Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v James Yeckel, Jr.
Deranged son kills parents
| Crime | On September 8, 2011, Mr. and Mrs. James Yeckel were shot in their West Deer, PA home. Their son James Yeckel, Jr. was suspected of slaying his parents. |
| Evidence | Four shotgun shells were found on their kitchen floor. |
| DNA | The Bode Technologies crime lab in Virginia developed DNA mixture data from the evidence items. |
| Match | The lab's manual interpretation methods could not yield a match statistic from the data. The family relationship between parents and child complicated the genetic analysis. |
| TrueAllele | The computer separated the father and son's genetic types, and found a match statistic between a shotgun shell and James Yeckel of 6.13 trillion. |
| Cybergenetics | On April 13, 2012, Dr. Mark Perlin testified at a preliminary hearing in Pittsburgh about the computer's DNA match statistic. |
| Outcome | James Yeckel, Jr. pleaded guilty to third degree murder. He was sentenced to 25 to 50 years in prison. |
Media
- Police searching for murder victims' son Television
- Man charged in slayings of parents after DNA tests Newspaper
- New DNA technique aids arrest in West Deer slayings Newspaper
- Man accused in connection with parents' death held for trial Television
- West Deer man gets 25 to 50 years for killing parents Television