KUAR | By George Jared/ Talk Business & Politics
A deadly E. coli outbreak at several Jack in the Box fast food restaurants in the western United States in 1993 may provide the means to solve one of the most controversial criminal cases in Arkansas history. Dr. Bruce Bradley, a scientist, was so bothered by the outbreak that killed four children and sickened hundreds of others that he created a system called the M-Vac to analyze food to detect pathogens.
There was only one problem – it worked too well, his son and M-Vac President Jared Bradley told Talk Business & Politics. The system may not have been a fit for the food industry, but according to the FBI, it’s been a revelation when it comes to solving unsolved crimes.
M-Vac is now primarily used to collect DNA in criminal cases. A man who pleaded to an Alford Plea in the murders of three eight-year-old boys in West Memphis, Damien Echols, has petitioned the state of Arkansas to use M-Vac testing on the ligatures collected in the case.
Christopher Counts/KARK-Channel 4
Damien Echols, one of three people convicted in 1994 of killing three 8-year-old West Memphis boys, has filed a petition for the state to conduct advanced DNA testing of evidence.