To Try to Net Killer, Police Ask a Small Town's Men for DNA

Jodi Hilton for The New York Times
A plainclothes state trooper asks a man to volunteer a DNA sample to assist in the investigation of the killing
of Christa Worthington.

TRURO, Mass., Jan. 7 - In an unusual last-ditch move to find clues to the three-year-old killing of a freelance fashion writer, police investigators are trying to get DNA samples from every man in this Cape Cod hamlet, all 790 or so, or as many as will agree.

Raising concerns among civil libertarians and prompting both resistance and support from men in Truro, the state and local police began collecting the genetic samples last week, visiting delicatessens, the post office and even the town dump to politely ask men to cooperate. Legal experts said the sweeping approach had been used only in limited instances before in the United States - although it is more widely used in Europe - and in at least one of those cases it prompted a lawsuit.

Sgt. David Perry of the Truro Police Department and other law enforcement authorities here say that the program is voluntary but that they will pay close attention to those who refuse to provide DNA.

"We're trying to find that person who has something to hide," Sergeant Perry said.

The killing was the most notorious in this resort community in memory. Christa Worthington, 46, who had lived in New York and Paris and London before retreating to the quiet sea-stung town, was found stabbed to death in her bungalow here on Jan. 6, 2002, her 2-year-old daughter, Ava, clinging to her body.

Semen was found on the body, and in the last three years the police have investigated a former boyfriend and other men, including a married man who is Ava's father.

A $25,000 reward failed to crack the case, which generated international publicity and a lurid book, "Invisible Eden," by Maria Flook, with explicit details of Ms. Worthington's love interests and violent death.

So the police sought help from the F.B.I., which said it thought the killer had Truro ties and suggested trying to match the semen in a global genetic canvass.

"The person we're looking for is the one who deposited the DNA" by having sex with Ms. Worthington before she died, Sergeant Perry said. "We're not saying that this is the killer. What we're saying is we need to talk to this person, who may be just the last person to see her alive."

Stopping in the Highland Grill in Truro on a frigid Friday, Jeff Evans plunked down $2 for a brownie almost as big as a paperback. Then, at the prompting of a state police detective and a Truro police officer parked at the grill's counter, Mr. Evans, 46, a pest exterminator, wiped the inside of his cheek with a lollipop-like cotton swab, capturing a smidgen of genetic evidence to give to the government men. Sam Scherer, 18, another Highland Grill patron, had already done the same thing. So had Jerrid Bearse, 20.

While many residents have cooperated, some have complained that the DNA sweep is coercive.

Jodi Hilton for The New York Times
Mike McGuinness called the
police approach "invasive."

"I think it's outrageous," said Dick Seed, 44, a Truro sign painter who called the American Civil Liberties Union to complain.

"I really think they're usurping my civil rights," said Mr. Seed, who may know something about DNA because his father is Dr. Richard Seed, the eccentric physicist who drew worldwide attention by announcing seven years ago that he planned to clone humans. "Are they going to chase down everyone who didn't give a sample? It kind of sounds like Stalin's secret police. If there's a murder committed in a restroom, are they going to be asking for a urine sample?"

Mass DNA collection drives, as needle-in-a-haystack as they might sound, have yielded results in criminal investigations in England and Germany. Six years ago in Germany, for example, authorities investigating the rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl collected DNA samples from 16,400 men, a sweep believed to be the largest to date. DNA from one man matched the evidence, prompting him to confess his guilt.

In this country, the technique has been tried in a few places, generally with less success. It is usually used in a more targeted way than in Truro.

In Baton Rouge, La., in 2003, authorities trying to find a serial killer took swabs from 1,200 white men who drove white pickup trucks, but the dragnet did not yield a suspect; a black man was later arrested using other investigative methods. In Omaha last year, the police, searching for a serial rapist, sought DNA from about three dozen black men who worked for the Omaha Public Power District. And in a rape investigation in Charlottesville, Va., the police over the last two years have asked for swabs from about 200 black men.

