The Oregon State Police (OSP) Forensic Services Division DNA Analysis Program reports CODIS (Combined DNA Index System) has made its 5,000 match in generating leads from DNA recovered as crime scene evidence.
The OSP DNA database program was started in September of 1991, with over 165,000 samples from convicted offenders having been submitted to the database. All convicted felons are required to submit DNA to the database under state law.
“Approximately half of the burglary cases we process will result in a CODIS hit,” said Tom Barnes, OSP Portland Forensic Lab Director. “For every two burglary cases we DNA process, one will hit to either a convicted offender or another case.”
Many of the hits obtained have been from the analysis of evidence processed from property crimes, although the database has proven helpful in numerous violent crime cases as well.
The first CODIS hit in Oregon occurred in 1994 in conjunction with a rape case, and has helped solve several puzzling and well-publicized cases such as the 1999 Portland Forest Park killer (Todd Allen Reed), I-5 serial killer (Randall Woodfield) and the British Columbia “Highway of Tears” murders (Bobby Jack Fowler).
The program obtains 800-1,000 news DNA samples monthly, and for every 43 offenders who provide a sample, the Forensic Services Division gets a hit on another case. Hits from Oregon’s DNA database have solved cases in 34 of 36 counties in Oregon and in 42 states.