Sheriff’s department gets grant to update crime lab
The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department is receiving a nearly $275,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice to upgrade its crime lab and train criminalists.
The grant, announced late Wednesday, comes on the heels of the Sheriff’s Regional Crime Laboratory being recognized for its effectiveness. Earlier this month, two now-retired San Diego investigators won the “Best Cold Case Solved” award from the California Peace Officers’ Association for solving the rape and murder of 18-year-old Shannon Conway with DNA evidence.
Conway was killed in the summer of 1995 but the case went unsolved until July 2008, when DNA results provided a match to Michael Williams. At the time, Williams was in a Mississippi prison for child molestation. He has since pleaded guilty to Conway’s murder and was sentenced this past August to life in prison.