These investigations have been contentious, especially when the authorities hold on to the DNA of people found to have no connection to the crime. Baton Rouge law enforcement agencies are being sued by nearly two dozen of the 1,200 men they tested; the men want their DNA samples destroyed and their genetic information removed from a databank that can be used in investigations of other crimes.

"They're not very effective and they're certainly not voluntarily," said Barry Steinhardt, director of the technology and liberty project at the American Civil Liberties Union. "It's either give a sample or you're a suspect. It turns the classic American concept of innocent until proven guilty on its head."

Figuring that the winter population of Truro would be similar to what it was three years ago, investigators chose the days around the anniversary of the killing to begin passing the hat for DNA all over town.

When this summer resort gets a whiff of winter it contracts like a rubber band, leaving only a handful of hangouts open for business. They are places like Dutra's Market, the Filling Station deli, the town dump and the post office, a daily stop for many Truro residents because they do not have home mail delivery.

A $25,000 reward failed to
produce enough information to
solve the 2002 killing.

Since Wednesday, two-person police swab squads have sidled into sub shops and perched by the postal counter, seeking a donation from anyone with a Y chromosome.

The investigators are intentionally mild-mannered in their queries, asking for help, not threatening retaliation. Sometimes they display a photograph of Ava, who is now 5 and living with her mother's friends, and ask the men to help solve the investigation for Ava's sake. They ask the men to sign a card giving their birthday and race, and they ask if the men knew Ms. Worthington or her relatives, some of whom have lived here for years. They take down the license plate numbers of people they approach. They say they may start soliciting DNA in neighboring towns, too, like Wellfleet and Provincetown.

The police found 75 volunteers on the first day alone, Sergeant Perry said. But they have also been rejected by men who say they are offended or uncomfortable.

"Sorry, I just don't like to be around cops," Virge Peres, 28, told Christopher Mason, the state police detective who stopped him at the Highland Grill.

"It's invasive," said Mike McGuinness, 67, at the town dump on Friday. He said he would refuse if asked. "If they have a suspicion of someone and they ask them, that's one thing. But not just doing it willy-nilly."

The police say they will discard any DNA that does not match their sample and will not keep a databank. But several Truro residents, even those who gave their DNA, said they were skeptical of that, as did John Reinstein, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts.

Mr. Reinstein said that as of Friday he had received three calls from Truro residents.

"We're very concerned about using DNA sweeps as an investigative tool," he said. "If there's a person out there and has yet to come forward and say he had been with Christa Worthington before she was murdered, that person is not likely to say, 'Test my DNA and see if it matches the crime scene.' From that it seems that what they're looking for is the people who turn them down. So in some way it's saying, 'Will you please come forward and identify yourself as murder suspect.' "

Among the men who gave saliva at the post office was Beau Jackett, a son of Tony Jackett, who is Ava's father and was a suspect early on.

Tony Jackett gave his own DNA soon after the killing and has sold the rights to his story to a California filmmaker. "Most people, I think, agree that they should do whatever it takes to get the guy," he said.

Leo Rose, 49, gave a sample at the Filling Station deli, figuring he had nothing to hide.

"They're not supposed to keep it," Mr. Rose said. "If I did something stupid down the road and they had my sample on file, well, then it's an illegal search and seizure."

Edward Friedman, an older man who hobbles painstakingly, seemed amused that anyone would think he could be a match. "I can barely make it to the car," Mr. Friedman said.

But Craig Hathaway, owner of Dutra's Market, who said he felt he had to allow the police to approach his customers, will not give his DNA.

"Don't get me wrong, I want to see this thing solved as much as the next person," Mr. Hathaway said. "I'm just not sure this is the way to do it."

And Mr. Seed said, "Why don't they just ask me where I was when the murder happened? I was playing poker. What else is there to do here in the winter?"

Sergeant Perry said that aside from the DNA, the police hoped revived publicity about the case would "get people thinking again" about tiny details that might be helpful.

People in this peaceful place are certainly eager to have the crime solved, said Fred Simonin, owner of the Highland, who said some customers had come in just to donate DNA.

"And the downside is? my civil liberties?"

States sell driver's license information every day. How far fetched is it to believe that they just might sell your DNA profile?

