where being a criminal is their career. So you’ve got one person’s sample being connected to multiple cases,” Indiana State Police Capt. David Bursten said.
The first arrest because of a DNA match was on Jan. 14. It involved an unsolved rape from 2016.
Among felony arrests from Jan. 1 through March 31, there were 244 matches between submitted DNA and the state database.
“Law enforcement now has answers in 72 cases that have heretofore gone unsolved. This law is doing what it was designed to do — it solves crime and makes our communities safer,” Boone County Prosecutor Todd Meyer said in a statement.
As of Jan. 1, DNA samples from anyone arrested for a felony offense are sent to an Indiana State Police laboratory. The sample is entered into the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS.) Prior to Jan. 1, DNA samples only from convicted felons were entered.
The recent samples were taken from 12,705 convicted offenders, as well as from suspects facing felony charges. There are more than 284,000 samples in the state’s database.
The DNA sample requirement was passed by the legislature in 2017 in a bill authored by State Sen. Erin Houchin, R-Salem. Gov. Eric Holcomb signed the bill into law, and it became effective Jan. 1.
“The idea behind this proposal was to enable law enforcement to use DNA arrest sampling as a means to save lives and put serial murderers and rapists behind bars for all of their crimes,” Rep. Patrick Bauer, D-South Bend, said in a statement. “I believe today’s news proves the necessity of pursuing this legislation.”
“I cannot help but be reminded of a woman named Jayann Sepich, who has used the tragedy of her daughter being raped and murdered to educate the world about the necessity for this DNA sampling bill,” said Bauer, one of the sponsors of Houchin’s bill.
Rep. Greg Steuerwald, R-Avon, another one of the sponsors, said the rate of DNA matches is about four times higher than what the state averaged prior to the new law.
“After just three months in effect, this new law is already proving it’s a useful tool in connecting felony arrestees to unsolved crimes,” Steuerwald said in a press release. “Investigators have matched over 200 DNA profiles to crimes across 44 counties throughout Indiana, and 23 other states.”
Samples are submitted through a cheek swab, along with fingerprints, photographs and other data, during the booking process. The sample is eventually compared to others in the database after a probable cause has been determined.
“We are very pleased with the results seen thus far and are confident more and more crimes will be solved with the combination of convicted and arrested persons’ samples being matched in the CODIS program,” Maj. Steve Holland, commander of the Indiana State Police Laboratory Division, said in a release.