(INDIANAPOLIS) – The Indiana State Police would appreciate media support informing the public about the 7th Annual National Forensic Science Week occurring September 15-21, 2019.
National Forensic Science Week brings recognition to the role that proper forensic science plays in the investigation of crimes throughout the nation, from exonerating the innocent to identifying the guilty.
For more information about National Forensic Week, visit: http://www.forensicscienceweek.org/
For information about the Indiana State Police Laboratory Division and the services they provide, visit: http://www.in.gov/isp/labs/
Below are some interesting stats from the past year (2018):
- There were 23,876 new cases submitted for analysis at the four Indiana State Police laboratories
- Crime Scene Investigators responded to 1,366 different crime scenes throughout the state
- Polygraph Examiners conducted 712 polygraph tests
- The number of Indiana offender samples being searched in the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) was more than 318,000 of which 5,822 cases in Indiana were linked to a potential suspect (offender) by a CODIS DNA match
- A notable case aided by DNA analysis was that of an eight year old girl who was abducted, sexually assaulted, and murdered back in 1988. Since that time, numerous agencies contributed to the investigation, and the Indiana State Police Laboratory’s Biology Section had completed more than 100 examination requests, that included the testing of crime scene evidence and several hundred DNA standards from persons of interest. In July 2018, all this eventually led to the identification, arrest, and prosecution of the person responsible for this horrific crime. The perpetrator pled guilty and received an 80 year prison sentence. While this case was aided by forensic genealogy from a private laboratory, the DNA matches were made by the ISP laboratory
There are four Indiana State Police laboratory facilities statewide and for additional information, please contact the Public Information Officer (PIO) listed adjacent to the named laboratory location:
- Indianapolis Laboratory PIO email contact is Sgt. John Perrine at jperrine@isp.in.gov or F/Sgt. Ron Galaviz at rgalaviz@isp.in.gov
- Lowell Laboratory PIO email contact is Sgt. Ann Wojas at awojas@isp.in.gov
- Fort Wayne Laboratory PIO email contact is Sgt. Brian Walker at bwalker@isp.in.gov
- Evansville Laboratory PIO email contact is Sgt. Todd Ringle at tringle@isp.in.gov
