DNA Expert Witness Says DNA Evidence Matches Perfectly in EMU Murder Case

DNA testing puts Orange Taylor III at the scene of the sexual assault and murder of Eastern Michigan University student Laura Dickinson. DNA expert witness Heather Vitta testified that Taylor’s DNA is a perfect match to semen stains found in her college dorm room. Expert witness Vitta, supervisor of the biology and DNA unit at the Michigan State Police Northville lab, testified in Washtenaw County Court. The Detroit Free Press also reports:

Taylor’s DNA perfectly matches samples taken at the scene, and the odds of finding another match would be one in quadrillions or even quintillions, Heather Vitta, supervisor of the biology and DNA unit at the Michigan State Police Northville lab, testified in Washtenaw County Court.

With these kinds of numbers, she said: “I certainly would expect to see it only once in the entire population of the world.” Dickinson was killed early Dec. 13, prosecutors say, by then 20-year-old Taylor. Taylor now is 21 years old. Blaine Longsworth, Washtenaw County assistant prosecutor, called the attack “every woman’s worst nightmare come true.”