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Guyana looking to Interpol for DNA testing support – Crime Chief
Crime Chief, Paul Williams
Guyana could soon be gaining DNA testing support from Interpol. This is according to Crime Chief, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Paul Williams, who disclosed during a Press Conference yesterday that he has personally solicited support in this regard.
A move in this direction was warranted, Williams said, since “we still need to embark upon overseas assistance out of Brazil, the US and so on.”
He revealed that last month during his attendance at an Interpol Conference in Argentina, he decided to express Guyana’s interest to gain the much needed support.
“During our discussions that is one of the things that I raised in terms of DNA assistance and they said that would be possible,” Williams shared.
In this regard, he added, “We will embark on that avenue now through Interpol to see what assistance we can have as it relates to DNA and how fast that can be done to help us solve some matters. Indeed when I went to the CID, I learnt that there are still some matters that are pending, waiting DNA results.”
However, Williams’s remarks comes a mere few months after this publication was told with assurance that with a matter of months Guyana’s DNA capabilities will be efficient. It was Director of the Guyana Forensic Laboratory, Mr. Delon France, assured during an interview in February that within four months’ this should become a reality.
According to France, “We have already got approval from the Government and the Inter-America Development Bank (and) a supplier (for the equipment) has already identified. We are at the final stage, where the documents have been signed for the equipment to be supplied to do DNA testing.”
Mr. France estimates that Guyana will have DNA testing capability by June. Training of staff will also be completed by then. The equipment will have the capacity to conduct test on eight samples at a time.
DNA evidence was first collected here and sent overseas in 1993 for the still-unsolved Monica Reece case. DNA samples tested overseas also helped to confirm the identity of Babita Sarjou, whose skeletal remains were found behind her husband’s Lot 51, Seaforth Street residence in May 2016.
Similar samples sent to an overseas lab also helped confirm the identity of secondary school teacher, Nyozi Goodman, whose remains were found at Pattensen, Turkeyen, in 2016.
But the prohibitive cost, and the lengthy time that they have often had to wait for results, has always presented a challenge to investigators.
It costs Guyana an estimated $1.75M to have just one DNA sample transported and tested overseas.
“This includes air fare; someone has to take the samples and also bring them back,” France said.
He estimates that it will cost an estimated US$400,000 to have Guyana’s DNA unit set up. But he predicts that “it would be cheaper in the long run,” for the tests to be done locally.
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