Published November 06, 2014 FAIRFAX, Va. DNA recovered from under the fingernail of a sexual-assault victim in 2005 matches that of the man accused of abducting University of Virginia student Hannah Graham, according to a forensic analysis. The analysis was conducted late last month by the Virginia Department of Forensic Science, according to court records. It compared DNA samples taken from the victim of the September 2005 attack in Fairfax City with samples taken from Jesse L. Matthew Jr. after he was charged with abducting Graham. Graham's remains were found in October after a monthlong search. The report concludes that the odds of an unrelated person matching the DNA profile developed from under the victim's fingernail are higher than 1 in 7.2 billion. Authorities already had announced a forensic link between not only the 2005 attack and Graham's abduction, but also the 2009 disappearance and death of Virginia Tech student Morgan Harrington. But the documents filed in Fairfax provide details on how authorities obtained DNA in the 2005 assault. Dawn Butorac, a Fairfax County public defender appointed to represent Matthew, did not immediately return a call seeking comment Thursday. The court documents were first reported by The Washington Post. Matthew, … Continue reading →

DNA extracted from the skeleton of a man who lived in Russia about 37,000 years ago is giving scientists new insights into the genetic history of Europeans, including interbreeding that took place with Neanderthals around 54,000 years ago. Scientists said on Thursday that they used DNA taken from the man's left tibia to sequence the genome of one of the earliest known Europeans. Genetic analysis of the Kostenki man, named after the western Russian village where his skeleton was first unearthed 60 years ago, enabled a more precise estimate of when Homo sapiens interbred with Neanderthals who had colonized the region thousands of years earlier. It provided evidence of contact earlier than previously known between European hunter-gatherers and people from the Middle East whose descendants developed agriculture. And it showed that by the time the Kostenki man was born, somewhere around 36,200 to 38,700 years ago, the people residing in western Eurasia had already split from the lineage that populated East Asia. The research was published in the journal Science. The fossilized skull of "Kostenki man" dates back to around 36,000 years ago. First published November 6 2014, 5:31 PM Read more: DNA Pinpoints When Humans and Neanderthals Interbred … Continue reading →