Fabricate Your Own DNA Evidence
DNA evidence has become the gold standard for criminal investigations, but researchers in Israel say that finding DNA at a crime scene may not be evidence of a crime, but rather the handiwork of a clever biology student.
In a paper published in Forensic Science International, Dan Frumkin, a private forensics researcher, claims that fabricating DNA evidence has become so easy that “[a]ny biology undergraduate could perform this.”
Frumkin outlines two methods for fabricating DNA evidence. The first requires access to a small sample of an individual’s DNA, such as a hair or a bit of saliva. The size of the sample is then increased through a common technique known as DNA amplification. Then the hopeful framer takes blood from a different individual, centrifuges it to remove the DNA-carrying white blood cells, and leaves only the red blood cells, which contain no DNA. The person then adds the amplified DNA to the blood sample, creating a handy supply of blood that could be splashed onto a crime scene to implicate the chosen target.
