Hey y’all! In contrast to Throwback Thursday, I like to use Fridays to look forward to an upcoming release that I’m excited about! Today’s is …
Fast Forward Friday: Everyone On This Train Is A Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson (1/30/24)
NASHVILLE – In an effort to reduce turnaround times in the TBI’s Forensic Biology Units, hundreds of sexual assault kits, submitted by law enforcement agencies across the state, have been outsourced for laboratory analysis in Florida.
The TBI secured $1.5 million in federal grant funding for the project through the Tennessee Department of Finance and Administration’s Office of Criminal Justice Programs. Following a competitive bid process, the state awarded the contract to DNA Labs International (DLI), based in Deerfield Beach, Florida. Today, the Bureau flew an initial set of 550 kits to DLI, including 250 from the Jackson Crime Laboratory, 250 from Knoxville, and 50 from Nashville.
“We are thankful to our partners for awarding us this funding to help the Bureau take a major step forward in our efforts to analyze these kits,” said Mike Lyttle, Assistant Director of TBI’s Forensic Services Division. “We’re confident this is the right step forward.”
As part of the agreement, DLI will provide analysis and any related courtroom testimony. In line with FBI guidelines, however, TBI scientists must review the results of analysis for each kit and, if warranted, enter resulting DNA profiles into CODIS, the Combined DNA Index System. If more grant funding become available before the end of 2023, the TBI plans to submit up to 1,000 kits for private analysis, at a rate of $2,155 per kit.
“With the help of the Governor’s administration and the Tennessee General Assembly, we’re continuing to take steps to improve our Forensic Services Division,” said TBI Director David Rausch. “This outsourcing project helps us take an immediate step, as we continue to discuss longer-term fixes. We’re hopeful the General Assembly will approve budget enhancements called for in Governor Lee’s plan, which we believe addresses key staffing and resource needs to better position the Bureau for a bright future.”
TBI Embarks on Effort to Outsource up to 1,000 Sex Assault Kits — TBINewsroom.com
By Nic Lewis The current approach A study by the COVID-19 Response Team from Imperial College (Ferguson et al. 2020[i]) appears to be largely responsible for driving UK government policy actions. The lockdown imposed in the UK appears, unsurprisingly, to have slowed the growth of COVID-19 infections, and may well soon lead to total active […]
via A sensible COVID-19 exit strategy for the UK — Iowa Climate Science Education
Memorial to the incident in Edmond, OK
On April 20, 1986, Postal Service employee Patrick Sherrill went on a shooting spree in a post office in Edmonds, OK. Twenty people were shot, leaving fourteen dead and six injured. At the conclusion of his rampage, Sherrill turned the gun on himself and committed suicide. It is believed that the shooting may have been motivated by a reprimand that Sherrill had received the day before. The incident is often credited with inspiring the phrase “going postal.”
Further reading:
Murderpedia – Patrick Henry Sherrill
Wikipedia – Patrick Sherrill
Time – “Crazy Pat’s” Revenge
Memorial to the incident in Edmond, OK
On this date in 1986, Postal Service employee Patrick Sherrill went on a shooting spree in a post office in Edmonds, OK. Twenty people were shot, leaving fourteen dead and six injured. At the conclusion of his rampage, Sherrill turned the gun on himself and committed suicide. It is believed that the shooting may have been motivated by a reprimand that Sherrill had received the day before. The incident is often credited with inspiring the phrase “going postal.”
Further reading:
Murderpedia – Patrick Henry Sherrill
Wikipedia – Patrick Sherrill
Time – “Crazy Pat’s” Revenge
(AP Photo/Julie Jacobson) 
WRITTEN BY: Katherine Ellen Foley
When we get our blood tested for cholesterol, it doesn’t take long to get the results. And if someone turns up at the hospital with what looks like a drug overdose, doctors can perform a quick test to verify their suspicions before treatment.
But unlike popular crime series like CSI, in which investigators whip up test results in the span of a quick montage, most forensic toxicology reports take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months. This can be an excruciating wait after mysterious deaths and unsolved crimes. Why does it take so long?
Quartz spoke with Robert Middleberg, a toxicologist from NMS Labs in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, to find out.
Unlike other medical tests, where technicians isolate a specific compound like cholesterol, Middleberg says that you don’t always know what you’re looking for with forensic toxicology. “If you have a young person who is found dead in bed and there’s no history of drug abuse, you’re looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack,” he tells Quartz.
Testing times
After a body is found and an autopsy is performed by a pathologist, a separate lab will look for any environmental or pharmaceutical toxins that could be the killers. Without any clear clues, Middleberg says they will start testing for about 400 different substances. “We never know what we’re going to get,” he notes. It takes creative intuition to guide a cycle of testing and interpreting the results of tests to inform further testing.
Once an initial analysis returns a match for a particular substance, toxicologists must gather more specifics for the official report. Bodies that have already started decaying produce some toxins naturally, like ethanol (another name for the alcohol we drink) and cyanide, so toxicologists may have to perform additional tests to determine whether these played an active role in the cause of death.
All of this is further complicated by the fact that samples often arrive in less than ideal conditions. “If somebody is pulled out of the water after being missing for two or three weeks, these samples are very, very bad,” Middleberg says.
Unlike testing in an emergency room to confirm an overdose, pathology focuses on specifics. “For [medical toxicologists], sometimes it doesn’t really matter exactly what’s there,” Middleberg says. “In our world, the pathologists want to know exactly what it is and how much.”
Not every test is a complicated affair—despite all of the unknowns, Middleberg says that most labs try to have a turnaround time of 3-5 days for ruling things out and 7-10 days for identifying the specific factors leading to death.
Looking for clues
Like detectives, toxicologists look for clues to narrow down which tests are necessary. Knowing a subject’s history with drug or alcohol use obviously helps. There are also several somewhat macabre rules of thumb that tip toxicologists off to seek substances they wouldn’t normally test for:
Bright red blood as a sign of carbon monoxide poisoning
A green brain as a sign of exposure to hydrogen sulfide
Chocolate brown blood as a sign of excess methemoglobin poisoning
Hair falling out can be a sign of chronic arsenic or thallium poisoning
Blue skin can be a sign of gadolinium poisoning
Cocaine and methamphetamines can change the shape of the heart
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Forensic Files 