Funding for DNA testing could have helped solve crime earlier

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ Officials say more money for D-N-A testing could have led to an earlier break in the case of a University of Oklahoma ballet student killed in 1996. <br/><br/>Oklahoma State Bureau

Sunday, July 25th 2004, 10:31 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ Officials say more money for D-N-A testing could have led to an earlier break in the case of a University of Oklahoma ballet student killed in 1996.

Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation criminalist Erin Henry says a lack of funding created a backlog of more than 17-thousand D-N-A samples that delayed lab testing for a suspect in the killing of Juli Busken.

A D-N-A sample was taken in April 2003 from the unidentified suspect, but it wasn't sent to a lab until this January.

This week, a match to the sample was found in a national database of one-point-seven (m) million convicted felons.

Eventually, O-S-B-I says it hopes to analyze cases within 30 days of when evidence is received.

The agency will find out next month whether it received another federal grant.