Identification of gestational trophoblastic disease in a sexual assault case

In this study, gestational trophoblastic disease (GTD) was observed by short tandem repeat (STR) typing from the aborted tissues in a sexual assault case. By histological screening, the fetal tissue could not be distinguished from the maternal tissue in this case. Therefore, five specimens were collected randomly from the aborted tissues for DNA analysis. STR typing was performed by the commercial ABI Identifiler kit. The results showed that three specimens were of the maternal origin, one was a mixture of the mother and male fetus, and the other one was of male fetal origin with partial triploid. Three alleles were identified in each locus of D8S1179, D7S820 and VWA for the fetal specimen. For these three alleles, one matched the maternal origin and the others matched the putative paternal origin (suspect). Analysis of the Y-STR by using the commercial ABI Y-Filer kit, the fetal types matched the types of the suspect. We reported the case of partial mole on forensic evidence and gave the valuable information from its identification.