Citation: “Accused Massachusetts Killer-Rapist ID'd, 25 Years Later, Through DNA and Handwritten Confession.” Forensic Magazine, 19 Sept. 2017, www.forensicmag.com/news/2017/09/accused-massachusetts-killer-rapist-idd-25-years-later-through-dna-and-handwritten-confession.
I read an article published in Forensic Magazine entitled, “Accused Massachusetts Killer-Rapist ID'd, 25 Years Later, Through DNA and Handwritten Confession.” This article discusses the 1992 murder and rape case of Lisa Ziegert, a teacher’s aide in Massachusetts. On the night of April 15, 1992, Lisa was working a second job at a card shop, where she went missing. The next day, Lisa’s boss found the shop doors open, and Lisa’s car in the parking lot. Four days later, Lisa’s body was found in a wooded area nearby. For 25 years, the case had remained unsolved. The article discusses the case in detail, and how they were able to find the murderer, who was arrested on September 16th. Gary E. Schara from West Springfield Massachusetts was finally convicted based on investigative work, and a written confession from Schara. As well as both of these elements heavily assisting the case, the article discusses the DNA work that also contributed. The case was reopened in 2013, and Last year, they began work with Parabon NanoLabs, a DNA phenotyping company which uses DNA profiles to generate an idea of physical appearance. The composite came back depicting a suspect with “a mix of northern and southern European ancestry: a male with fair to very fair complexion, with some freckling, brown or black hair, and hazel or brown eyes. They showed the purported suspect at age 25, and about 25 years older.”
This article is very important to the world as a whole, as it discusses how a famous murder case was finally closed. The article also talks about very revolutionary DNA technology, that could potentially help solve closed unsolved murder cases in the future, as well as helping to further advance the field of DNA technology. It is very important for the general public to stay educated on important advances in science, and this article helps do this. The article also gives a very general overview of the way that investigative research is conducted, detailing the step by step procedures that police took to reach their conclusion on the case, which is also very informative and important.
I felt that the article overall was very impressive, and I really enjoyed how in-depth it went with the police work involved in the case. I also really enjoyed that the article included quotes from both Lisa’s family, and the detectives that worked on the case. I think that the article was slightly confusing in the way that it was spaced, and larger paragraph grouping as opposed to short sentences would have been more coherent, and easy to follow. I also think that a lot of information could be condensed, to make the article easier to read.
Posted for F. Fraser
6 comments:
“Accused Massachusetts Killer-Rapist ID'd, 25 Years Later, Through DNA and Handwritten
Confession.” Forensic Magazine, 19 Sept. 2017.
https://www.forensicmag.com/news/2017/09/accused-massachusetts-killer-rapist-idd-25-years-later-through-dna-and-handwritten-confession
Nanda wrote an excellent response to the article “Accused Massachusetts Killer-Rapist ID’d, 25 Years Later, Through DNA and Handwritten Confession” by Seth Augenstein. She begins with a succinct and informative summary that provides the reader with all of the necessary information. She is able to effectively and efficiently describe the background details of the case before explaining how the killer was finally caught 25 years after the fact. Nanda did a great job of defining specific terms and scientific procedures that were mentioned in the article that were imperative to the reader’s understanding of the article. For example, she included the quote of the DNA profile that specifically pointed to Schara, the murderer and rapist. I also loved how she emphasized the importance of this forensic breakthrough and how this DNA technology “could potentially help solve closed unsolved murder cases in the future, as well as helping to further advance the field of DNA technology.” Her explanation helps the reader to understand how critical this case and the revolutionary DNA science used to solve it are.
Although Nanda wrote a well-written current event report, there are two places that she could improve upon. I think that Nanda could have included more information on how the suspect was found. She explains that the author provided extensive details on the police work involved in this case, so I think that she should have included a bit more of this information in order to do the article justice and help the reader fully understand the case. Ziegert’s murder was solved partially because of this detailed DNA profile that matched the killer; it was emphasized both in the article and in Nanda’s current event report. Therefore, I think that she could have included some background information on the science or how exactly it works.
After reading Nanda’s response to Augenstein’s article, I have learned about an important scientific discovery and how it has helped solve a 25 year old cold case. It is satisfying to hear that a family has answers and that a violent criminal is finally paying for his crime. I also think that the DNA science used to solve this case is incredibly impressive and represents an important breakthrough in forensic science and the way that investigators might narrow down their suspect pool in the future.
“Accused Massachusetts Killer-Rapist ID'd, 25 Years Later, Through DNA and Handwritten
Confession.” Forensic Magazine, 19 Sept. 2017.
https://www.forensicmag.com/news/2017/09/accused-massachusetts-killer-rapist-idd-25-years-later-through-dna-and-handwritten-confession
Nanda wrote an excellent response to the article “Accused Massachusetts Killer-Rapist ID’d, 25 Years Later, Through DNA and Handwritten Confession” by Seth Augenstein. She begins with a succinct and informative summary that provides the reader with all of the necessary information. She is able to effectively and efficiently describe the background details of the case before explaining how the killer was finally caught 25 years after the fact. Nanda did a great job of defining specific terms and scientific procedures that were mentioned in the article that were imperative to the reader’s understanding of the article. For example, she included the quote of the DNA profile that specifically pointed to Schara, the murderer and rapist. I also loved how she emphasized the importance of this forensic breakthrough and how this DNA technology “could potentially help solve closed unsolved murder cases in the future, as well as helping to further advance the field of DNA technology.” Her explanation helps the reader to understand how critical this case and the revolutionary DNA science used to solve it are.
