Thursday, 4:30 PM
DA offers to return DNA
By David Abel, Globe Staff
Last year, 120 people in Truro voluntarily gave local authorities swabs of their saliva.
Now, the district attorney says they can have them back.
Authorities collected the DNA samples between January and March 2005 to find a suspect in the rape and murder of 46-year-old fashion writer Christa Worthington. But the envelopes containing the cotton swabs were never opened. That April, authorities found a match in a previous collection of 45 DNA samples. Last week, a jury convicted Christopher M. McCowen, a trash collector whose DNA matched samples found at the crime scene, of killing Worthington.
Authorities said they no longer need the DNA samples, so they are offering to give them back. The swabs that came from people who do not request their samples back by Dec. 20 will be destroyed in an incinerator, officials said.
"We want to follow through with what we indicated that we would do -- that is, return the samples that are unrelated to the case," said Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael O’Keefe. "We’re very grateful that so many people so readily cooperated."
