[John Jamieson]

I may have made the DNA cloning look too easy here. More PCR research shows that it amplifies "pieces" of DNA. I think these are the 22 seperate samples on that lady's chart. Just trying to figure out if it was done, why and how could it be done.

[shezza]

John, take a look at this: Study on the Feasibility of Obtaining Body Fluid Identification and DNA Typing Results from the California Criminalistics Institute (CCI), Sacramento, CA (dated 2001). In the study, they obtained old blood stains (up to 25 years old), as well as semen stains and saliva stains, which were up to 13 years old and diluted up to 1 part in 100. This DNA testing indicated they could get a profile from the stains that were decades old, even though they were heavily diluted (such as a jacket that had been cleaned and rained on for several years?). They were even able to obtain partial DNA results from an old semen stain from 1952 that had been stored on a piece of cloth at room temperature!

The idea that the two tiny spots containing Danielle's DNA could have been placed in the months or years prior is very believable, IMHO. And if the tests are conclusive even after extreme dilution (1:100 for saliva), the transfer theory becomes even more important. Danielle L. or Christine or Susan L. or DAW or even Brenda herself could have touched anything that might have been soiled by Danielle VD (by a sneeze or wiping of a runny or bloody nose), then carried that miniscule and diluted substance someplace else (mh carpet, DAW's jacket). I've seen my kids sneeze with their mouths uncovered. I've seen my husband sneeze with mouth uncovered! The droplets shoot out everywhere within a three or four foot radius! Danielle could have easily sneezed on something during that 15-minute cookie visit, a counter top or chair back or doorknob, that DAW later touched and then contaminated his own MH and jacket. Far-fetched? Sure. Plausible? Absolutely.

These top-notch scientists in California have shown us that it only takes a tiny, diluted, and even decades old (or in Danielle's case, months or a few years old) sample of bodily fluid for a full DNA profile to be discovered through these tests.