Ontario lab provided vital DNA evidence

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This article was published 18/05/2007 (6334 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A lab in Thunder Bay instrumental in the arrest of a man for the 1984 murder of Candace Derksen used the same DNA analysis that led to the conviction of Scott Peterson for the sensational killing of his wife Laci and unborn son in 2002 in San Francisco.

Dr. Amarjit Chahal, general manager and laboratory director of Molecular World Inc., said the science of testing hair for a DNA profile gained prominence in Peterson’s murder trial when a single strand of Laci’s hair was used to help convict her husband of the slaying.

In Canada, the science is less known, but was accepted by an Ontario court last year in the conviction of Ronald Woodcock for murdering two men and trying to kill four others.

“The technology is now being accepted this side of the border,” Chahal said.

Chahal said Molecular World is the only approved lab in Canada that specializes in testing hair for a DNA profile — called mitochondrial DNA.

DNA from body fluids is nuclear DNA.

In the Derksen case, Winnipeg police had seven hairs recovered from the plywood shed where the girl froze to death — four scalp hairs and three pubic hairs.

Police also had scalp and pubic hairs seized from Grant in 1989 during an earlier investigation.

Testing at Molecular World compared both sets of hair and found they matched, according to court documents.

Chahal said he can’t comment on the Derksen case as it’s still before the courts.

In the Peterson case, prosecutors used a one-inch strand of hair found in a pair of pliers on the boat Peterson took fishing the day his pregnant wife disappeared, which matched the genetic code of Laci and her mother.

That hair helped the prosecution show Peterson used the boat to move his wife on the day she vanished Christmas Eve 2002. Her remains were found that April.