Nearly 40 Years After College Student’s Stabbing Death, Genetic Records Lead to a Suspect
Vigdor, Neil. “Nearly 40 Years After College Student's Stabbing Death, Genetic Records Lead to a Suspect.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 17 Dec. 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/12/16/us/helene-pruszynski-james-curtis-clanton.html.
The murder of a college student, Helene Pruszynski, stumped Colorado detectives. The cold case languished for so long that all but one of her immediate family members had died. But then on Thursday, Ms. Pruszynski’s older sister, Janet Johnson, got a phone call: A prosecutor said homicide investigators had made a breakthrough thanks to advances in genetic genealogy and dogged police work. Using Forensic science Investigators say that they were able to put together an extensive family tree of potential suspects using semen recovered from Ms. Pruszynski’s body and working with forensic genealogists at United Data Connect and websites like Ancestry.com and GEDmatch.com. The DNA evidence had been preserved at the time of the murder, but the technology didn’t exist. A check of a national DNA database maintained by the F.B.I. in 1998 also didn’t yield any leads.
This article is so important because it emphasized the importance of forensic science and how it is never leaving. Meaning “40 years later” science has led us to get justice for Helene Pruszynski. As quoted, “There’s DNA that’s a big part of this case, but don’t misunderstand that it’s like, ‘Hey we just entered DNA into some voodoo database and out popped this guy,’” George Brauchler, the local district attorney, said during a news conference on Monday.
To improve this article think a better description of the actualy murder is very important to help the reader because it can be confusing. In addition, this article was great because it was very to the point which I appreciated. In conclusion, this article really displays the importance of forensic science.
5 comments:
Charlotte Cagliostro
Forensics
C Odd / Current Event 12
1/6/20
Vigdor, Neil. “Nearly 40 Years After College Student's Stabbing Death, Genetic Records Lead to a Suspect.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 17 Dec. 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/12/16/us/helene-pruszynski-james-curtis-clanton.html.
https://bhscsi.blogspot.com/2020/01/nearly-40-years-after-college-students.html
Jimmy wrote a nice review of Neil Vigdor’s New York Times article “Nearly 40 Years After College Student's Stabbing Death, Genetic Records Lead to a Suspect.” In particular, there were three aspects of his piece that I thoroughly enjoyed. First, I liked Jimmy’s style of writing. He was able to summarize the main ideas from the original article while still informing and engaging the reader. Second, I enjoyed Jimmy’s introduction. He was able to grab my attention almost immediately, making me want to continue reading. Lastly, I quite liked his second paragraph in which he spoke to the relevance of this case and the use of new DNA databases. It is very interesting to think about how these types of databases will be used in future court cases and forensic procedures.
There were two aspects of Jimmy’s review that I think need work. First, I think Jimmy should have spent more time editing his piece. There were several obvious typos in his piece which made it feel quite unprofessional. Second, I think Jimmy should have expanded on his critique of the original article. His last paragraph felt very rushed and left me unsatisfied since I felt there was a lot more to say.
One thing I learned more about through reading this review is just how useful these types of databases will be in the future in solving cases and prosecuting criminals. It is truly incredible that individuals can be linked to a crime if the DNA of a distant relative is one file.
Molly Palma
Forensics C-Odd
Current Event 13
Due January 17th, 2020
Vigdor, Neil. “Nearly 40 Years After College Student's Stabbing Death, Genetic Records Lead to
a Suspect.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 17 Dec. 2019,
www.nytimes.com/2019/12/16/us/helene-pruszynski-james-curtis-clanton.html.
https://bhscsi.blogspot.com/2020/01/nearly-40-years-after-college-students.html
Jimmy’s summary was impressive. He was able to contextualize Helene Pruszynski’s case by describing the victim and the difficulty the Colorado detectives had with figuring it out. Then he explained that recently they were able to “put together an extensive family tree of potential suspects using semen recovered from Ms. Pruszynski’s body.” Not only did Jimmy clearly state what happened with the case, but he elaborated on why it didn’t happen sooner. According to him, which was an assertion given by the original article, detectives had only recently acquired access to DNA tools, like Ancestry.com and GEDmatch.com. Lastly, Jimmy did directly cited a quote in the second paragraph which was important for any worthy review.
I believe that Jimmy created a well-rounded summary paragraph, but was lacking some heart in the second two. The second paragraph had a quote in it that was not supported by any personal statement. And the third paragraph explained what he thought about aspects in the article, using words like ‘confusing’, ‘great’, and ‘important, but didn’t expand on why he believed that way. Secondly, Jimmy’s tone of sophistication becomes weak in the second two paragraphs. In the first paragraph, he used complex sentence structures and advanced vocabulary, but later on that seems to diminish.
