LAST EDITED ON Jan-30-04 AT 12:57 PM (EST)
 
Margoo,
The DNA analysis/report that excluded the Ramseys said the same thing as what was said about Barnhill Sr. - that IF the foreign DNA came from a single individual, then the Ramseys could be excluded. Somehow, when this was written up about Barnhill (pmpt? or st?) it was rephrased that Barnhill could not be excluded if the foreign DNA came from 2 or more individuals. But the logic is exactly the same, and my take on it is that Barnhill's status was no worse than the Ramsey's status at that early stage of the genotyping.

Thanks, Saluda. I think you have made a good point. If you notice, this report was dated Jan 13/97 and would have been the earliest testing at CBI. We DO KNOW, however, that MELINDA Ramsey IS excluded, as are all females (and yet this report says she would not be excluded if the minor component were from more than one donor), so I wonder about Schiller's reporting in PMPT as to whether or not he is referring to Barnhill's DNA being inconclusive after the testing at Cellmark. Perhaps CBI did not do gender testing, while Cellmark or the FBI lab did (I'm thinking of Beckner's deposition in naming the FBI lab) much later when the GJ was sitting(?). I don't quite know what to make of Schiller's reference to Barnhill in this context. This is part of what I was referring to with regard to the Reporting of the DNA over the years. BPD asked for Ariana Pugh's DNA well AFTER (Apr 99 - while the GJ was sitting) these initial tests were done, so THAT is a puzzler, too.

I think we can safely conclude that the Ramseys' DNA does not 'line up'. Only a single allele in the minor component would be required for exclusion and the fact that they have not been indicted would suggest the DNA is definitely foreign.

I have always thought that the Grand Jury played a BIG role in straightening out some of these DNA questions that existed prior to and during their sitting (Sep 1998 - Oct 1999) . I believe they demanded more tests be done and I seem to recall someone in the persecution team stating (in April??) that the GJ was waiting for some more tests (although the "tests" were not specifically identified as DNA tests, but Ariana Pugh's DNA was collected in Apr 99). This public announcement was made right after Lou Smit and John Douglas managed to get the ear of the GJ, so I suspect they contributed to the GJ's request for more information that was not all Ramsey-damning. In the end, they were unable to indict anyone (despite the best efforts of the persecution) and additional DNA test results may have contributed to that decision. Speculation on my part.

I would also guess that if anybody who has given a sample for genotyping has matched by now, then there would be no need to enter the perp's genotypes into CODIS unless they are trying for some reason to find out if the perp has committed other crimes as part of building a case?????? But only if the perp is already locked up, for surely they wouldn't let him be on the loose if they had a match.

The only way the perp's typing would be in CODIS is if he was convicted of a violent crime and the state in which he was convicted entered his data into their databank.

edited to add: PMPT was copyrighted in 1999. Its writing was most likely ongoing from shortly after the crime (starting early 1997) and continued during the GJ hearings (ending late Oct 99).