19-May-2025

Forensic Magazine Reboots "DNA Matters" Column

Cybergenetics' chief scientist Dr. Mark Perlin published a two-part story this month in his ongoing Forensic Magazine "DNA Matters" column. In How to Solve a DNA Mystery, Part 1 Dr. Perlin lays out the unsolved forensic puzzles in the DNA defense of California v. Manuel Lopez. Lopez faced the death penalty, accused of murder—and worse—in the death of toddler Apollo Torres.

Dr. Perlin writes, "So much evidence making so little sense. Weeks of transcripts from many witnesses nagged by DNA discrepancies—conflicting rectal swabs, immaculate mother, battered child. Something was missing, and we needed an answer soon."

He describes the case and its 76 informative DNA evidence items. The prosecution, defense, crime laboratory, and TrueAllele science all offered different perspectives.

He writes, "The DNA results posed two confounding puzzles:

Rectal swabs taken at different times gave conflicting results. At the hospital, Apollo's initial rectal swab showed Lopez's DNA. But in a later autopsy, Lopez wasn't in the victim's rectal swab sperm fraction. How does DNA magically vanish?
Apollo's mother was his primary caretaker. She fed, dressed, changed and held him. How could her immaculate DNA not be on any item?"

But looking over witness transcripts days before he testified, Dr. Perlin "had the strangest idea." Scientific insights from the comprehensive TrueAllele match results had given the crucial clues. He reveals the astounding answers in How to Solve a DNA Mystery, Part 2.

For more details about the Lopez case, see Dr. Perlin's talk at the 2021 American Academy of Forensic Sciences annual meeting. And read more "DNA Matters" by Dr. Perlin, as published in Forensic Magazine.