Maybe you couldn't get health insurance or life insurance. Perhaps you wouldn't be able to finance a home. What if your DNA found its way to a potential employer??

Talk about the camel's nose...

If the police have the resources, checking the DNA of women would be useful, too. Women would be more likely to volunteer, knowing that they aren't an actual suspect, but that a blood relative might be the Killer. Finding DNA that appears to be a close relative would greatly narrow the search --- maybe.

We are not yet obligated to prove our innocence in Amerika.

Maybe one day, but not yet.

BTW, can you show me some proof that you have stopped beating your wife?

"I think it's outrageous," said Dick Seed, 44

There's your man.

Cold-blooded killer if I ever saw one. He sounds pretty scary to me.

***In Baton Rouge, La., in 2003, authorities trying to find a serial killer took swabs from 1,200 white men who drove white pickup trucks, but the dragnet did not yield a suspect; a black man was later arrested using other investigative methods...****

That caught my eye too.
Chief Moose must have been consulting.

Trying to think this through...too early in the morning.

Trying to solve a murder and suddenly every man in a town becomes a suspect...on a case that's 3 years old.

If they asked every man they came in contact with to voluntarily participate in a pat down, and you disagreed with the request that would place you under greater scrutiny? I think that's where they're wrong, don't they have to have reasonable suspicion first, to even make the request?

Reasonable suspicion. The question is does one view a 'pat down' and a DNA sample request at the same level? I would be outraged if asked to participate in a pat down without cause and I do view this DNA sweep as a type of pat down.

I'm certainly no lawyer on this, but it sure stinks to me.

We're not used to having a murderer around," Mr. Simonin said.

And exactly who decided the killer is a local resident?

Heck why stop with the town? Why not not have the entire country give a DNA sample? Wait ...... forget that part.

agreed. I was just pointing out that it could be helpful for some innocent people.

BTW, (I'm the wife) It's my kids I no longer beat--- I my name will live forever on some child abuse list somewhere, I sure.

If you have done nothing wrong, why not submit like a good sheep should..... That refrain will pop up here as usual.

Curious that you object to that rationale.

If you have done nothing wrong, why not submit like a good sheep should....

From the article:
that the program is voluntary but that they will pay close attention to those who refuse to provide DNA.
(snip)
"We're trying to find that person who has something to hide," Sergeant Perry said.

If you don't fall all over yourself to give us what we want, you must be guilty!

VERY scary stuff from someone who is supposed to protect and serve.

it is not so much as doing something stupid down the road, but the government having on file dna samples that may be used to identify individuals standing up for liberty by fighting a corrupt and tyrranical government bent on eliminating the constitutional rights of the people.

police departments get lazy and they turn to tactics of totalitarianism.

teeman

It's winter and they're taking DNA samples in a town which shrinks in size as soon as the tourists leave. They must suspect a local or they want to eliminate all the locals as possible suspects. If the latter occurs, they'll know it had to be a summer visitor. This might not be as much about solving the crime as easing suspicion among neighbors?

"I think it's outrageous," said Dick Seed, 44, a Truro sign painter who called the American Civil Liberties Union to complain. "I really think they're usurping my civil rights," said Mr. Seed, who may know something about DNA because his father is Dr. Richard Seed, the eccentric physicist who drew worldwide attention by announcing seven years ago that he planned to clone humans. "Are they going to chase down everyone who didn't give a sample? It kind of sounds like Stalin's secret police. If there's a murder committed in a restroom, are they going to be asking for a urine sample?"

What a strange concept this man has. There is something wrong with giving a DNA sample to help solve a crime, but NOTHING WRONG with CLONING? Has he spoken out against his father's plans to Clone? Probably NOT.

I would not submit to something like this. We all know the gov't that can lie to a suspect (and all the town's men are being treated as suspects here) will *not* destroy the DNA, will not resist the temptation to keep a database.

What's so wrong with it?

I don't know what the big deal is either. Why wouldn't anyone want to help out in such a simple way?

>To Try to Net Killer, Police Ask a Small Town's Men for DNA

Sara can come swab
my cheek any time she wants.
Heck, I'd buy her lunch . . .

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