I chose this article because I wanted to know the story about why it took almost forty years to crack the case of Helene Pruszynski’s murder. Jimmy’s review lived up to my expectations for how interesting I thought it was going to be. After reading it, I have reflected on how much technology has changed in the duration of the case. Looking at it from a forensic-scientist’s perspective, I would have a great appreciation for sites that were originally created for one’s curiosity regarding their ancestry. I learned that the DNA database in 1998 didn’t have any leads for the case and it was only recently when all this information became reachable.
Vigdor, Neil. “Nearly 40 Years After College Student's Stabbing Death, Genetic Records Lead to
a Suspect.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 17 Dec. 2019,
www.nytimes.com/2019/12/16/us/helene-pruszynski-james-curtis-clanton.html.
For this week’s current events I reviewed Jimmy’s response to “Nearly 40 Years After College Student's Stabbing Death, Genetic Records Lead to a Suspect.” First off, Jimmy did an excellent job at describing the situation and describing the situation in which genealogy was used. “The murder of a college student, Helene Pruszynski, stumped Colorado detectives. The cold case languished for so long that all but one of her immediate family members had died. But then on Thursday, Ms. Pruszynski’s older sister, Janet Johnson, got a phone call: A prosecutor said homicide investigators had made a breakthrough thanks to advances in genetic genealogy and dogged police work.” After describing the background on the situation, Jimmy then does a good describing how forensic evidence was used in the scenario. “Using Forensic science Investigators say that they were able to put together an extensive family tree of potential suspects using semen recovered from Ms. Pruszynski’s body and working with forensic genealogists at United Data Connect and websites like Ancestry.com and GEDmatch.com.” As well as highlighting the background of the case and how forensic evidence was used, Jimmy also did a good job at highlighting how forensic science is important and can be used to solve crimes that date back multiple decades. Jimmy highlights the importance of forensic science and the fact that it is “never leaving.”
JImmy could have elaborated on how to improve the article more. “To improve this article think a better description of the actualy murder is very important to help the reader because it can be confusing. In addition, this article was great because it was very to the point which I appreciated. In conclusion, this article really displays the importance of forensic science.” He briefly touched upon two quick points, but describing both in more detail would make his response stronger. As well as this, including more direct quotes from the author to show his point of view, would be highly beneficial to the reader.
Overall, Jimmy did a very good job and reflecting on the achievements made in forensic science, and how it can be applied to year old cases. He does a good job at highlighting the success of forensic technology and suggests its positive usage.
Vigdor, Neil. “Nearly 40 Years After College Student's Stabbing Death, Genetic Records Lead to a Suspect.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 17 Dec. 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/12/16/us/helene-pruszynski-james-curtis-clanton.html.
Jimmy’s review of “Nearly 40 Years After College Student’s Stabbing Death, Genetic Records Lead to a Suspect.” by Neil Vigdor was well-written and very informative. To start, Jimmy did a very good job of providing context and background information about the article and the case. This allows the reader to gain a better understanding of the case that is being discussed and how old, but relevant this case is. In addition, Jimmy also did a good job of integrating quotes and statistics from the article in his review. The quotes and statistics help make the discussion much clearer and more real as the ideas and facts being presented in the review seem much more accurate and real. Lastly, Jimmy also did a good job of explaining why this case is important and the lasting idea that forensic science will be an important science that sticks around for a long time.
While Jimmy did a good job summarizing the article and the contents discussed there were a few things he could have done to make his review better. First, the review had some minor grammatical errors. I think reading the review once more would have allowed Jimmy to realize there were some mistakes that could have been easily corrected. Additionally, the review could have benefited from more of his own opinion. Jimmy does a great job discussing the contents of the article however, I think more of his own opinion on the case would make his review even better.
Overall, I found this article and review to be engaging and informative. It was surprising to learn that it took 40 years for there to be a break in this case. The biggest takeaway for me was that even 40 years later, thanks to saved DNA evidence, they were able to find a suspect.
Esther Devitt
1/30/20
Forensics D-Odd
Current Event 14
Vigdor, Neil. “Nearly 40 Years After College Student's Stabbing Death, Genetic Records Lead to a Suspect.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 17 Dec. 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/12/16/us/helene-pruszynski-james-curtis-clanton.html.
https://bhscsi.blogspot.com/2020/01/nearly-40-years-after-college-students.html
For this week's current event I chose to discuss Jimmy’s review of the article, “Nearly 40 Years After College Student's Stabbing Death, Genetic Records Lead to a Suspect.”. One thing I think Jimmy did a great job of doing was discussing the article, he made it very easy for the readers to understand what the actual article was discussing and it felt very informative. I also enjoyed how Jimmy discussed his take on the article and why this is a relevant topic. Lastly, Jimmy used lots of great quotes and pieces of data from the article in his review which increased his credibility to the readers.
If I had to give Jimmy criticism on this review I would tell Jimmy that I wish he discussed more in-depth how this story relates more to forensic science, and I wish he included more of his critique on the original article.
Overall, I really enjoyed Jimmy’s review on this article because I thought it was such an interesting topic. It always blows my mind when I read these current events and see how important forensic science is and how cases can still be solved after all those years.
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