I just learned this about Indiana state labs this week:
Delphi deaths, 4 years later
Feb 12, 2021
For the past four years, investigators have not publicly released whether there was DNA found at the crime scene, though Leazenby just this week didn’t deny its possibility.
And if there is indeed DNA from Delphi, some people believe a simple method of familial searching could possibly hold the key to solving the case.
[..]
But Indiana is one of dozens of states whose state police labs don’t conduct familial DNA searching. The Tribune called ISP for answers as to why that’s the case but did not hear back as of press time.
“In order to be done, a state has to agree that it’s the right thing to do,” Harmon said. “And I guess no one’s ever said, ‘How come other states are doing them and you’re not?’ … The premise behind familial searching is that crime tends to run in families. So if you committed a crime, and you haven’t been caught yet, chances are pretty good that someone else close to you in your family committed a crime and are likely in a state database. That’s why something like this works.”
Harmon also added that there is another DNA search called genetic genealogy, which looks at private databases like
Ancestry.com and formulates expansive family trees linked with common DNA.
That’s also a possible way of tracking down potential individuals involved in criminal activity, he noted, though it’s not clear whether investigators in the Delphi investigation have used that technique either.