Madison Meehan
9/25/19
Mr. Ippolito D odd
Current Event 3
Victor, Daniel. “‘Daytona Beach Serial Killer’ Suspect Is Arrested.” The New York Times, The
New York Times, 17 Sept. 2019,
In this article, Daniel Victor discussed the arrest of a serial killer in Palm Beach County, Florida. The suspect, Robert Hayes, was accused of the strangulation of Rachel Bay whose body was found in 2016. Not only did the police arrest Hayes because of this murder, but they found his DNA linked to two unsolved killings of women in Daytona Beach in 2005 and 2006. This breakthrough in all the cases was due to genetic genealogy, “the technique of tying suspects to DNA using samples that have been voluntarily submitted to commercial genealogy sites by their relatives.” The police in Palm Beach followed Hayes and performed a DNA test on a cigarette butt of his and the DNA matched the DNA in all of the cases, therefore making him the culprit.
The use of forensic science in these cases helped the police find Hayes and keep him from hurting or killing anymore people. Although genetic genealogy “raised ethical and legal concerns”, the use of it in the cases was crucial. Although, as Victor did point out, genetic genealogy is not the most popular method, it did end up solving the case, keeping a guilty man off the streets.
The author summarized the events very well and explained how they caught Hayes in a very clear way. I very easily followed the story line and learned a lot about how they used forensic science to help convict a guilty man. Some weaknesses with the article were a lack of connection between the different cases. I believe the author could have talked more about Haye’s motive to complete the article in a proper way. Some suggestions I have to make the article better would be a stronger ending and maybe to make it a little more intriguing to the reader. Also, even though Daniel Victor did explain what genetic genealogy was, he could have explained the process in greater detail.
4 comments:
Chloe Slater
Current Event Comment 3
9/25/19
Victor, Daniel. “‘Daytona Beach Serial Killer’ Suspect Is Arrested.” The New York Times, The
New York Times, 17 Sept. 2019,
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/17/us/daytona-beach-serial-killer-arrested.html?rref=c
ollection%2Ftimestopic%2FForensic%20Science&action=click&contentCollection=time
stopics®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=1&pgt
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https://bhscsi.blogspot.com/2019/09/madison-meehan-92519-mr.html
I enjoyed reading Madison’s review on Daniel Victor’s, “Daytona Beach Serial Killer’ Suspect Is Arrested.” Madison did a nice job of keeping her review concise and effective. Madison begins her review with a hook, being the murder Rachel Bay, as well as the twist to follow, how this murder led the police to link the culprit to two other past murders as well. The fact that this was not too wordy and direct made me interested in what was next and easy to follow. Madison also did a good job of introducing new concepts and defining terms so that they were easy to grasp. For example, her definition of genetic genealogy, the breakthrough method used to catch Robert Hayes for his two prior murders was valuable as a reader new to the forensic language. Last, I like how Madison eloquently added the opposition in that there was some backlash regarding the ethics behind following Mr. Hayes and taking his cigarette butt for his DNA. She raised a good point to consider, one's privacy and how much of that is protected legally, VS the good the can come from overstepping: finding a triple murderer.
I think an area Madison could improve on is her grammar. Such as improper comma usage, lack of hyphens, and also there is no period at the end of the last sentence. She could fix this by reading it over a few times out loud before submitting, or downloading “Grammarly” on her computer because it catches those errors as well. Also, I believe Madison could be a little more specific when giving her critique of the article. “I learned a lot about how they used forensic science to help convict a guilty man,” Madison could specify what she learned specifically about forensic science from this article and how it applied to solve Mr. Hayes conviction or further her understanding of how cases should be carried out from an ethical standpoint.
I learned about what genetic genealogy is, and how it can be used, like taking DNA from one’s cigarette butt, in order to match it to a crime, as well as crimes past in a database. I chose this article review initially because of the intriguing title involving Florida, which somehow always manages to be in the news for something a crazy person did. This will change my perspective of forensic science going forward because I had not thought about the legal and ethical issues surrounding privacy that could be involved in taking someone's DNA without certainty that they committed the crime. This is definitely something to think about!
Sarah Whitney
9-25-19
Mr. Ippolito D odd
Current Event 3
Victor, Daniel. “‘Daytona Beach Serial Killer’ Suspect Is Arrested.” The New York Times, The
New York Times, 17 Sept. 2019,
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/17/us/daytona-beach-serial-killer-arrested.html?rref=c
ollection%2Ftimestopic%2FForensic%20Science&action=click&contentCollection=time
stopics®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=1&pgt
ype=collection
In her review of “‘Daytona Beach Serial Killer’ Suspect Is Arrested” by Daniel Victor, Madison did many things well. First, her summary was very concise and contained all the relevant information. Second, Madison included quotes that give the reader a sense of the author’s original view to allow them to better understand the article and review. Third, her criticism was very clear and gave the author a good sense of what to fix.
Although Madison did many things well, there are two things in which she could improve upon. First, her relevance paragraph could have used a bit more information to better connect it to our society today. Second, I wish she would have included a specific idea from the article in her criticism such as a quote to help the author better understand what to fix.
I found this review particularly interesting as it gave an insight into how our modern forensics departments are able to use technology to solve murders - even ones they weren’t expecting to solve. I find DNA and genetic identification very interesting as how useful it can be in a variety of situations.
Charlotte Dotson
Mr. Ippolito
October 5, 2019
Current Event 4
Victor, Daniel. “‘Daytona Beach Serial Killer’ Suspect Is Arrested.” The New York Times, The
New York Times, 17 Sept. 2019,
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/17/us/daytona-beach-serial-killer-arrested.html?rref=c
ollection%2Ftimestopic%2FForensic%20Science&action=click&contentCollection=time
stopics®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=1&pgt
ype=collection
Madison did a great job reviewing, “Daytona Beach Serial Killer is Arrested”. First, I liked that she kept the summary short and clear. It wasn’t filled with unnecesarry details-it was just enough information for a brief, yet informative summary. Secondly, her criticism of the author was very insightful. It is evident she read, understood, and thought a lot about the article. Last, I appreiated her use of quotes. She did a good job keeping the balance between her original ideas and the author’s opinions.
One thing Madison could have improved would be her ending paragraph. I would have liked to read more about how Madison thought this case connected to the broader area of forensic science and investigations in general. Secondly, she could have been more specific when describing what she learned from the article. She provided a broad expalantion of what she learned, but specifics would have made this part of the review more interesting.
I really enjoyed reading both the article and Madison’s review. It is both controversial and intriguing to think abouth the ethics surrounig forensic science. For me at least I can’t quite make up my mind on what is more important, a sense of privacy or ensuring that dangerouse murders are kept off the streets.
Madison wrote a concise and thorough review of the article "Daytona Beach Serial Killer’ Suspect Is Arrested." She provided all the important details of the case, including the dates, and these along with the quotes combined to make an effective summary. Her summary kept me interested enough to keep reading. I also think she did a good job explaining how forensic science helped identify Hayes and link him to the murders.
I think Madison could have done a better job specifying how the author should intrigue the reader. Her criticism was valid, but I wish she'd given solid examples of what the author could do to strengthen the article.
I enjoyed reading Madison's review. This case seems like a major case, and the role that DNA profiling played in it interests me. From reading the article and her review, I learned the meaning of the term genetic genealogy.
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