GAME-CHANGER: DNA machine helps Tulsa police with cold cases

In the world of forensics, owning a state-of-the-art piece of equipment can be a game-changer when solving a case.

The Tulsa Police Department currently has roughly 300 cold cases dating back to 1968, and the department is hopeful a M-Vac machine will have a major impact on solving them.

The M-Vac machine first started being used years ago to test food items for e-coli. In the 1990s researchers realized it could also be used to test DNA.

Tulsa police homicide detective Jason White told 2 News how the machine works:

“It’s like a wet vac that has the ability to spray a solution in rough surfaces, rough surface handles like tools and you can just think of the items that are out there that might have a course material, and what it does is it basically after the solution hits that item, it gets inside of the cracks and the crevices and stuff and it sucks it up from there and then it runs it through this machine and then through a filter and that is what is actually tested."

White and former crime lab analyst and homicide detective Ronnie Leatherman put together a proposal to present to the Tulsa Police Foundation after they realized the importance of this equipment.

“When you look at all of these cases and we have approximately 300 cases that are located in this room alone that date back to 1968, when you look at these cases, this isn’t the type of equipment that’s going to be applicable for every one of these cases, but there are those diamonds in here that literally exist in this room where this type of equipment, even though we’ve done all of the testing that can be done now, this gives us another chance for some of these cases to re-examine them,” said White.

Not only will the M-Vac be used to solve cold cases, detectives said it can also be used to solve crimes such as stranger rapes.

“It’s technology and it’s one of those things that when you have the ability to get an item like that, for us to add to what we are doing here, it’s extraordinary and we are really excited about it. I have no doubt in my mind we are going to be successful on something in this room, there’s no doubt about it,” said White.

The machine costs more than $50,000, and thanks to the generosity of the Tulsa Police Foundation, the department will soon have one of its own.

TPD is going to be the only the only department in the state to have one.

More Cold Cases

• DNA machine could be a game-changer for Tulsa’s cold cases

  Sharon Phillips

• Oklahoma's Cold Case Files: How are Tulsa’s cold cases solved?

  Sharon Phillips

• Oklahoma’s Cold Case Files: Who Killed Veda (Susie) Woodson?

  Sharon Phillips

• Oklahoma's Cold Case Files: Shawn Yanez

  Sharon Phillips

Go even deeper into cold cases in Green Country with our podcast. New episodes drop in Fridays.