EFMrep: An extension of EuroForMix for improved combination of STR DNA mixture profiles

The EuroForMix model has been extended to create a new open-source software called EFMrep which enables the combination of STR DNA mixture samples from different multiplexes. In addition to calculating combined likelihood ratios and carrying out deconvolution, the software also includes the capability to specify related unknown individuals. A graphical user interface has been implemented to ease the analysis for practitioners in real case work. The effect of combining multiple samples based on the PROVEDIt dataset was investigated, either from the same or different multiplexes. The information gain increases when more samples are combined. A head-to-head comparison against EuroForMix shows the benefit of a more general model. Guidelines are provided. A real case example was used to demonstrate how EFMrep could be used to combine multiple samples when a proposition includes kinship.