Karen Lowe testimony (forensic investigator)

[Chiquita71]

Jose is saying the witness let the evidence become corrupt. He is saying she did not take the proper steps to get the samples in a good way. Jose is saying that what she did could cause other hairs to get on her and if it is something they consider.

Jose is saying that if that can happen then isn't that what happened here?

 

[mombomb]

Cross exam of FBI analyst Karen Lowe by JB - continued

On the topic of reinforcing meaning of hair banding - she doesn't believe they will ever be able to say specifically that hair banding comes from a dead body - just consistent with.

Part of her job is to determine what other tests should be done on a hair.

At the time she examined the hair she made the determination that the hair was similar to the hair in the hairbrush of Caylee - not to the conclusion of all others.

Caylee was still missing at the time of her examination. The hair was found in a common environment where there could be other hairs. Nuclear DNA could be done if tissue is present. Was this hair sent to nuclear DNA to determine if it was Caylee's. No - no tissue present. She agreed she is not a DNA analyst. It is part of her job to determine if an associated hair might go to nuclear or mitochondrial DNA. She might ask for a conference with a DNA analyst to make that determination and extract the DNA if it could be obtained.

The hair either belonged to Caylee, ICA, CA or Cindy's mom - any maternal relative.

Finding hairs in the trunk of a vehicle is not uncommon. Average person looses 100 head hairs every day, majority during grooming. You may have hair on your clothing.

Transferred hair is one person's hair on another and then if that hair is put somewhere else, that is secondary transfer.

She couldn't say if this hair got there by primary or secondary.

Cross examination concluded.

 

[mombomb]

Redirect exam of Karen Lowe by JB:

A hair can not be said to be to the exclusion of all others.

This hair may not have been forceably removed, but it was not naturally shed. It did not have the club shaped root.

She looked at a lot of hairs in this case and found one with the characteristics consistent with decomposition. This hair could have been from Caylee or anyone maternally related. The combination of microscopic and mitochondrial analysis is helpful in elimination. ICA's sample was microscopically different from Caylee. She might not be able to distinguish it from a maternal sample with the same characteristics. C-12 was not chemically treated and was brown in color. The hair in Caylee's hairbrush - she didn't know if it was naturally shed. The one in the brush did not have the root banding.

The Q-12 hair, assuming the one in the brush and the Q-12 hair were Caylee's, whatever happened in the root banding hair was not natural to her hair.

Recross by JB.

A pulled hair is more likely to contain tissue which would assist in nuclear DNA.

She did not know how long the hair had been there or the history of ICA's hair treatments. She just knows the history of the hair in the samples.

Hair has characteristics of coming from a dead body, but she can't say absolutely.

Witness excused.

 

[Chiquita71]

JA: longstanding FBI policy?

yes, as far back as the 70s...(he, he...I am old...as far back as the seventies...

JA: so this is something you all have been doing for years.

correct

JA: the hair with the decomp, did you say that was an andogyn hair?

it is not a telogyn hair

JA: naturally shed...this one was not naturally shed?

correct

JA: you looked at a lot of hairs and you found one to sum this up.

correct

JA: everybody has the same mitochrondrial hair?

anyone who is maternally related

JA: the combo of the micro scopic and mitochondrial both help to identify

yes

JA: was the hair treated in any way

no

JA: the hair from the brush, Caylee's was that a naturally shed hair?

I have to look at my notes, it is not listed in my notes.

JA: did it have the root banding?

it did not

JA: assuming that is her hair

? she agreed but said...?

JA: the hair in the Q12 hair is Caylees and the hair brush what happened to Caylee's hair is not natural?

correct

JB: a pulled hair is more likely to have tissue

potentially

JB: you said this is pulled hair so it is more likely it had tissue.

objection
sustained

Here we go, if this thing happens then it must have happened here, right?


and you can't say, and you don't know and at the end of the day you can't say it came from a dead body...

HHJP: may the witness be excused.

IMHO: HHJP does NOT like how the defense USED the law this morning.