15-Nov-2023

TrueAllele helps find justice for murdered Air Force veteran

This November, the 11th was Veterans Day, and the 15th was National Philanthropy Day. In honor of these holidays, Cybergenetics would like to help veterans – free of charge – in victim remains and other DNA identification cases. Please contact Cybergenetics to see how we can help.

Cybergenetics solves veteran cases using TrueAllele technology. In one 2020 case, Air Force veteran Dennis Fink, 76, was murdered at home in a robbery gone wrong. His body was found in the woods, stabbed multiple times. Police collected knives from a stolen vehicle. Although the Pennsylvania State Police Crime Laboratory could process the knife DNA, they could not interpret their challenging data.

But TrueAllele was able to unravel the DNA data. The computer connected one knife to suspect Raphael Perez-Rodriguez (with a 16.3 billion match statistic). And linked another knife to the victim (at a 2.78 thousand statistic). In 2022, Cybergenetics analyst Jennifer Bracamontes testified at trial about the TrueAllele results. The Berks County jury found the defendant guilty of first-degree murder. Perez-Rodriguez was sentenced to life in prison, plus another 6-25 years.