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“These cases are never closed,” Green Bay Police Chief Andrew Smith said in the days following Lou Archie Griffin’s arrest. “We never give up. The reason why we’re able to solve this case was through forensics, genetic genealogy.”
“I’ve always been aware of this case,” Detective Graf said. “Sometimes in my downtime I’d look at past cold cases.
Detective Graf says DNA was the key to solving the case.
“I was lucky in this case that it was well-preserved and there was enough of the DNA to have it tested several times,” he explained.
“In Wisconsin now, if you’re currently arrested for a crime, at least for a felony, just like your fingerprints and your picture, they take a sample of your DNA,” the detective said.
Griffin is a felon, but his felony arrest took place in 1981, before police started collecting DNA.
Local 5 spoke with Joe Lefevre, Department Chair of Forensic Science at Fox Valley Techinical College about the use of DNA technology by police.
“The problem is we don’t have a lot of people in our DNA database,” he explained, “so, you know, on tv shows it always seems like they get that droplet of blood, they get that, hair, fiber, whatever, and it matches to somebody instantly.”
Cold Case Thawed: Justice for Lisa Holstead | WFRV Local 5 - Green Bay, Appleton
“I’ve always been aware of this case,” Detective Graf said. “Sometimes in my downtime I’d look at past cold cases.
Detective Graf says DNA was the key to solving the case.
“I was lucky in this case that it was well-preserved and there was enough of the DNA to have it tested several times,” he explained.
“In Wisconsin now, if you’re currently arrested for a crime, at least for a felony, just like your fingerprints and your picture, they take a sample of your DNA,” the detective said.
Griffin is a felon, but his felony arrest took place in 1981, before police started collecting DNA.
Local 5 spoke with Joe Lefevre, Department Chair of Forensic Science at Fox Valley Techinical College about the use of DNA technology by police.
“The problem is we don’t have a lot of people in our DNA database,” he explained, “so, you know, on tv shows it always seems like they get that droplet of blood, they get that, hair, fiber, whatever, and it matches to somebody instantly.”
Cold Case Thawed: Justice for Lisa Holstead | WFRV Local 5 - Green Bay, Appleton
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