Backlog at state crime lab delaying Truro slay case

By Ellen Barry, Globe Staff, 4/20/2002

early four months after Christa Worthington was found stabbed to death in her Truro kitchen, the cash-strapped state crime laboratory has not completed DNA testing on evidence that should have taken place "within a week" of her death and could aid the investigation, said Michael O'Keefe, first assistant district attorney for the Cape and islands.

In New York and Truro, friends of Worthington's have become so frustrated with bureaucratic delays that they have begun to raise funds privately to speed the genetic testing.

Since the investigation began Jan. 7, the mystery of the writer's death has been reported in news outlets worldwide, but police have made no arrests and identified no suspects.

"I still don't understand why nothing has been done" about the delay, said Melik Kaylan, a New York writer who befriended Worthington when she was a student in London 20 years ago. "If the law enforcement people want to be embarrassed, they can sit on their hands and continue to be ineffectual."

To law enforcement authorities, the slow pace of state crime laboratory testing is "an absurdity," but certainly no surprise, said O'Keefe. For the last several years, DNA testing capabilities have been so limited that each of the state's district attorneys can submit only one case a month.

A new report commissioned by Public Safety Secretary James Jajuga describes a system in such dire need that "the Commonwealth is at great risk until the needed improvements are affected in that office."

O'Keefe would not detail the evidence gathered from the scene of Worthington's death, but said sample testing has been "partially done" after his personal intervention.

Carl Salavka, director of the state crime laboratory, was not available for comment yesterday. In the past, he has explained that the laboratory was forced to ration forensic services while it worked toward scientific accreditation for DNA testing.

"Many weeks ago, I went up and met with the director of the crime lab, with every chemist who's got a piece of this case, and by twisting arms and holding hands, we worked out a protocol that's better than the normal protocol," O'Keefe said. "But that is still inadequate. The investigation proceeds with one arm tied behind its back."

In Truro, where Worthington's friends, lovers, and family still brush past each other in stores and coffee shops, the long wait for an arrest has heightened the atmosphere of rumor and distrust.

One ex-lover, Tony Jackett, is publicly fighting for custody of the child he fathered during an extramarital affair, while another, Timothy Arnold, lives quietly a few miles away.

Both men say they have been privately assured that they are no longer suspects, but police say they have not ruled any suspects in or out.

One out-of-town friend, who has assisted investigators in the case, said Worthington's friends were balancing their trust in the police against mounting anger at the bureaucratic delays.

"I assume the tests will tell you what was under her fingernails. I assume there was a struggle and Christa would have defended herself," said the friend, who requested anonymity. "We know they've taken many DNA samples and they're sitting in plastic bags and the killer is still out there."

O'Keefe said he applauds Worthington's friends for seeking to contribute private funds, but said the offer was impractical.

"Once a case is submitted to a laboratory, it's very unusual for it to be given to some private lab," he said. "I don't want to make the Worthington case a poster child for this issue. It's a systemic problem."

Essex District Attorney Kevin Burke said that in many high-profile cases, prosecutors opt to send DNA trace samples to private laboratories rather than risk the wait at the state laboratory.

Burke said he has refused overtures by desperate families offering to supplement forensic services with their own money.

"I can only say to them that while it may not help their case, raising their voice may save pain for future victims," Burke said. "We're not in a position to offer the necessary forensic services. For that they're owed an apology from everyone involved in the system."

A report released last week recommended that the state medical examiner's office budget be increased from its present level of $3.64 million to $13 million. The gravest shortfalls, according to the report, result in full autopsies being administered in only 25 percent of cases and DNA testing being rationed to one case per district attorney per month.

"I don't think there's any question in anybody's mind that there are criminals we could identify but for" inadequate forensic testing services, said Burke.

For Worthington's friends, that revelation has dawned slowly.

"We are hearing as they do their investigation that a lot of them are working on their own time, pro bono," said the out-of-town friend. "If this is really true, this is outrageous. It's true, this is a murder, but we're not a number. Christa wasn't a number."