When 22-year-old Raquel Rivera and her boyfriend, Jay Johnson, are murdered inside their South Park home in Seattle, their six-month-old puppy, Chief, is found gravely wounded nearby.

Police soon identify suspects, but an unusual piece of evidence raises a question investigators have never faced before: Can the blood of a dog help identify a killer?

What follows will put Chief at the center of a groundbreaking forensic investigation—and make his case part of criminal justice history.

Sources:

• Darrell Glover, “Man Gets 26 Years in Murder Case Using Dog’s DNA,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, December 9, 1998.
• Elaine Porterfield, “Life Term for Convicted Killer in Dog DNA Case — Not ‘Drop of Remorse,’ Judge Says of Leuluaialii,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, October 3, 1998.
• Elaine Porterfield, “Dog DNA Helps Convict 2 in Murder of Couple, Pet,” Deseret News / Seattle Post-Intelligencer, September 17, 1998.
• “Dog’s DNA Helps Convict 2 of Murders,” Los Angeles Times, September 17, 1998.
• Florangela Davila, “2 Life Terms in South Park Murders,” The Seattle Times, October 3, 1998.
• “Court Disallows Use of Dog DNA,” The Seattle Times, October 14, 2003.
• State v. Leuluaialii / State v. Tuilefano, Washington Court of Appeals, Division One, Nos. 43507-8-I & 43769-1-I, decided October 13, 2003.
• Forensic Files, Season 7, Episode 17, “Chief Evidence.”
• Joy Halverson and Christopher Basten, “A PCR Multiplex and Database for Forensic DNA Identification of Dogs,” Journal of Forensic Sciences (2005).
• National Institute of Justice, Animal DNA / Non-Human DNA forensic training materials.
• Find a Grave memorials for Chief Johnson, Raquel Eloise Rivera, and Jay Dedric Johnson. The Chief memorial also supplied some biographical detail about him.

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Music by Vibe Depot and Mircea Iancu