The Awesome Closure

So what's the story behind?

This one is a story of deception, betrayal and regret. 

After months of investigations, it all finally boils down to this. 

The widowed Harman Hartono and his son Adi lived together in a run-down neighborhood. Mr Harman was critically ill and was in desperate need of money for his treatment.  

Unable to afford the treatment fees, all kinds of dangerous thoughts were racing through Adi's mind and he ultimately got in contact with some mobsters involved in human trafficking and organ harvesting. They asked Adi if he could bring them any girl around the age of 10 in exchange for his father's treatment fees, paid in full. 

Anya and her twin sister unfortunately happened to be Adi's neighbors and were therefore his easiest preys. He kidnapped the unlucky Anya and held her captive in a warehouse nearby. 

One day Mr Harman followed Adi where he was shell-shocked to find the little girl. Adi, now fearing conviction, did not want to let the little girl go and subsequently got into a fight with his dad.  

While struggling, Adi pushed his dad onto a rock by mistake and chased the girl who was freed byMr.Harman. The latter laid unconscious after his head was injured.

In a state of rage, Adi did not hold back and unknowingly strangled the little girl ….

By the time he realised kidnapping had escalated to two murders, he decided to come  clean. However, bythen, the mobsters were already there and were not going to let that happen.  

They killed Adi, beheaded the three, took away the bodies and buried the remains. Gruesome.
Few months later, some dogs happened to sniff the decayed remains. The rest is history.

Part III: Murder Most Brutal! Q7

Evidences we have collected at the crime scene

Evidence 1 : human skull with large jaw bearing five teeth

Evidence 2 : jaw bearing three back teeth

Evidence 3 : jaw with some teeth still in eruption

The DNA profile showed evidence for a father and son, and DNA profiling pattern that matched one living twin (Tanya Rosilawati).

List of missing person : Herman Hartono and his son, Adi Hartono who lived a few blocks away from here. Also, Anya Suriati and Tanya Rosilawati, a pair of 9-year old twin girls, whose father filed a missing person’s report of Anya four months ago


Before we analyse the evidences, let’s talk about the DNA profiling techniques and also the extraction of DNA from then bones and teeth.

There are 2 DNA profiling techniques. The techniques are Restriction Fragment Polymorphis(RFLP) and Polymerase Chain Reaction(PCR).

• Restriction Fragment Polymorphis

Restriction fragment length polymorphism or RFLP analysis is used to identify a change in the genetic sequence that occurs at a site where a restriction enzyme cuts. It is usually used to trace inheritance patterns, identify specific mutations, and for other molecular genetic techniques.

Figure 1 : Steps for RFLP analysis

•  Polymerase chain reaction

PCR (polymerase chain reaction) analysis is usually the first step in the creation of a DNA profile today. PCR can replicate a small amount of DNA to create a larger sample for analysis. It does this using a repeating process that takes about five minutes.

Steps for PCR analysis :

1. Add a heat-stable DNA polymerase into the DNA sample to bind to the DNA and allows it to replicate.
2. Heat the DNA sample to 200 degrees F (93 degrees C) to separate the threads.
3. Let the sample to cool after heating then reheat it again. This is because reheating will double the number       of copies.
4. Repeat this process about 30 times, so that there is enough DNA

Figure 2 : How PCR works

PCR is the first step in analysing Short Tandem Repeats(STRs- very small, specific alleles in a variable number tandem repeat). Apparently, analysing STRs is more accurate than the RFLP technique because their small size makes them easier to separate. Y-STR is a variation on STR analysis and it is the only STRs found on the Y-chromosome (which only males have) is analysed.

Figure 3 : Y-STR profile

Steps for DNA extraction from ancient teeth and bones.

Figure 4

Now, we shall start analysing our evidences. We will start off with evidence 3, which is a jaw with some teeth still in eruption. Matching the DNA profile and also the list of missing person, we can believe that the victim is Anya Suriati. Firstly, Anya Suriati is 9-year old girl, not all teeth will be erupted at that age, and this point has fulfilled the evidence 3. To double confirm this, DNA extracted from the tooth attached to the jaw(evidence 3) matches with Tanya Rosilawati’s DNA, which is Anya Suriati’s twin. Identical twins have the exact same DNA because they came from the same fertilized egg as shown in Figure 6. Thus, with all these evidence, we can conclude that evidence 3 belongs to Anya Suriati.

Figure 5 : DNA profile of identical twins

 

Figure 6: Fertilisation of one ovum by one sperm resulting in identical twins as shown.

Now there are 2 unidentified evidences left, evidence 1 which is the human skull with a large jaw bearing 5 teeth and also evidence 2 which is a jaw bearing 3 back teeth. Both evidences were from 2 different individuals. According to the DNA profile, it showed evidence of a father and son. To confirm the relationship of a father and son, DNA extracted from both evidence 1 and 2 are compared. The two DNA profile pattern matches half of it or by analysing both their Y-STR(as mentioned above) will confirm their father and son relationship.

Again, by matching the DNA profile with the list of missing person, we can believe that these 2 evidences from 2 different victims were belong to Herman Hartono and his son, Adi Hartono.

We can also conclude that both these jaws are belong to victims 17 years and above because both jaws have their 3rd molar(wisdom tooth) erupted already. We cannot differentiate between the evidences if it belongs to the father or the son unless the DNA of the victim Adi Hartono’s mother is collected also. Whichever tooth(from either evidence 1 or 2) has its DNA profile pattern matches half of the DNA profile pattern of the victim Adi Hartonno’s mother will show that that particular evidence belongs to the son and the other one belongs to the father. This is because the mother and father does not share the same DNA. Refer to Figure 7.

Figure 7 : The DNA profile pattern of child and parents.

Part III: Murder Most Brutal! Q6

Judging by the size of the bones and the number of tooth sockets (8 adult teeth/alveolar processes) per quadrant, the above is part of adult remains. It might be either Herman Hartono or his son Adi. We can observe two mandibular third molars here and an acute angle of the mandible. Since 3^rd molars erupt around the age of 17-25, we can assume the son was at least 17 years of age. Round and large orbits also indicate the above belongs to a male victim.

The teeth above are definitely from an adult dentition. They are the 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd molars.

The third molar is the smallest of the three. The second molar is smaller than the first one and has 5 cusps. The first molar is the largest posterior tooth and has 4 cusps.

The angle of the above mandible indicates a male victim.

The last piece of evidence shows a child’s mandible. It is not clear enough whether the canine is deciduous or permanent. However as Anya Suriati was 9 years old, we could assume it is a permanent canine as the latter erupts around that age. We assume it is Anya Suriati’s as she was the only missing child filed.

An intriguing fact here is that Anya was only reported missing 4 months ago and yet her body has been fully decomposed. As discussed in the previous parts, decomposition depends on various factors.

For example, the temperature, humidity, insects and soil acidity can all speed up decomposition.

Evil Raccoon: