If you think obtaining DNA samples from crime suspects by getting them to lick envelopes or postage stamps is illegal trickery by police, it isn't. On Tuesday, Seattle police arrested a suspect in the 20-year-old killing of a 13-year-old Magnolia girl on the basis of DNA evidence obtained from an envelope the suspect had licked and sent to Seattle. Such methods, police and others say, are simply a newer version of a time-tested practice deceiving suspects into unwittingly giving up information or evidence. Police and prosecutors would not elaborate on the ruse used to collar the man, John Nicholas Athan, except to say that Athan, who now lives in New Jersey, was led to believe he would receive money or the like if he responded to the letter mailed him months ago from the city of Seattle. Saliva left on the envelope provided enough material for investigators here to get a DNA profile and match that with DNA found at the crime scene. <snip> http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/134790968_dna22m.html