Part 21 (1/2)
There was a long, long pause. Then, ”I want you to pull that molar and one or two others.”
”Why?”
”For DNA testing. I also want you to cut femoral segments. Is that a problem?”
”If Ferris and Lerner are right, these bones are almost two thousand years old.”
”It's possible to extract mitochondrial DNA from old bone, right?”
”It's possible. But then what? Forensic a.n.a.lysis is based on comparison, either to the victim's own DNA, or to that of a family member. If mtDNA could could be extracted and amplified, to what would you compare it?” be extracted and amplified, to what would you compare it?”
Long Jake pause. Then, ”New finds are unearthed every day. You never know what will turn up, or what will be relevant down the road. And I've got grant money specifically earmarked for this type of thing. What about race?”
”What about it?”
”Wasn't there a recent case where profilers said the perp was white and some lab predicted, correctly, that the guy was black?”
”You're thinking of the Derrick Todd Lee case in Baton Rouge. That test relies on nuclear DNA.”
”Can't nuclear DNA be extracted from ancient bone?”
”Some claim to have done it. There's a growing field of study on aDNA.”
”aDNA?”
”Ancient DNA. Folks at Cambridge and Oxford are working on getting nuclear DNA from archaeological material. Here in Canada, there's an inst.i.tute called the Paleo-DNA Laboratory in Thunder Bay.”
I remembered a recent article in The American Journal of Human Genetics. The American Journal of Human Genetics.
”A French group reported on nuclear and mitochondrial DNA from skeletons dug from a two-thousand-year-old necropolis in Mongolia. But Jake, even if you could get nuclear DNA, racial prediction is very limited.”
”How limited?”
”There's a Florida company that offers a test that translates genetic markers into a prediction of likely racial mix. They claim they can predict the percentage present of Indo-European, Native American, East Asian, and sub-Saharan-African ancestry.”
”That's it?”
”For now.”
”Not much help with the bones of an ancient Palestinian.”
”No,” I agreed.
I listened to another of Jake's pauses.
”But either mito or nuclear DNA a.n.a.lysis might show whether that odd molar belonged to a different individual.”
”It's a long shot.”
”But it might.”
”It might,” I conceded.
”Who does these tests?”
I told him.
”Visit your dentist, see what he says about the odd tooth. Then take samples. And cut enough bone for radiocarbon a.n.a.lysis, too.”
”The coroner's not going to foot the bill,” I said.
”I'll use my grant money.”
I was zipping my parka when Ryan came through the door.
What he told me sent my thoughts winging a one-eighty.
14.
”MIRIAM F FERRIS IS RELATED TO H HERSHEL K KAPLAN?”
”Affinal tie.”
”Affinal.” I was having trouble wrapping my mind around Ryan's statement.
”It's a kins.h.i.+p term. Means linked by marriage.” Ryan gave his most boyish smile. ”I use it in tribute to your anthropological past.”
I sketched a mental diagram of what he'd just said. ”Miriam Ferris was married to Hershel Kaplan's wife's brother?”
”Former wife.”
”But Miriam denied knowing Kaplan,” I said.
”We asked about Kessler.”
”One of Kaplan's known aliases.”
”Confusing, isn't it?”
”If Kaplan was family, Miriam would have known him.”
”Presumably,” Ryan agreed.
”She'd have recognized him at the autopsy.”
”If she'd seen him.”