Augenstein, Seth. “Bloody Clothing Near Dead Baby's Body in NJ Leads to Composite of
Mother's Face.” Forensic Magazine, 20 Dec. 2017, www.forensicmag.com/news/2017/12/bloody-clothing-near-dead-babys-body-nj-leads-composite-mothers-face.
In “Bloody Clothing Near Dead Baby’s Body in NJ Leads to Composite of Mother’s Face” Seth Augenstein discusses how a popular phenotyping service was used to reconstruct what the mother of a decapitated newborn baby - found at a recycling facility in New Jersey in November 2014 - may have looked like based on the evidence that she left behind. The handbag and two bloodstained blouses found near the little girl’s remains were determined forensically to have belonged to the mother. Parabon NanoLabs, a Virginia-based DNA phenotyping company which uses DNA profiles to generate composite facial likenesses, predicted that the mother would look like a Latina woman who had Central or South American ancestry. “It’s certainly not a perfect science—but it’s a best estimate based on the DNA pulled from these clothing items that were recovered,” said Christopher Gramiccioni, the Monmouth County Prosecutor. “Keep in mind – this is not a photograph. It’s a predictive composite.”
This article is important to society because it focuses on a controversial DNA science and the mystery surrounding a newborn’s death. Parabon’s phenotyping service have “produced some successes in recent cases where just a general appearance had helped guide investigators” but the DNA technology has also faced scrutiny for its limitations. It will therefore be interesting to see if this composite will be helpful in leading investigators to the mother and the truth surrounding the death of this poor baby.Augenstein did a great job summarizing this case and providing a lot of information on the facts and sciences. For example, he included many details on the phenotyping science and discussed how unknown deceased baby cases have been rising. I also love how he included a composite image of the baby, pictures of the mother’s belongings, and the featured composite image of the mother. However, I think that the author could have included more information on the facts of the case because it would provide the reader with a more thorough understanding of the case if Augenstein had explained what investigators have learned over the past three years.
6 comments:
Lily Monahan
Current Event 12
Forensics D Even
January 1st, 2018
Augenstein, Seth. “Bloody Clothing Near Dead Baby's Body in NJ Leads to Composite of
Mother's Face.” Forensic Magazine, 20 Dec. 2017, www.forensicmag.com/news/2017/12/bloody-clothing-near-dead-babys-body-nj-leads-composite-mothers-face.
Eva wrote a review of the article “Bloody Clothing Near Dead Baby's Body in NJ Leads to Composite of Mother's Face.” Eva was very detailed in her description, and also made the things being discussed, like phenotyping, easy to understand. Ea also incorporated quotes, which added to her review and made it more credible.
I think that Evas review was lengthy, so she could have left out some things , which would improve her review. I would have also liked to find out more about the results of this case at the end.
Overall, this was a good read because I didn’t know anything about DNA phenotyping and it was interesting to learn how it could be used to solve obscure cases with very little evidence.
This week my classmate eva did a current event on “Bloody Clothing Near Dead Baby's Body in NJ Leads to Composite of Mother's Face.” written by Seth Augenstein. The article, which was published in forensic magazine, talks about how a Virginia based DNA phenotyping company was able to compose a predictive composite of a suspect involved in the decapitation of a newborn. The first that that surprised me was that even though the DNA was 4 years old, it was still capable of depicting an image. I was also surprised to hear that there was a whole company dedicated to creating “predicted composites” from suspects DNA. Even though it's only a prediction and only shows the general likeness, other cases using this picture were succesful. Finally, I thought that this technology could possibly help crack other cold cases where the DNA didn't match anything in a database or questioned suspects.
Although Eva did an excellent job stating the facts and conveying the message of the article, there were only two things I felt she could’ve added to help the reader understand the article. The first thing I felt she could’ve added was more features that the composite composed. Eva only mentioned her race, but not any major identifying characteristics. Finally, I felt that she could have included more information about the process.
Overall, Eva’s current event was very interesting. We’re coming into an age where DNA and its uses are becoming more prevalent. Not only is it being used to solve crimes, but its helping people find out about their health, and their ancestry. Eva’s current event did a excellent job on explaining how important DNA and the advancement of understanding it is becoming in our society.
Augenstein, Seth. “Bloody Clothing Near Dead Baby's Body in NJ Leads to Composite of
Mother's Face.” Forensic Magazine, 20 Dec. 2017, www.forensicmag.com/news/2017/12/bloody-clothing-near-dead-babys-body-nj-leads-composite-mothers-face.
