Authorities are looking into whether an apparent breakdown in the collecting and testing of DNA evidence by the state may have allowed an ex-convict to remain free and sexually assault a 14-year-old boy whose body was found in Lincoln Park in August.
Results from a DNA test that linked the man to the sexual assault of a Berwyn teen were not returned to Chicago police for a year and a half, authorities said.
In that time, the body of Michael Williams was found in Lincoln Park. DNA evidence gathered from the body was linked to the ex-convict, Shawn Thigpen, prosecutors said.
The delays in collecting, recording and comparing the genetic evidence offer a case study of the potential stakes when there is a backlog of DNA samples. The Tribune reported in 2003 that DNA evidence collected in more than 1,000 sexual assaults was not being tested, and last year reported delays in the testing were leaving prosecutors without valuable evidence needed to decide on filing criminal charges in Chicago.
In July, Gov. Rod Blagojevich issued a statement saying “the Illinois State Police has officially eliminated the DNA case backlog–DNA cases awaiting analysis in the laboratory more than 30 days.”
But the Thigpen case raises new questions about how much DNA evidence has not been entered into the database.
A complicated timeline in the Thigpen case begins with the 28-year-old’s parole from state prison in February 2004, authorities said. His DNA should have been collected and immediately processed into state and national DNA databases, but that apparently did not occur, said Chicago police spokesman David Bayless.
A police inquiry so far has shown that it took a full year to record Thigpen’s DNA in the state system, Bayless said.
In March 2004, Chicago police forwarded to the Illinois State Police Forensic Science Center a DNA sample taken from the Berwyn teenager.
Records reviewed by the Tribune show the state crime lab received the sample for testing on March 22, 2004.
When the results came back 17 months later, they pointed to Thigpen, but by then, Williams’ body had been found in Lincoln Park. The boy, who had been reported missing by his family a few days before, had been sexually assaulted and suffocated.
Thigpen was preliminarily linked to the Lincoln Park assault on Sept. 14. and was arrested within days.
Police cannot say why Thigpen’s original sample taken upon his release from prison was never matched with the sample taken from the Berwyn boy.
“We will work with the crime lab and the Illinois Department of Corrections to determine why there wasn’t a match of these two samples which apparently were in the system,” Bayless said.
Lincoln Hampton, spokesman for the Illinois State Police and the crime lab, said there was no quick way to determine what happened on either end of the Thigpen case.
“We’re going to have to review it,” Hampton said.
Hampton said the sample in the Berwyn case was outsourced for testing by a private company in 2004, but he could not say for certain Thursday which company, nor why it apparently wasn’t tested.
Abby Ottenhoff, a spokeswoman for the governor, said Thursday the governor’s office was unaware of specific problems in the Thigpen case, but issues regarding the backlog have been a concern to Blagojevich. The governor has helped secure funding in the last two budgets to whittle away at the backlog, Ottenhoff said.
“This continues to be something we are focused on,” Ottenhoff said.
Blagojevich wants evidence processed as quickly as possible so it can be a crime-solving tool.
“When that doesn’t happen, it’s a cause for concern,” she said.
Ottenhoff also noted that the state also is in the midst of retesting samples from Bode Technology in Virginia. The state canceled its contract with Bode in August after errors were found among the 1,200 cases Bode had handled.
Cook County prosecutors have long complained that delays in testing at the crime lab limit the ability to use DNA evidence as a tool to determine who might have committed a crime before charges are filed. If DNA evidence collected in all serious cases were tested immediately as a matter of course, they have said, it could be used to determine whether the right person is being blamed.
In Thigpen’s case, investigators said prompt DNA testing linking him to the assault of the Berwyn teen presumably would have prevented Thigpen’s contact with Williams. Thigpen was back in state prison as a parole violator Thursday.
Thigpen has been charged only with assaulting Williams, and not with killing him. He remains the focus of a murder investigation, sources close to the case said this week.
Williams’ father, Michael Williams Sr., said Thursday he was aware of the scenario surrounding the DNA testing in Thigpen’s cases but did not immediately comment.
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jcoen@tribune.com
