Question

The Case of the Bloody Knife Late one April night, government agents received an anonymous tip that the National Art Museum was about to be robbed of a priceless jewel collection. When they arrived at the museum, they way they were too late: the jewels were gone. Lying facedown on the floor next to the empty jewel case was the body of a man the chief inspector recognized as the international jewel thief Henrich Milhouse. Milhouse had been shot in the chest at close range; his clothes were saturated with blood. Underneath the body, the inspectors found a blood knife. At the airport the next day, police apprehended Englewood Smink, the murdered thief's occasional partner in crime. Smink denied all knowledge of the murder and the theft. When asked about the fresh cut on his hand, Smink said he had had an accident in the kitchen that morning. Suspicious, the chief inspector ordered DNA tests on the victim, the blood on the victim's clothes, the blood on the end of the knife found under the victim, and Smink. Police laboratory technicians used the polymerase chain reaction to look at two different chromosome regions that contain a variable number tandem repeat. They used one set of primers for each region. The chromosome regions, primers, and results of the tests are shown below. What is your interpretation of the data? State your reasons. Should Smink be released? Should other tests be performed? Figure 27.1 Results of polymerase chain reaction analysis. Fragment size, bp Milhouse Smink Clothes Knife 100 100 80 80 70 70 60 60 50 50 40 40 30 30 20 20

The Case of the Bloody Knife
Late one April night, government agents received an anonymous tip that the National Art Museum was about to
be robbed of a priceless jewel collection. When they arrived at the museum, they way they were too late: the
jewels were gone. Lying facedown on the floor next to the empty jewel case was the body of a man the chief
inspector recognized as the international jewel thief Henrich Milhouse. Milhouse had been shot in the chest at
close range; his clothes were saturated with blood. Underneath the body, the inspectors found a blood knife.
At the airport the next day, police apprehended Englewood Smink, the murdered thief's occasional partner in
crime. Smink denied all knowledge of the murder and the theft. When asked about the fresh cut on his hand,
Smink said he had had an accident in the kitchen that morning.
Suspicious, the chief inspector ordered DNA tests on the victim, the blood on the victim's clothes, the blood on
the end of the knife found under the victim, and Smink. Police laboratory technicians used the polymerase chain
reaction to look at two different chromosome regions that contain a variable number tandem repeat. They used
one set of primers for each region. The chromosome regions, primers, and results of the tests are shown below.
What is your interpretation of the data? State your reasons. Should Smink be released? Should other tests be
performed?
Figure 27.1 Results of polymerase chain reaction analysis.
Fragment
size, bp
Milhouse
Smink
Clothes
Knife
100
100
80
80
70
70
60
60
50
50
40
40
30
30
20
20

Added by Susan S.

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