Martha Thomas
Comment on "Bloody Clothing Near Dead Baby’s Body in NJ Leads to Composite of Mother’s Face"
Augenstein, Seth. “Bloody Clothing Near Dead Baby's Body in NJ Leads to Composite of
Mother's Face.” Forensic Magazine, 20 Dec. 2017, www.forensicmag.com/news/2017/12/bloody-clothing-near-dead-babys-body-nj-leads-composite-mothers-face.
Eva did a nice job reviewing ““Bloody Clothing Near Dead Baby's Body in NJ Leads to Composite of
Mother's Face.” Her report was strong because it specifically commented on Augenstein’s writing and the strengths or weaknesses of his article. I also enjoyed that Eva took note of the pictures and diagrams in the article, not just the text. This report was also well written because it was clear and to the point.
Eva could have included more of a summary of the case. Eva also could have strengthened her report by including quotes from the original article.
From this article and review I learned about the importance of DNA in science and modern society. DNA science is increasingly used to discover ancestry and health factors so this article that explains the process of DNA analysis was interesting and relevant to read.
Augenstein, Seth. “Bloody Clothing Near Dead Baby's Body in NJ Leads to Composite of Mother's Face.” Forensic Magazine, 20 Dec. 2017, www.forensicmag.com/news/2017/12/bloody-clothing-near-dead-babys-body-nj-leads-composite-mothers-face.
Eva’s review of “Bloody Clothing Near Dead Baby's Body in NJ Leads to Composite of Mother's Face” was a very interesting review. First of all, it really helped that she stated the exact name of the company, Parabon NanoLabs, a Virginia-based DNA phenotyping company where phenotyping helped find identify some things about the baby. In addition, the fact that she had a lot of details about what exactly phenotyping is aided me in understanding this topic better and gave me some additional information about it. Finally, Eva did a really good job in making this review quite thorough by adding what exactly was found near the decapitated body, citing the evidence like the mom’s shirt.
Although this review was very interesting, one way it could have been made better is that Eva could have gone back through the review and elaborated a bit more on who made this phenotyping technique and when it started being used so that the review was more sophisticated. By reading it over and adding a few sentences, she could have avoided this problem and made her review more thought out. Moreover, I would have added more information on the reasons why unknown deceased baby cases have been rising. 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 breakthrough, so I was intrigued when I read Eva’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, identifying people and their relatives has become much more easier.
Jack Baxter
Current event comment
1/9/18
Augenstein, Seth. “Bloody Clothing Near Dead Baby's Body in NJ Leads to Composite of
Mother's Face.” Forensic Magazine, 20 Dec. 2017, www.forensicmag.com/news/2017/12/bloody-clothing-near-dead-babys-body-nj-leads-composite-mothers-face.
Eva wrote a review of the article “Bloody Clothing Near Dead Baby's Body in NJ Leads to Composite of Mother's Face.” Eva was very detailed in her description, and also made the things being discussed, like phenotyping, easy to understand. Ea also incorporated quotes, which added to her review and made it more credible.
I think that Evas review was lengthy, so she could have left out some things , which would improve her review. I would have also liked to find out more about the results of this case at the end.
Overall, this was a good read because I didn’t know anything about DNA phenotyping and it was interesting to learn how it could be used to solve obscure cases with very little evidence.
Ava DiClemente - O’Connor
Mr. Ippolito
Current Event 6
10/26/21
Citation/ Hyperlink
Blog post
Southall, Ashley. “Using DNA to Sketch What Victims Look Like; Some Call It Science Fiction.”The New York Times, The New York Times, 19 Oct. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/10/19/nyregion/dna-phenotyping-new-york-police.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FForensic%2BScience&action=click&contentCollection=timestopics®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=9&pgtype=collection.
Summary/ Aspects well done
This review did a good job of summarizing the crime. The basic description for it was brief but effective. He retells how the body parts were found by a bird watcher and given to police to investigate. He gave a thorough explanation of phenotyping which was helpful because I did not know what it was beforehand. It is when the police use DNA left behind to predict what the person that the DNA belongs to might have looked like. Lastly, he explains why phenotyping is important and connects the other main ideas together.
Relevance/ Improvement
I think that this review could have done a better job of explaining the crime. The solution to this is simple; include more details. I also thought that it is important to note the conclusion of the crime. It is unclear from the review whether or not the killer was found/they have any suspects.
Critique/ Epiphany
I was unaware of what phenotyping was before reading this article, and I think that it is fascinating. The reason I chose this review to respond to is because it caught my attention with the body parts that were found. Overall, I think that this review was interesting, but could have included more information. The vagueness makes it difficult to critique.
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