March 29, 2024
Section 402(13)(a) provides $500,000 of the general fund—state appropriation for fiscal year 2025 solely for financial assistance to local jurisdictions to conduct DNA testing for unidentified remains and, for remains that fail to yield a CODIS match, for forensic genetic genealogy DNA testing. Local jurisdictions may contract for these services. The act states the purpose of the funding as providing enough support to eliminate the backlog of unidentified remains awaiting testing, and directs that it supplement DNA testing and investigative genealogy available through the national missing and unidentified persons system or the Washington State Patrol crime laboratory, prioritizing cases that do not meet the national system's eligibility requirements and cases already tested for DNA that failed to yield a CODIS match. Subsection (b) defines forensic genetic genealogy DNA testing as any technology performed in a forensic laboratory capable of producing a forensic genealogy profile with a minimum of 100,000 genetic markers, compatible with multiple genealogical databases consented for law enforcement use, and including associated genealogical research. Subsection (c) provides that records from the testing, including DNA profiles and markers, are sensitive and must be treated as confidential to the fullest extent allowed under the law.