DNA Dragnet

This is a partial transcript from "On the Record," January 11, 2005, that has been edited for clarity.

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GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, HOST: Police searching for a killer in a popular beachside town on Cape Cod have launched a DNA dragnet.

Last Thursday marked three years since 46-year-old Christa Worthington (search) was found savagely stabled to death in her home. Her 2-year-old daughter, Ava, was found alive next to her mother covered in blood. The one clue left behind was semen found on Christa's body.

Tonight, investigators are asking all men in Christa's town to submit a DNA sample (search). The district attorney declined to come on the program tonight, but sent us this statement:

"At this time, police are asking for a voluntary DNA sample. This and other methodologies will continue. Those who do not wish to submit a sample are free to refuse."

Our next guest covered the case extensively and has been to the crime scene. Vanessa Grigoriadis, New York Magazine contributing editor, joins us from Los Angeles, welcome Vanessa.

VANESSA GRIGORIADIS, NEW YORK MAGAZINE: Hi, how are you?

VAN SUSTEREN: Very well.

Vanessa, tell me who is Christa Worthington? What's her background?

GRIGORIADIS: Well, she was 46 years old. She was a freelance fashion writer. She had had some success. She had worked in Paris as a bureau chief for W but she was basically just kind of mid-ranking, glossy magazine writer.

However, her family had very deep roots in Truro. They were I guess what you would call land poor. They were kind of Mayflower WASPS. Her grandmother actually had invented fish net and her grandfather had basically, you know, founded Truro. So, they really had very deep roots in the Cape.

VAN SUSTEREN: So, she left Manhattan, left New York, left the fast-lane, moved with her 2 1/2-year-old daughter or so and moved to Cape Cod. And then on January 2, 2002 what happened?

GRIGORIADIS: Well, she was found in her kitchen. Ava was there. She was about 24 hours after she was stabbed, by whom obviously we still do not know. Ava had been with her for 24 hours.

They found kind of bloody handprints all over the kitchen floor, on cereal boxes. She tried to put a tape in the VCR. I mean it was a really gruesome scene and she was there and obviously we're still here talking about it.

VAN SUSTEREN: Any enemies or boyfriends or ex-husbands or anything like that?

GRIGORIADIS: Well, I mean the really interesting thing about this is, is that she was kind of considered a Chicken Little amongst her friends and there was always some sort of Christa drama, they would call it.

And after she died, they actually found that, you know, there were so many people in her life that were suspects. She had had an affair with a married man, which is how Ava was made and he had actually told his wife about it just six months prior.

Her father, who is 72, had been having an affair with kind of a heroine attic in her 20s who was also HIV positive. Her neighbor was somebody she had had an affair with and had been quarreling with and her neighbor is actually the person who found her. He said that he was returning a flashlight, which seems somewhat suspect because in Truro in the winter, I mean you've got to have a flashlight at home.

VAN SUSTEREN: And with that, Vanessa just stand by for a second because I want to bring in Boston reporter Kathy Burge of the Boston Globe and New York forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden.

DR. MICHAEL BADEN, FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST: How are you doing?

VAN SUSTEREN: Hello, Dr. Baden.

Kathy, first to you, DNA samples, is the community objecting to this request for DNA samples for the men who live in the area and women I suppose but there was semen found in the area so I assume they're interested mostly in men?

KATHY BURGE, BOSTON GLOBE: That's right. The reaction has really been mixed. Some men have no problems with giving DNA samples that the police have asked for. It's all voluntary. Some have even called up the police station to ask how they might volunteer samples, if they haven't been approached.

Other men just feel very nervous about the whole thing and don't want to offer their DNA. The police have said that they're going to pay attention to people who refuse to give DNA samples and that also makes people nervous as well.

VAN SUSTEREN: Dr. Baden, it's been three years, it seems like an awful lot of clues. Why can't they solve this?

BADEN: Well, Greta, about a third of all murders in this country aren't solved. They seem to have very good DNA evidence. I think doing this kind of dragnet has certain civil liberties aspects to it but from a scientific point of view it's been done a number of times in England and in France and other European countries and it's proven very inefficient, costly and ineffective in accomplishing the goal of finding out whodunit.

VAN SUSTEREN: In terms of the semen, at least I read, Dr. Baden, that they cannot — I mean they knew that she recently had sex but they could not conclude that that was the person who had killed her but that certainly at least gives them some direction, right?

BADEN: Oh, yes. Yes. That's always the case. When semen is found in a rape situation or murder, the person who donated that semen has to be talked to, when did you see her, et cetera, certainly has to be a suspect but it's not necessarily the person who did the murder but finding that individual would go a long way in the investigation of this case.

VAN SUSTEREN: Kathy, are people nervous and scared in the community?

BURGE: I think some people definitely are — nervous about giving DNA samples or nervous about the murder?

VAN SUSTEREN: No, no, nervous about the fact that you've got this unsolved murder for three years. It's a small community.

BURGE: I think so. I think it's been long enough at this point that people are getting used to it. There's certainly been a lot of publicity and a movie that's coming out, a book that was published last year. But, yes, there hasn't been a murder in Truro since 1969, so it's certainly a very unusual event.

VAN SUSTEREN: And, Kathy, have they given, we only have 20 seconds left, any indication they're closer to finding the person?

BURGE: The police aren't saying very much. They're not saying how many people have agreed to give DNA samples or how much longer they'll conduct this investigation for DNA samples.

VAN SUSTEREN: All right. Vanessa, Kathy, Dr. Baden thank you all.

BADEN: Thank you.

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