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TAYLORSVILLE — New technology that should process chemical evidence cleaner and faster has a new home in the state crime lab in Taylorsville thanks to extra construction money.
One piece of equipment is DART, or the “direct analysis in real time” machine.
“This is the ionizing source, so it’s pumping really hot gas,” said forensic scientist Josh Heinz. “This ionizes our samples” like illegal drugs.
DART processes chemical evidence in seconds.
“Usually, it’s about 20 minutes per sample,” said senior forensic scientist Kelly Whittle.
The machine separates and identifies separate portions of chemical compounds. It is one of three of these types of machines in Utah, and the only one in a crime lab.
Utah State Crime Lab director Jay Henry spent $200,000 of leftover construction money for the new state crime lab that opened earlier this year.
“Now we’re discovering, wow, this is a fantastic enhancement,” Henry said. “We just don’t know the entire impact of it.”
Henry also purchased three robotic DNA processors that work in eight hours, not three days. They remove chances for human contamination.
It is National Forensic Science Week, that's part of the reason the Utah State Crime Lab is showing off this technology. They’re hoping to have it involved in casework within the next few months.
Contributing: Andrew Adams
