DNA Technology Assisting In Resolving More Bucks Crimes

BUCKS COUNTY, PA —Earlier this month, Bucks County Coroner Meredith Buck said she called upon Bensalem Township's DNA testing technology to identify a Richland Township fire victim.

Buck said that was the second time she needed the technology's assistance. The first time was in the strangulation death late last year of Elizabeth Capaldi.

"They were instrumental in the matter with the missing woman too," the Warminster-based coroner said.

Capaldi was reported missing to the Perkasie Borough Police Department by her daughter in mid-October. Her husband, Stephen Capaldi, 57, of Sellersville, was charged in late December with third-degree murder.

Buck said that Bensalem's DNA technology was used on the remains of Elizabeth Capaldi.

In that case, Bensalem Detective Sgt. Glenn Vandegrift said a portion of the remains was recovered and police were able to get a known reference sample from the brother to confirm Capaldi's identity.

Bensalem is the only police department in Bucks County with the state-of-the-art Thermo-Fischer Rapid Hit ID DNA testing instrument. Vandegrift said the Montgomery District Attorney's Office also possesses the DNA technology.

The new accelerated testing program allows Bensalem Police to gather real-time results with DNA samples, in as little as 90 minutes, offering law enforcement the ability to test DNA evidence from a crime scene.

"We're ahead of the game with our DNA technology," Bensalem Mayor Joseph DiGirolamo told Patch Wednesday.

The technology, obtained by Bensalem in 2017, is basically "a mini DNA laboratory" in a box that uses the same processes and chemicals as a regular laboratory, Vandegrift said.

He said about 25 Bensalem detectives and supervisors are trained to use the technology and that the police department uses it on a daily basis at crime scenes to get samples to produce a DNA profile.

Vandegrift said the DNA technology is important to Bucks County District Attorney Matt Weintraub in terms of positive identification.

He said it was used to identify the four boys who were found buried in Solebury Township several years ago by using DNA samples off toothbrushes.

Vandergrift also said the DNA technology was also used recently in a Chester County case involving a woman found in a mattress.