Incorporating
Forensics in Your Mystery Plot by DJ Swykert
Several years ago, Carolyn Jenks, founder of the
Carolyn Jenks Agency in Boston, told me she believed forensics in a crime story
was the best way to hook a mystery reader. The success of the CSI television
productions appears to support Carolyn’s theory. With her suggestion in mind, I
wrote The Death of Anyone based on a little known DNA search technique called a
Familial DNA Search.
I first heard of the technique while working as a
911 operator in 2006. It came up in a conversation with a CSI investigator in
our department. I thought at the time it would make an interesting premise for
a book. Listening to Carolyn’s thoughts on forensics a couple of years later convinced
me.
But you don’t have to be a homicide detective, CSI
or forensics expert to use the science in a story. Tom Clancy became famous for
his espionage and military science stories. Was Tom with the FBI, CIA, or a
scientist? No, he was an insurance salesman. Everything you need to know Tom discovered
you can research for yourself on the internet. Want to know about Familial DNA?
Here’s a link that will inform you of everything you need to know about the
technique, and its legal ramifications. You can write it into a plotline like
an expert, just as Tom Clancy wrote about nuclear submarines in The Hunt for
Red October without ever having set foot on a submarine.
In my fictional story, The Death of Anyone, Detroit
Detective Bonnie Benham has been transferred from working undercover in
narcotics to homicide and is working the case of a killer of adolescent girls.
She is a straight forward investigator who describes herself as a blonde with a
badge and a gun. CSI collects DNA evidence from the scene of the latest victim,
which had not been detected on the other victims. But no suspect turns up in
the FBI database. Due to the notoriety of the crimes a task force is put
together with Bonnie as the lead detective, and she implores the D.A. to use an
as yet unapproved type of DNA Search in an effort to identify the
killer.
In reality, the technique of investigating those with a
similar DNA profile to the actual profile left at the crime scene has proved to
be controversial, especially since LAPD used it to catch Lonnie David Franklin,
the infamous Grim Sleeper, in the summer of 2010 in Los Angeles. Investigating
Franklin’s son led them to investigate Lonnie Franklin. But there was no direct
DNA evidence that linked Lonnie to the crime scene until they obtained a sample
from him after his arrest. Lonnie David Franklin, aka The Grim Sleeper, will be
the first person in the U.S. to ever stand trial for murder based on this type
of evidence, and its admissibility issues will be thoroughly tested by defense
attorneys. These are the same issues my investigators encounter in The Death of
Anyone.
Fascinating! Thanks for this great article, DJ!
Guest Blogger Bio
DJ Swykert is a former 911 operator writing
fiction. His work has appeared in The Tampa Review, Detroit News, Coe Review,
Monarch Review, the Newer York, Lunch Ticket, Gravel, Zodiac Review, Barbaric
Yawp and Bull. His books include Children of the Enemy, Alpha Wolves, The Pool
Boy’s Beatitude and The Death of Anyone. You can find him at: www.magicmasterminds.com/djswykert
He is a wolf expert.
He is a wolf expert.
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