I agree and share your frustration, Kickoff. I realize that LE needs to sometimes play things close to the vest, but...
We we all hope for justice for Vanessa and her family, of course, but this situation goes beyond Vanessa -- there is an extremely big public safety risk (for women, especially), assuming the perp is not deceased or in jail. Anyone who would commit such a horrendous murder in broad daylight in a nice area and not that far from a residential driveway is extremely dangerous. There is no way, IMO, that this will be the only horrible crime (or last, if he's committed them in the past) that he commits for the rest of his life.
My issue with LE is that I think they should at least let the public know their current thinking on the matter of Vanessa being targeted vs. this being a random thing/crime of opportunity. LE has only addressed this once -- the first press conf the day after the crime. As would be expected that early on, they said they didn't know if she was targeted or not. But, the public has a right to know their current thinking, IMO. It might still be the same, but they also might be leaning more in one direction or the other now. This info would probably make a difference to some women in deciding what *degree* of caution they should take.
The other things I want to know:
2. What's the status of the DNA phenotyping (using a company to outline some of the perp's *likely* physical traits based on his DNA): Has it been done? If not, why not?
Granted, some traits that are found to be likely can be changed, such as hair color. But something like eye color can not be changed w/o colored contact lenses, (Supposedly, this advanced DNA testing can predict eye color with a high degree of likelihood -- I looked into this.) And, voila, if the testing determined he likely has blue eyes, a recessive trait found in the minority of people, this could even be more helpful.
3. Are you considering using familiar (DNA) searching? If not, why not?
This seems like the biggest no-brainer to me. I'm familiar with the downsides, but they can be controlled with proper procedures in place.
In my mind, this testing would be extremely helpful. This is a very stable region -- unlike, say, some parts of Florida,where most people are from somewhere else. So many people probably grew up in the same general region and have close blood relatives also in the region.
4. Are you maintaining as close a handle as possible on the real estate transactions/rental turnovers in at least the 5-town area?
Rental turnovers would not be nearly as easy to monitor as home sales, unfortunately, but a big effort should be put into this angle, IMO. I am with Mainely and DeDee in believing this guy might try to move at some point relatively soon even if he has roots in the area. If he lives in Princeton itself -- which I tend not to think is the case, but certainly could be -- he'd likely need to wait longer to move, so as to not draw any necessary attention to himself.
ALL DNA tools available should be used to help solve this horrendous crime. They can only help when used correctly -- which means keeping in mind their limitations.
Heck, Vanessa worked for Google. Google has an investment in genetic testing company, 23andMe, founded by the ex-wife of one of the Google founder's. To my knowledge, this company does not do the two types of advanced testing to which I referred. However, I can't imagine that Google would not share their likely more advanced knowledge if asked.
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