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CNN Live At Daybreak
DNA Expert Discusses Police Search of Gary Condit's Apartment
Aired July 11, 2001 - 08:21 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
COLLEEN MCEDWARDS, CNN ANCHOR: We've been reporting all morning that police searched Congressman Gary Condit's apartment into the early hours of this morning. They spent about 3 1/2 hours there -- no word yet on what was found. But what might they have been looking for, and how do police find the evidence they need in these types of searches?
For more on that, we are joined now by Mark Stolorow. He is with the DNA lab that worked on the O.J. Simpson and the JonBenet Ramsey cases, and joins us this morning.
Mr. Stolorow, thanks for being here.
MARK STOLOROW, CELLMARK DIAGNOSTICS: Thank you for having me.
MCEDWARDS: It has been about 10 weeks since Chandra Levy went missing. So given that space of time, how much evidence could police realistically hope to find in the apartment of Congressman Gary Condit, who, by the way, I should mention, they still say is not a suspect in this case.
STOLOROW: Well, Colleen, it depends on what actually happened in that apartment. If there, in fact, was foul play, and acts of violence occurred, then it is possible that blood spatter, tissue, or other biological material that would be evidence to indicate that more than simply her presence in that apartment, but there had been some type of violence that resulted in her tissue or her blood being spattered inside that apartment.
MCEDWARDS: Wouldn't it realistically, though, have been cleaned up by this point?
STOLOROW: Well, remember that we're going on the assumption that this crime scene crew is capable of detecting signs of violent activity even after attempts had been made to alter, to remove or to clean up that evidence. Blood spatter on a wall or on surfaces can be detected even after strident efforts have been made to try to clean it up.
And investigators will have to determine, on their own, whether there was any attempt to repaint, to recarpet, or to somehow change the surface upon which blood may have spattered. That itself may be indicative that something untoward took place, if, in the two-month or 10-week interval, the entire apartment was redone. MCEDWARDS: And explain what kind of technology police have at their disposal to try to figure this out?
STOLOROW: Well, the techniques are actually quite sensitive. You'll notice that they didn't enter the apartment until well after dark. The purpose is that they have a chemical which is called Luminol, that when sprayed upon a surface in total darkness will actually create a chemical light production. It is a very dim blue appearance that looks something like ultraviolet light or fluorescence. And once your eyes are adjusted to the dark, streaks of wherever the bloodstain existed before will actually appear to investigators in the dark, and it can be photographed in the dark. If a wall was wiped, it will still have traces of blood down in the crevices, where the blood dripped. If it's in carpet or carpet padding, it can be removed and the floor beneath it will show signs. So it really is a remarkably sensitive chemical that can detect dilutions at more than one in a million of blood in water, for example.
MCEDWARDS: What else might they be looking for? Police say they don't believe, at this point, anything criminal is involved here. But is it possible too that they're looking for things in that apartment to corroborate the story about the affair that the congressman has already told them of, to try to take a better look at his credibility in terms of what he has told police?
STOLOROW: Sure, that's always possible. Remember that if she was occupying that apartment for any length of time, they should be able to find traces of her hair, her tissue, and possibly body secretions on bed sheets. There may be toothbrushes. There may be tissue or hair in drain traps. All of those things would indicate, through DNA testing, identification that can be matched with Chandra Levy's own DNA.
We can obtain DNA from Chandra Levy from the residues that she left behind on her toothbrush, envelopes that she may have licked or stamps that were applied to those envelopes, hair clippings that may be found in razors, saliva stains on her pillow case. There are lots of traces of someone's DNA from where they reside, even after they have disappeared.
MCEDWARDS: All of which would suggest she was there, but not necessarily, as police point out, that any crime was committed.
Mark Stolorow, thanks very much for your time this morning.
STOLOROW: My pleasure. Thanks, Colleen.
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