Page 18 - Touch Dna News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Tell us that he did know what it was like to lose a child. he came out of retirement and took the job as head of the kauai police department after the sudden death of his 26-year-old son, erickson. >> i feel in a way that i'm working through him. that he motivates me. i believe that things happen for a reason. and in fact, i told larry this. i told him, there's a reason why we met. i don't know what the reasons are. but i'm here for you. >> so after meeting with larry, chief perry sent sandra's file to a couple of friends in honolulu -- investigators with the state attorney general's cold case...

Larry mendonca the help he was pleading for. touch dna. microscopic skin cells on sandra's shirt and bra, that was a match to darren. when that result came in, tell me what your first thoughts were? >> we got him. >> but larry was wary. >> it isn't over yet. >> because what seemed like great evidence to the cops did not to the newly elected prosecuting attorney shaylene iseri, for one simple reason. the dna did not exclusively match darren. >> it could have come from the two children. >> larry, though, refused to be discouraged. >> the driving force is to get this case solved, and put my daugh...

That led to her death. the dna could have evidence of the type of kill, even though you would exclude traditional touch dna between the two. >> i mean, isn't it just such a twisted truth that, you know, a defense attorney could say, well, you know, they did have that fight. that was on tape, and you know that they did fight and they were scratching each other, and maybe that's how the dna got under her finger nails. it's like because there was domestic violence in the past that could be used as an exoneration somehow. >> strangely, alisyn, you're right. they're going to be able to say, again, ...

In dna because dna of -- foreign dna on her, meaning not her own dna, can be critically important, and there are things called defensive strikes, defensive wounds, and they look under the nails to see if there is any foreign dna. now, she was with brian laundrie, and he obviously has not been charged with anything in regard to her death, but she was with him night and day, so it will make it difficult, but there's also aspects of touch dna that they've used in various cases that is very, very specific, but if there is anything -- if there was -- we don't know the condition of her neck, right? ...

Have to believe that you could say, oh, shoes, i've got to put these on top of the vehicle. charles, it doesn't make any sense. doesn't make any sense. >> no, no, no. see, here's the thing, i'm wiping the shoes off, and i see one little leg or something hanging out the passenger side. i go to investigate to see if there's anyone else in the back of the vehicle. and when i leaned in to look, i put the shoes on top. i don't even remember doing it. >> doesn't remember doing it and he says doesn't know why. >> i wasn't thinking about why i did that, but i was cognizant and really thinking about th...