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Category: Highlights

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Highlights

She was left strangled outside. 46 years later, police found a suspect

More than 45 years ago, Kathryn Donohue, a 31-year-old union secretary, went out for dinner in Georgetown with co-workers after work. Early the next morning, on March 3, 1979, a person found her body in a parking lot in Glenarden, Maryland, miles away from where she lived in Arlington, Virginia. According to charging documents, she had been violently raped and strangled.
March 2025
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Broward County Office of Medical Examiner and Trauma Services, FL

Broward County Office of Medical Examiner and Trauma Services helps address the national shortage of medical examiners through ME/C funding

Since being awarded grant funding through the Bureau of Justice Assistance’s (BJA’s) Strengthening the Medical Examiner-Coroner (ME/C) System Program, the Broward County Office of Medical Examiner and Trauma Services (BCOMETS) has successfully trained seven forensic pathology fellows. BCOMETS has one current fellow nearing the completion of their fellowship, with another aspiring forensic pathology fellow set to begin July 1, 2025. Additionally, BCOMETS is concluding interviews for the 2026-2027 academic year, aiming to welcome their ninth forensic pathology fellow that will be funded through their ME/C Program grant.
March 2025
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District One Medical Examiner, FL

Florida’s District One Medical Examiner’s Office set to break ground on new standalone facility, thanks to ME/C funding

Florida’s District One Medical Examiner’s Office utilized funding from the Bureau of Justice Assistance’s (BJA’s) Strengthening the Medical Examiner-Coroner (ME/C) System Program to create the conceptual schematic design and layout for a new facility. This new facility will be the first ever standalone medical examiner’s office in their district’s 50-year history. This new facility will not only allow them to better serve the four counties in their district but will also support the requirements for National Association of Medical Examiner (NAME) accreditation. The District One Medical Examiner Director of Operations said “These ME/C Program funds were an integral piece to push the capital construction project forward. We were able to leverage these grant funds, along with state funding, to get the four counties that we serve to agree to provide the remaining funding necessary for the new facility. Without these ME/C Program funds, the project would not have gotten off the ground and we would be much further back in the process. Construction will begin in March 2025 with an anticipated completion of July 2026. The BJA funding through the ME/C Program made a big difference in our pursuit of a new facility that will meet the requirements for NAME accreditation.”
March 2025
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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
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Highlights

Lehigh County Coroner’s Office achieves National Association of Medical Examiners accreditation through ME/C funding

Through the Bureau of Justice Assistance’s (BJA’s) Strengthening the Medical Examiner-Coroner System (ME/C) Program, Lehigh County Coroner’s Office (LCCO) of Allentown, Pennsylvania improved their professional standards and services by achieving accreditation through the National Association of Medical Examiners (NAME). Obtaining NAME accreditation represents a “seal of approval” from a community consisting of medical examiners, forensic pathologists, and medicolegal partners across the nation.
February 2025
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City of Cape Coral, FL

The City of Cape Coral’s uses Coverdell funds to purchase a full-spectral imaging device to support evidence detection and documentation

The City of Cape Coral, Florida utilized Paul Coverdell Forensic Science Improvement Grants (Coverdell) Program funding to purchase a Crime-lite® AUTO for use in homicide investigations. The use of this full-spectral imaging device specifically assisted a neighboring law enforcement agency in detecting and documenting evidence in a homicide case that involved a stabbing. The imaging device’s infrared capabilities aided in revealing bloodstains on a suspect’s black shirt, which can be extremely difficult to detect, enabling the law enforcement agency’s technician to photograph the bloodstains and collect a sample for DNA analysis.
November 2024
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Highlights

Coverdell funding enables the Maine Office of the Chief Medical Examiner to increase annual death investigations

Using Paul Coverdell Forensic Science Improvement Grants (Coverdell) Program funding, the Maine Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) contracted with board-certified forensic pathologists which enabled the office to investigate a higher percentage of deaths in Maine without increasing fatigue or burnout of the full-time staff. Prior to the grant period, Maine OCME was processing fewer than 2,000 cases annually. By the end of the grant period, Maine OCME was processing over 2,500 cases annually, demonstrating a 25% increase in the number of death investigations conducted by Maine OCME during the grant period.
November 2024
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Central Ohio Regional Crime Laboratory, OH 

Ohio Regional Crime Laboratory utilizes Coverdell funding to support annual analyst training and defray the costs of consumables, standards, and instrument maintenance

The Central Ohio Regional Crime Laboratory (CORCL) operates in conjunction with the Central Ohio Drug Enforcement Task Force under the Licking County Sheriff’s Office. CORCL currently provides controlled substance and forensic analysis casework for seven counties and thirty-four law enforcement agencies located predominantly in southwest Ohio. CORCL currently operates on grant and fee-for-service funding except for personnel salary and benefits, which are covered by the Licking County Sheriff’s Office. CORCL’s Paul Coverdell Forensic Science Improvement Grants (Coverdell) Program is used to support analysts to attend annual trainings that focus on challenges in seized drug analysis and the constantly evolving testing methods and classifications of opioids. Additionally, a portion of CORCL’s Coverdell funding is set aside to defray the costs of consumables, controlled substance standards, and maintain CORCL’s two gas chromatography-mass spectrometry instruments that are used to test opioids and other controlled substances.
November 2024
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Highlights

Marion County Coroner’s Office uses BJA fellowship funding to support the training of a Forensic Pathology Fellow to increase operational capacity

The Marion County Coroner’s Office has a unique fellowship program through their partnership with Indiana University School of Medicine which significantly enhances the education, training, and experience of forensic pathologists. This partnership is being utilized to develop a pipeline of future forensic pathologists by encouraging undergraduate and medical students to consider the area of forensic pathology as they make career decisions. Marion County’s efforts are critical to addressing the national shortage of forensic pathologists by not only focusing on training fellows, but also recruiting students into the field. Furthermore, Marion County Coroner’s Office is the only county in Indiana that has an accredited forensic fellowship program. The Marion County Coroner’s Office was awarded funds through the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) Strengthening the Medical Examiner-Coroner System (ME/C) Program to support the training of a forensic pathology fellow in their office. The office was awarded BJA fellowship funding at the beginning of the COVID pandemic. COVID significantly impacted the case load and the office’s ability to conduct investigations, creating a challenge for the office’s operation. During that time county death investigations increased, and the office lost several critical staff including pathologists and investigators. Internally, the office also faced a lack of funding from the county to keep up with staffing needed to adequately conduct death investigations. The BJA funded fellow performed 250 autopsies, which greatly assisted the staff forensic pathologists with the increased autopsy case load. The fellow graduated the program, became board certified, and now works in a Coroner’s Office in Ohio.
October 2024

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