Interpreting DNA mixtures with relatives of a missing suspect

Recent advances in DNA profiling have been proven extremely useful for forensic human identification. DNA mixtures are commonly found in serious crimes such as rape as well as voluminous crimes like theft. In this paper, one general formula is obtained for the evaluation of DNA mixtures when the suspect is unavailable for typing, but one maternal and one paternal relatives of the suspect are typed instead. In principle, closer relatives of the suspect will provide more genetic information on the genotype of the unavailable suspect. The effect of the relatives' DNA profiles on the interpretation of DNA mixtures is illustrated with case example.