What is the latest on the Booth DNA Project?

[Houmes]

(04-01-2013 04:10 PM)L Verge Wrote:  Thanks, Rich. I guess there is no further "lineage" as to how these folks supposedly came by the locks?

One more point: One of the determinants in Judge Kaplan's decision to deny the exhumation of Booth's body back in the 1990s was the fact that the Booths' grave plot (and several in the area) had been subjected to a great deal of deterioration due to underground water running through it over the years. For those of you who understand DNA, what effect would the multitude of embalmings done on the so-called mummy have on the DNA?

I believe that there are several newspaper interviews with the undertaker in Enid that state that he continued to embalm the body hoping for someone to claim it. If those pickling juices were anything like what Dr. Lattimer used to describe, I would think the DNA would have been corrupted.

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(04-02-2013 10:10 AM)Houmes Wrote:  

(04-01-2013 04:10 PM)L Verge Wrote:  Thanks, Rich. I guess there is no further "lineage" as to how these folks supposedly came by the locks?

One more point: One of the determinants in Judge Kaplan's decision to deny the exhumation of Booth's body back in the 1990s was the fact that the Booths' grave plot (and several in the area) had been subjected to a great deal of deterioration due to underground water running through it over the years. For those of you who understand DNA, what effect would the multitude of embalmings done on the so-called mummy have on the DNA?

I believe that there are several newspaper interviews with the undertaker in Enid that state that he continued to embalm the body hoping for someone to claim it. If those pickling juices were anything like what Dr. Lattimer used to describe, I would think the DNA would have been corrupted.

Actually, there are protocols now available for collecting DNA from embalmed specimens. It's a complicated process and few DNA labs can perform it. Formaldehyde turns DNA into a tangled mess, but Booth wasn't embalmed. Mere body decomposition, however, can also deteriorate DNA, even before embalming. Dentine, one of the components inside the tooth, can be used to obtain either mitochondrial DNA or regular DNA. The argument of Judge Kaplan regarding exposure of the body to water was probably speculation. Evidence can still be collected after a considerable amount of time depending upon the type of exposure and amount of decompostion. In fairness, the Booth exhumation case was in 1995, with improved techniques available today.