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Author: Yujiemi Chisholm
Accreditation Document Repository

Large Office: Mass Disaster Plan

This policy example pertains to mass disaster planning – including multiple fatalities from a single event and disaster to OCME facility – and addresses standards for NAME General, section “A”. This example is reflective of a large office that performs autopsies in-house.
May 2025
Accreditation Document Repository

Large Office: General Facility and Operations

These documents pertain to organ donation, quality assurance, facility maintenance, employee safety, and general operations and security, and address standards for NAME General, section “A” and IACME Agency Practices, section “A”. These examples are reflective of a large office that performs autopsies in-house.
May 2025
Forensics TTA

2025 Forensics TTA Calendar of National Events

The Forensics TTA calendar of events provides a centralized view of national conferences, trainings, and other events of interest to BJA Forensics Program grantees. This calendar is a downloadable resource designed to assist grantees with effective planning of event attendance when supported by BJA Forensics Program funding. Event entries are color coded by event type – conferences, trainings, and other (e.g., meetings, convenings). Clicking on a color-coded event entry produces a pop-up box which provides information including its name, date(s), and location along with a direct link to the event’s main page for additional details such as the agenda and registration, travel, and lodging information. Questions about applying or utilizing BJA funding to attend any events presented on this calendar should be directed to your assigned BJA Policy and Programs Office representatives. Explore the calendar today and contact the Forensics TTA team via ForensicsTTA@rti.org with any questions or suggestions for ensuring this resource best fits your needs!
May 2025
Forensics TTA

FY2024 Grantee Orientation Webinar – Missing and Unidentified Human Remains (MUHR) Program

This webinar features the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) introducing the Missing and Unidentified Human Remains (MUHR) Program grantees to the overall BJA team that works collectively to administer their award funds including the BJA Policy Office and BJA Programs Office. This webinar provides useful training and information on how to accept awards; how to submit progress reports and Grant Award Modifications; and provides other information/best practices to support the award management and grant monitoring activities of this project. This webinar also introduces the Forensics TTA team and how this TTA program aims to support MUHR grantees.
March 2025
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Highlights

Advanced DNA testing brings justice in 1997 Tampa homicide after nearly three decades

Nearly 30 years after a brutal homicide shattered the life of a Tampa family, the case has been solved through persistence, advanced forensic science, and strategic investment in cold case resources. On February 1, 1997, Stephen Edenfield was found stabbed and beaten inside his home, with evidence of a violent struggle. Despite extensive investigative efforts at the time, no suspect was identified, and the case went cold. In 2022, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office Cold Case Unit reopened the investigation, leveraging cutting‑edge DNA analysis supported by Bureau of Justice Assistance’s Prosecuting Cold Cases Using DNA (COLD) Program funding, as well as partnerships with Othram Labs and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Advanced testing generated a previously unknown DNA profile, which was later linked to an unsolved 2005 sexual assault case in Illinois—creating a critical investigative breakthrough. In February 2025, investigators arrested Brandon Gliha, who was living in Tampa, on an unrelated out‑of‑state warrant. During a subsequent interview with cold case investigators, Gliha confessed to Edenfield’s murder. Following consultation with the State Attorney’s Office, he was charged with first‑degree murder and robbery with a deadly weapon. This case demonstrates the transformative power of modern forensic DNA technology when paired with sustained commitment and strategic funding. By reopening long‑dormant cases and applying advanced investigative tools, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office delivered long‑awaited answers and accountability—reinforcing that even decades‑old cases can be solved, and that justice has no expiration date.
February 2025
Grey-filled circle with a justice scale icon inside
Highlights

Maui man walks free after 30 years behind bars, with help of Hawaiʻi Innocence Project

Gordon Cordeiro had been serving a term of life in prison without parole for charges stemming from an apparent drug deal robbery gone bad. Court records show that on August 11, 1994, Timmy Blaisdell, 20, of Kula was shot and killed, and his body was left at the bottom of a ravine. The petition filed by the defense claimed that the sole suspect, Michael Freitas, became the state’s star witness when he implicated Cordeiro as a means to protect himself.

“After the first trial ended in a hung jury, with 11 out of the 12 jurors [who] believed Cordeiro to be innocent, the State chose to rely on four additional…witnesses, who were all jailhouse informants,” the petition stated.

Prosecutors disagreed with the ruling. The prosecution alleged that Gordon robbed the victim by sticking his hands in the victim’s pockets and pulling out $800. The defense presented evidence that Gordon’s DNA was not in the pockets, but someone else’s DNA was. The judge determined that the new evidence surrounding DNA and lack of physical evidence linking Gordon to the scene, had a probability of changing the result if it proceeded to another trial.

Now at the age of 51, Gordon’s long-awaited homecoming has finally arrived. On February 21, 2025, Gordon was exonerated through the dedicated efforts of the Hawai’i Innocence Project supported in part by a Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) Postconviction Testing of DNA Evidence (Postconviction) Program grant. Gordon called it “Freedom Friday” as he answered questions from media about his thoughts getting back to a world and community that is much different than what he knew in his 20s.

February 2025
Legal Document Repository

Order on Defendant’s Motion to Suppress Re: Genetic Information (State of Idaho v. Bryan Kohberger)

Order on the defense’s motion to suppress genetic information in an Idaho quadruple homicide case that occurred in 2022. The trial court denied the defense’s motions to suppress citing no reasonable expectation of privacy in abandoned property and shared common DNA segments of a relative who uploaded their DNA into a commercial database available to consumers.
February 2025