14-Aug-2017

Indiana killer linked by holster DNA after staged suicide

Tell City, IN

On March 4, 2017, Indiana man David Weedman was found dead in his home. The apparent self-inflicted gunshot death was ruled a homicide. However, tampering presented "an incredible challenge to discover any forensic evidence," said Perry County Chief Deputy Prosecutor Douglas Goerss.

The Indiana State Police crime lab forwarded their mixture DNA data to Cybergenetics. TrueAllele® computing connected DNA from a holster to defendant Randal Coalter. On August 10, Cybergenetics TrueAllele Analyst Jennifer Hornyak testified about the computer's match statistics. The Tell City jury convicted Coalter of murder.

"Only through the use of Cybergenetics TrueAllele Casework was the State of Indiana able to convincingly show the jury that the defendant had in fact left behind his DNA on the holster that contained the murder weapon," CDP Goerss wrote Dr. Perlin. "You and your staff, particularly Ms. Hornyak, have been wonderful and easy to work with. Cybergenetics has a breadth of knowledge on probabilistic genotyping and DNA interpretation which is truly impressive. It was a pleasure to work with all of you on the admissibility hearing and the trial."

• Police dispute suicide claim, arrest Tell City, Indiana man for murder - WDRB
• Randal Coalter Found Guilty in the Murder of David Weedman - 44News
• TrueAllele Admissibility - Cybergenetics