(Radio Iowa) – An Iowa State University criminologist is the author of a new book that examines more than 100 cold cases that were resolved using D-N-A evidence. Matt DeLisi says he collected information on the cold cases as part of his overall work and then decided to zero in on them.”One of the things I noticed over the years as I gathered more and more of these cases is that they really started to review a lot of what criminologist know about serious criminal offenders in terms of their behavioral tendencies and characteristics,” he says. DeLisi says it breaks down the individual issues with each case.

“I believe there’s about 120 of them in the book. And each chapter profiles a specific feature or scientific feature about serious criminal offenders,” DeLisi says. “And so it’s a book that’s sort of brings together the worlds of academic criminology or cold case criminology, and what the D-N-A evidence and the testing of it can reveal about the perpetrators.” DeLisi says one of the subjects that is mentioned for the book is Richard Cottington. who was convicted of multiple murders and was known as the “Torso Killer.” Cottington’s case was featured in a series on Netflix as prosecutors used what’s called “clearing a case by exceptional means” to get him to reveal more of his victims.

“They just simply have the offender provide the information and effectively acknowledge responsibility for it without receiving any additional legal punishment. And the value of this is it allows the justice system to resolve unsolved cases and that can be very meaningful and important to the family to give them some legal closure,” he says.

DeLisi’s book is available through Innovativelink Publishers in Dubuque or through Amazon and Barnes and Noble websites.