DNA profile lacking in new Staker case probe

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Holly Staker

Updated: March 15, 2012 8:14AM

WAUKEGAN — The new investigation into the 1992 rape and murder of Holly Staker after Juan Rivera was released from prison last month so far has not included matching the DNA profile to those in the FBI’s national data base.

FBI Special Agent Ann Todd said Monday the DNA profile from the trial cannot be permanently placed into the FBI’s National DNA Index System (NDIS) because it did not come from an accredited laboratory.

“The forensic profile — referenced in the Rivera lawsuit — does not meet the requirements of the Federal DNA Act of 1994 and is, therefore, not eligible to be entered,” she said. In accordance with federal law, DNA records that are stored and searched at the national level must have been generated by an accredited laboratory.

The DNA profile was entered temporarily once in 2009 after Rivera’s defense attorneys went to court to force the issue. Todd, who is based in Virginia, said the forensic profile, referenced in the Rivera lawsuit, has not been entered into the national DNA database. In 2009, a keyboard search of the forensic profile was conducted in accordance with a federal court order. The federal court ordered the FBI to conduct a one-time keyboard search.

At that time, it did not turn up any matches with the 7,743,329 offender DNA profiles, which include convicted offenders, arrestees, detainees and legal index profiles, in the NDIS. Since that time there has been no other requests to search the system for a match, but there are now 10,437,272 offender profiles in the system.

Asked if a prosecutor or police have asked to have the DNA profile entered since Rivera, the original suspect who was convicted three times, spent nearly 20 years in prison and was then set free on appeal, has been made Todd said: “I’m not aware of any other search requests.”

Waukegan Police Chief Daniel Greathouse would not discuss the Staker case Monday, saying only, “It’s open and ongoing.”

In another Lake County case, a DNA profile entered into the FBI’s index in 2010 matched a former Marine from Zion. The profile came from semen found inside Laura Hobbs, who was killed along with her friend, Krystal Tobias, in Zion’s Beulah Park on Mother’s Day 2005.

Her father, Jerry Hobbs of Zion, was arrested in connection with the murders and had been awaiting trial for five years when the match led to charges being dropped against him.