05/27/2026
We're so proud of CC alumna Laura Dolezal and her amazing work at the Washington State Patrol Crime Lab in Vancouver!!
CENTRALIA GRAD HELPS SOLVE CRIMES WITH DNA EXPERTISE: A sexual assault occurs every two minutes in the United States, and if it’s reported to a law enforcement officer in this state, it’s likely forensic scientist Laura Dolezal and her colleagues at the Washington State Patrol Crime Lab in Vancouver will test any evidence collected.
That’s because the Vancouver crime lab is the clearinghouse for testing DNA in sexual assault kits collected by law enforcement officers throughout the state to identify perpetrators, exonerate the innocent and help survivors seeking justice.
In 2019, with nearly 10,000 sexual assault kits awaiting testing in Washington, state lawmakers and federal grants provided money to construct a new lab and hire more scientists and lab technicians.
“DNA testing was a problem for a while,” said Dolezal, a 2003 Centralia High School graduate. “We were very backed up, and it would take us nine months before we could even get to starting a case. At times, we have added a lot more personnel. … So, it has gotten a whole lot better.”
Now that backlog has been cleared, and a new regulation prohibits delays in testing.
“It needs to be tested within 45 days of commission to the laboratory,” said Dolezal, daughter of Dr. Joe and Patty Dolezal, of Centralia. “We are now working cases as they come in.”
This month Dolezal presented an overview of her work at the WSP Crime Lab in Vancouver at a meeting of the Lewis County chapter of the American Association of University Women in Chehalis. She discussed the field of forensic science, scientific methods used to collect information from crime scenes, and analysis of DNA tests by workers in one of the state’s six Washington State Patrol Crime Lab locations.
“I do not work for the prosecution,” she said. “I do not work for the defense. I work for the science, and I have no interest in whether a person is found guilty or innocent. I am there to present the science.”
Dolezal earned an associate degree in biology from Centralia College in 2005, a bachelor’s in cellular and molecular biology at Western Washington University in Bellingham in 2007, and a master’s in forensic molecular biology from George Washington University in Washington, D.C., in 2009. She then worked at the Armed Forces DNA Identification Lab at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware testing remains recovered from past conflicts to help identify them.
“That was a very rewarding job,” she said. “I really enjoyed that but eventually decided I missed Washington too much and wanted to come back. I ended up getting the job with the State Patrol Crime Lab, and I’ve been there now for 12½ years.”
Some forensic scientists assist at crime scenes, dispatched in teams of two or three, searching for fingerprints, taking photos, transferring prints, and hauling evidence back to the lab for analysis. However, Dolezal said she works entirely in the lab, examining evidence collected from homicides, burglaries, assaults, and other crimes.
“I am not as great with the chaos of a crime scene,” Dolezal said. “I like the laboratory setup, so I stick to the lab, but that is a possibility if I ever decided I wanted to take that on part time.”
Because of its emphasis on quality control, she said, every case is reviewed by at least two additional people before the report is released “to make sure that we’re releasing top-notch work and reports.” As part of her job, she tests bodily fluids, develops DNA profiles, and trains other DNA scientists.
“We testify in court — not my favorite thing to do, but that is required as a job, so I do it — and then you actually participate in quite a bit of education and outreach, so it’s one of the reasons I’m here today. We don’t want it to be a secret what we’re doing. We want people to understand our work and what it means.”
All WSP employees also must pass a polygraph and extensive background check. The WSP crime labs are located in Marysville, Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia, Vancouver, and Spokane to serve the state better. Spokane handles most Eastern Washington cases, and it’s one lab with workers in every discipline.
In addition to testing sexual assault kits, the Vancouver lab analyzes fi****ms, ballistics, tool marks, and chemical materials in evidence collected from seven Southwest Washington counties, including Lewis County. They look at plants, hair, fibers, glass, and other materials. They identify blood stains invisible to the naked eye and examine it for patterns. They review bullet trajectories and impressions of shoe prints, tires, and other evidence for unique characteristics. They use fancy 3-D laser scanners for crime scene reconstruction.
And they run their findings through the U.S.-based Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) to look for matches among the millions of profiles stored there.
“We do not have the latent prints, and we actually do not have any materials analysis scientists that do the micro analysis,” she said. Those are sent to Tacoma or Olympia.
They also review population genetics — how populations evolve genetically across the world, regions, countries, and states.
“We know which populations are present in higher amounts in the state of Washington, so we can issue statistics that are more related to this area,” Dolezal said.
Full commentary from Chronicle columnist Julie McDonald: https://tinyurl.com/yfzsf5mv
