U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice.

Forensic biology

Cold Case Investigations

Experience has shown that cold case programs can solve a substantial number of violent crime cold cases, including homicides and sexual assaults. Advances in DNA technologies have substantially increased the successful DNA analysis of aged, degraded, limited, or otherwise compromised biological evidence. As a result, crime scene samples once thought to be unsuitable for testing may now yield DNA profiles. Additionally, samples that previously generated...

DNA at Our Fingertips

Date Published
July 15, 2019

Forensic scientists have explored whether lifted and archived fingerprints retain forensically useful amounts of DNA.