Wade - DNA crime investigations: solving murder and serious crime through DNA and modern forensics

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First Published in Great Britain in 2009 by

Wharncliffe Books

an imprint of

Pen and Sword Books Limited,

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South Yorkshire. S70 2AS

Copyright Stephen Wade, 2009

ISBN: 978 1 84563 105 5
Digital Edition ISBN: 978 1 84468 814 2

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Introduction

he wonders of the Victorian age in science and technology took a long time to percolate into forensic science, but after pioneering work by Alphonse Bertillon and by several others across the world, fingerprints were taken into official recognition, and a murder case was solved soon afterwards. By 1900, fingerprinting established forensic work at Scotland Yard as truly based in science. In the 1940s, after two celebrated cases and pioneering work by Sir Bernard Spilsbury, forensic orthodontics was added to the armoury of the forces of criminal investigation. These were attempts to individualise material, investigate more minutely the physical evidence at crime scenes. But behind these significant advances something far more momentous was happening: DNA was being identified and defined in the study of genetics.

There had been blood-grouping of course; work by Karl Landsteiner established the A, B and O blood groups in 1901; and in 1925 it was discovered that blood groups could be ascertained from other body fluids. By the 1960s the Scotland Yard forensic science lab could use bloodstains to relate evidence to suspects with a high level of accuracy. Back in the nineteenth century, blood on a suspect or at a crime scene could not be defined in terms of its origin it could have been human or animal, and so confusions and uncertainties arose. But DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) was to revolutionise matters in this area of police and legal procedure.

DNA exists in the sixty trillion cells within the human body. Some DNA is contained in genes, and as genetics has advanced, so has the knowledge of the nature and location of DNA. This is virtually unique in each person, and so the forensic uses are obvious.

Friedrich Miescher first discovered DNA in 1868 but only in 1943 did two scientists, Oswald Avery and Colin McLeod, discover that it held specific genetic information. Then, in 1953, Francis Crick, James Watson and Maurice Wilkins discovered and explained the defining double-helix shaping of the DNA in the cell. It became clear that all humans have a certain amount of the same DNA in common - but not all. From that realisation came a recognition of the practical applications of the knowledge.

Arguably the most celebrated milestone in the history of DNA used in forensics is that of the Colin Pitchfork case (). This followed the discovery by Sir Alec Jeffreys of a method of identifying individuals from DNA. He called the method Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism which means that sequences of DNA in a shorter length of cellular form could be analysed. Or, in plain English, he called it DNA Fingerprinting. It took until 1987 for the first conviction to be made.

This book aims to tell the story of how the knowledge of DNA led to the revolution in forensics; many of the cases here have been resolved. During the writing of the book, two infamous and controversial cases of savage murder were solved and the real culprits imprisoned for life: Robert Napper for the murder of Rachel Nickell (and others) and Peter Tobin in Scotland also for multiple murders. But other headlines in 2008/09 were equally significant for inclusion.

DNA gives specific information about a person, and can identify a criminal with certainty. As well as meaning that guilty people may be sentenced and imprisoned, it also means that there are very probably innocent people in prison, and that has proved to be the case..

But the repercussions of this new knowledge do not end there. In October 2007, the famous case of Dr Crippen, a man hanged for the murder of his wife in 1910, was suddenly questioned. David Foran and John Trestrail, forensic scientists in America, have stated with confidence that the body in the cellar of Crippens home at Hilltop Crescent in London was not that of his wife, Cora. Trestrail has said, There were no identifying parts of the remains found, no head, no bones, no organs of gender. Ive always wondered, who is that under the steps? But there are some remains of tissue, and so the mitochondrial DNA there has been analysed. This is the DNA from the maternal ovum, passed down from mother to daughter. This kind of DNA is present for longer in remains and is undiluted. A match with the mother is easily made. Foran and Tretrail worked forward in time, tracing relatives of Cora Crippen, and it has been established that there is no mitochondrial link, so the body was not that of Mrs Crippen. Who was she? That is the next question for crime historians and scientists.