Ken Murray\/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS <\/p>\n
Vito Spano, a retired deputy inspector with the NYPD Cold Case Squad, says the Robert Fleming rape-murder case gave direction to advances in DNA technology. <\/p>\n
When Selena Cooper and her 9-year-old daughter were murdered in 1988, it was probably the second or third year the NYPD was utilizing DNA. <\/p>\n
But it wasnt understood. It was super Star Trek stuff. <\/p>\n
RELATED: ROBERT FLEMING SENTENCED IN 1988 SODOMY, MURDER OF GIRL, 9 <\/p>\n
We didnt know how you could get it or how you could extract it. At the time, DNA was something that you needed a significant quantity of and if it was degraded in any way, shape or form it wouldnt work. <\/p>\n
To top it all off, we didnt have a statewide database so every suspect we had needed to be cotton swabbed and DNA typed a process that took months since we had to use one of the labs in Penn State University. <\/p>\n
RELATED: DNA HELPS POLICE CATCH SUSPECT IN 1988 MURDERS <\/p>\n
Back then no one really knew where the technology behind DNA was going. If I was to tell people back in the late 80s how far it advanced, they would never believe me. <\/p>\n
But this case would make believers. Within the next 15 years, New York finally got a state DNA database. Thats how we finally identified Robert Fleming as a suspect. <\/p>\n
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Read more from the original source: Ken Murray\/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Vito Spano, a retired deputy inspector with the NYPD Cold Case Squad, says the Robert Fleming rape-murder case gave direction to advances in DNA technology. When Selena Cooper and her 9-year-old daughter were murdered in 1988, it was probably the second or third year the NYPD was utilizing DNA Continue reading
\nDetective: DNA evidence was in its infancy in Fleming case<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"