BEXAR COUNTY – A deep dive into the Bexar County Criminal Investigation Lab’s backlogs ends with a look into DNA analysis cases.
KSAT’s Courtney Friedman looked into backlogs in all three divisions of the lab, including firearms and drug seizures.
The DNA analysis lab is where evidence is sent when a crime is committed in Bexar County and suspects need to be identified.
Cases that affect public safety, such as the recent arrest in 63-year-old Stacey Dramiga’s murder case, are prioritized.
However, hundreds of other cases that aren’t at the top of the list remain stuck in the backlog.
KSAT requested the last five years of data in this backlog and for the first time in years, the county has provided that information.
The graph below illustrates the number of DNA cases in the backlog from Nov. 2020 to July 2025.
The most cases are from June 2022.
Bexar County Criminal Investigation Lab Director Orin Dym said, “June 2022 is when we switched technologies. We changed our analysis technique. It’s very consistent across the board. There’s a reason that’s the best recommendation, but that also takes longer.”
Dym said it now takes six weeks to test each piece of evidence.
That’s a problem since the federal definition of a backlogged case is any one unworked on after 30 days.
“That 30-day definition is baked into federal grants and how everything’s been done so it’s not changing. So technically every DNA case is going to be backlogged because the whole process is longer than 30 days,” Dym said.
Staffing was also a contributing factor in the spike.
The county gave the department more employees to tackle the backlog, but in January 2025 the numbers started rising again.
At that time, the lab lost three employees, including an experienced supervisor. One left temporarily for maternity leave.
As more efforts are made to provide testing kits to sexual assault survivors in the community, the cases may continue to rise. Dym is prepared to ask the county for more staff, if needed.
“For October we’re coming back down again. Our backlog dropped from 388 to 349, and we expect that trend to continue to accelerate,” Dym said.
KSAT will continue to track these numbers and provide updates on the lab’s backlogs.
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