Chez Chesler

As I blogged in early January, Truro, Massachusetts police asked all local men to volunteer saliva samples hoping to find out who killed, or left semen in, Christa Worthington three years ago. A suspect has now been identified on the basis of DNA. But that sweep, the Truro-wide DNA collection didn't do any good. Suspect Christopher McCowen had offered his DNA to the police three months after the slaying, and his DNA was actually collected in March, 2004, 9 months before the condemned Truro-wide sweep. McCowen had a criminal background and was within Worthington's orbit. Neither was he a Truro resident. So what happens to all the DNA data that was collected from Truro residents with no closer connection to the case than their gender and residency?