COMING TO AMERICA: BRITISH DNA EXPERT CHOSE CAPE FOR THE CHALLENGE

DNA expert Imtiaz Hussain could have gone almost anywhere in the world to fight crime, but he chose Cape Girardeau.

He likes small towns.

"I really didn't want to move to a big city again, with all the crime," said Hussain, who started work at the Southeast Missouri Crime Lab earlier this month. "Here, it's small enough. And people are very friendly."

Pakistan-born Hussain didn't mind his life among the million or so residents in the English city of Birmingham. But he wanted more challenges than his work at the British Forensic Science Service could offer.

After being among 400 original employees that helped start Britain's criminal DNA database five years ago, Hussain said, he has become an expert in one narrow field of DNA analysis in an organizations that now numbers over 2,000.

But Hussain wanted more out of life. He started looking on the Internet, and found the SEMO Crime Lab.

Hussain was attracted by the idea of broadening his work with DNA, and the possibility of helping with the design of the crime lab's new 7,500-square-foot facility.

As he spoke with crime lab director Dr. Robert Briner by phone last summer, Hussain said he was warned about culture shock before he came to visit.

"I had moved from Pakistan to Britain when I was 6 years old, so I didn't understand what he meant," Hussain said.

When Briner gave him his first look at the unassuming two-story house that has been the crime lab for 30 years, Hussain said he understood culture shock.

"When we drove up, for one minute I thought he was joking," Hussain said.

But after a week's visit, he decided to come to Cape Girardeau.

"I looked at coming here as a challenge," he said.

Different DNA laws in Britain

The availability of DNA for use as evidence in crimes is much more challenging in the United States than Britain. Over 700,000 DNA records have been catalogued in Britain. Anyone charged with what would be considered a felony here must give police a DNA sample, Hussain said.

When British police believe a crime suspect lives in a certain neighborhood, they can go door to door requesting DNA samples. Although responses are voluntary, refusals can also be a source of evidence for police, Hussain said.

In the United States, requirements for DNA records vary from state to state, said Paul Bresson, an FBI spokesman. A person must be convicted of a crime to have a DNA sample taken, and only murderers, rapists and sex offenders must give samples in all 50 states.

But only 30 states have linked their DNA data bases with the FBI's National DNA Index System, Bresson said. This limits the ability to search for criminals in other states.

DNA data bases in both countries are able to search for matches between suspects and evidence samples gathered at the scenes of unsolved crimes, Hussain said.

When evidence and suspect data are combined, it's possible for forensic psychologists to use the information to create a profile of a criminal.

Hussain recalled the rape of a 90-year-old woman. Through DNA and other information, police were able to surmise that a man in his mid-20s who lived close to the woman. That he preferred to keep to himself was the suspect's likely profile. After requesting DNA samples from neighbors, Hussain was able to help police identify a man ultimately held responsible for a series of rapes over four years, he said.

Limits to the technology

DNA does have limitations in identifying criminals. Even though it will determine whether a person has been at a particular location, it cannot say when the person was there, Hussain said.

"You can't look at DNA in isolation," he said. "There has to be some other corroborative evidence."

Almost anything with someone's bodily fluids can provide a DNA sample, Hussain said. Once he was able to help catch a burglar from a half-eaten tomato left at a house.

A certain amount of cellular material is left behind whenever someone takes a bite, he said.

Police have given Hussain a variety of evidence to check for DNA half-eaten chicken legs, cigarette butts, car bumpers. Once, when his laboratory still accepted evidence by mail, Hussain got snow.

"It was a mid-winter burglary, and there had been some fresh snow," he said. "A burglar had cut himself on the window. So the officer picked up some snow, put it in a plastic bag, and marked it 'blood stained snow.' By the time it got to me, there was a little bit of water left."