CSI: Litterbox? Cat Fur Moves Forensic Investigations Forward

Analytical tools and technologies developed to help law enforcement agencies put the right people behind bars continue to move forward, and in some rather surprising ways. We reported last year of how a leech that was preserved in an evidence locker provided linchpin evidence for the successful conviction of an assault that took place several years earlier. Discovery News now reports of a concerted effort to expand crime-fighting tools to include something that seems like the love child of CSI and Cute Overload: a cat fur database.

With the ubiquity of cats as house pets, each of which invariably sheds countless hairs which will cling to the clothing of passersby like tiny little fur magnets, the genetic analysis of cat fur is developing into a valuable if surprising investigation technique. Writing for Discovery.com, Jennifer Viegas reports that a murder trial in Canada ended in a conviction by way of a few white cat hairs that were scientifically matched to one Snowball, resident house cat at the scene of the crime.

University of California, Davis researchers are hard at work developing a database of mitochondrial DNA of cats. Through efforts soon to be published in the journal Forensic Science International: Genetics, Robert Grahn and colleagues have collected DNA from several hundred cats from dozens of distinct breeds. The developing database holds nearly 1,400 unique feline genetic sequences of potential use for crime investigations.

National Institute of Standards and Technology researcher John Butler tells Discovery that the new tool offers a powerful if unexpected aid to forensic investigation:

"An assailant may unknowingly carry clinging cat hairs from a victim's cat away from the scene of a crime, or hair from the perpetrator's cat may be left at the scene. Either scenario may provide a crucial link and help solve an important case."

Our feline companions may spend a lot of their time basking in the spot of sunlight on the floor, but it appears that mice aren't the only critters that Tabby is able to catch.

Photo by Jorge Barrios via Wikimedia Commons.