Although Nanda wrote a well-written current event report, there are two places that she could improve upon. I think that Nanda could have included more information on how the suspect was found. She explains that the author provided extensive details on the police work involved in this case, so I think that she should have included a bit more of this information in order to do the article justice and help the reader fully understand the case. Ziegert’s murder was solved partially because of this detailed DNA profile that matched the killer; it was emphasized both in the article and in Nanda’s current event report. Therefore, I think that she could have included some background information on the science or how exactly it works.
After reading Nanda’s response to Augenstein’s article, I have learned about an important scientific discovery and how it has helped solve a 25 year old cold case. It is satisfying to hear that a family has answers and that a violent criminal is finally paying for his crime. I also think that the DNA science used to solve this case is incredibly impressive and represents an important breakthrough in forensic science and the way that investigators might narrow down their suspect pool in the future.
Nanda did a great job at writing about this case in a way that highlighted how interesting the rapists ID was while also letting us know how uncommon it was for old cases like this to get soled. I could understand the backstory well because Nanda explained the details of the murder clearly. She also made a connection at the end of her report as to how significant this event was for the scientific world and all the ways it has advanced since 25 years ago. I think Nanda could have expanded on the case in more detail, such as what specific DNA samples were tested.In summarizing the article, she also could have added a bit more as to how the investigators having the profile of the suspect, “a mix of northern and southern European ancestry: a male with fair to very fair”, led them to actually finding gary schara. This was interesting because it shows the developments in science, specifically DNA testing, that led to justice for a young woman whose killer was at large for 25 years.
Scott McGrath
Current Event 2
9/24/17
Nanda did a very good job explaining and analyzing this article about a killer rapist who was convicted of a crime 25 years later through new break-through DNA results. This article was really interesting because it made me think of something I hadn't thought about much before, new technology being able to solve previously unsolvable cases. Nanda did a really good job structuring the review, so every point she brought up was explained in full. For instance, she describes the murder in 1992 in gripping detail, making me want to keep reading her review. Another thing she does really well was explain the history of the case revival, discussing how the case was revived and how the DNA phenotyping company ID’d the killer, along with his confession. One more thing I think Nanda did really well was incorporate her opinion. She discussed her view on the breakthrough while predicting how this conviction can change modern crime.
Despite all the positives to this review, there were still some negatives. One thing she could have improved was the pacing of the review I feel like some aspects of the case were overlooked. Another thing she could have improved on was talked more about how the DNA was matched and why the killer confessed. As I previously said, some parts of the case were overlooked greatly. One thing that blew my mind was how the killer lived 25 years seemingly having gotten away scot free only to have new breakthrough technology prove him guilty. It is scary that a case that old can be revived and accurately be solved. Overall, I thought Nanda did a really good with explaining the significance of the case and the science behind it.
Nanda’s review of “Accused Massachusetts Killer-Rapist ID'd, 25 Years Later, Through DNA and Handwritten Confession” was a very interesting review. First of all, it really helped that she stated how exactly all of the event of the night went down. In addition, the fact that she had a lot of details about the lab, Parabon NanoLabs, that helped with the case in 2013 aided me in understanding this topic better and gave me some additional information about it. Finally, Nanda did a really good job on going even further into the topic and talking about why this topic is important to the whole world, because of revolutionary DNA technology.
Although this review was very interesting, one way it could have been made better is that Nanda could have gone back through the review and checked for spelling and grammar errors so that the review was more sophisticated. By reading it over, she could have avoided this problem and made her review more coherent. Moreover, I would have added more information on the exact DNA techniques they used as she talked about it a little bit but never fully went into it. By adding one or two sentences about that topic she could have made her review even more thorough.
Overall, this review was captivating and thought-provoking. I had never heard about this this murder case, so I was intrigued when I read Nanda’s review. Thus, learning about this was very enlightening and taught me many new things. Reading this review made me realize that with the new DNA techniques, it is very hard to get away with murder and you can get caught decades later.
Nanda wrote an excellent review for the article “Accused Massachusetts Killer-Rapist ID’d, 25 Years Later, THrough DNA and Handwritten Confession” written by Seth Augenstein for Forensic Magazine. In the article the author discusses how Lisa Ziegert, a teacher's aide was raped and killed. The first thing that surprised me was how scientists were able to identify specifics about the criminal from his DNA. For example they found his skin tones, hair color right down to if he has freckles or not. I also thought it was interesting how they continuously worked on this case for 25 years and did not give up on getting justice for Lisa. Finally, I really liked how she included the quote “[DNA Phenotyping] could potentially help solve closed unsolved murder cases in the future, as well as helping to further advance the field of DNA technology.” This quote really shows the advancement of forensic sciences and helps wrap up the article nicely.
Even though this was an excellent review, I do think there were two things Nanda could've expanded upon. The first thing she could’ve done was go into more detail about the solving of the crime. For example she talks about the written confession, but not how it was found. I was left wondering if the DNA evidence persuaded him to confess, or if he confessed on his own. Finally, I thought she could've added more detail in how the DNA phenotyping worked.
Overall, this was a very excellent article to read. It gives me hope to know that some unsolved cases will be getting solved, and that the victims will be getting the justice they deserved. Nanda did a great job explaining the science and crime, and how they worked together to bring justice to Lisa and her family.
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