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9-Oct-2025
“Ghost Gun” DNA Witness
In the March 2023 fatal shooting of 21-year-old Naim Bayete in Erie, Pennsylvania, investigators recovered the discarded firearm—a “ghost gun”—and submitted it for DNA analysis. Although the Pennsylvania State Police Crime Lab generated DNA data from the weapon, traditional methods could not interpret the complex mixture containing DNA from five different people.
Cybergenetics’ TrueAllele software was then applied to the same DNA data and successfully separated the five-person mixture. TrueAllele produced a highly significant match statistic linking the DNA on the firearm to Torrance Norris — a result that conventional analysis could not provide.
On October 9, 2025, a Cybergenetics analyst testified before an Erie County jury about the TrueAllele results. After just one hour of deliberation, the jury found Norris guilty on all counts, including criminal homicide.
This case underscores the value of advanced DNA interpretation tools in modern forensic investigations — transforming previously uninterpretable evidence into definitive, scientifically supported results that contribute directly to justice.