Extracting DNA from the air – DNA evidence of human occupancy in indoor premises

How would that argument go? As far as I understand it, the DNA of the occupants of said lab may be found. That would mean that the criminal samples may also contain DNA of the lab occupants/scientists. Isn’t that the case currently as well and those DNA parts would be omitted?

What if the murderer works in the lab?

The Phantom of Heilbronn!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phantom_of_Heilbronn

That would ideal, yet we still got things like this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phantom_of_Heilbronn

Woman at a cotton swab factory was identified after being considered a serial killer.

It’s possibly not the GP’s point, but in general the more DNA that is available the better from a defense perspective. Many wrongful convictions involve a lack of physical evidence. Recent advances like “touch dna” and “m-vac” have led to new DNA evidence used in actual innocence decisions. Too often, a jury convicts a likely suspect on weak circumstantial evidence. Just as with Touch DNA, Air DNA will create new problems with avoiding contamination.

The path toward Air DNA has been known for years [0]. Wouldn’t be surprised to learn crime scene investigators have been sampling and storing air in high profile cases ready for the tech to catch up.

[0] https://www.science.org/content/article/dna-pulled-thin-air-...

That was interesting story, the ending in hindsight seems obvious. Thank you for sharing.