The strange case of the 'time travel' murder.

[dipsydoodle]

A woman's body is found in London. DNA turns up a hit, yet the suspect apparently died weeks before the alleged victim. Here, forensic scientist Dr Mike Silverman tells the story of one of the strangest cases of his career.

It was a real-life mystery that could have come straight from the pages of a modern-day detective novel.

A woman had been brutally murdered in London and biological material had been found under her fingernails, possibly indicating that she might have scratched her attacker just before she died.

A sample of the material was analysed and results compared with the National DNA database and quickly came back with a positive match.

The problem was, the "hit" identified a woman who had herself been murdered - a full three weeks before the death of her alleged "victim".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-26324244

[Chemisse]

1. Interesting.

It's surprising how even DNA evidence is up for question at times.

[dotymed]

2. This seems vey plausible considering the definition of a

conspiracy.....
Law. an agreement by two or more persons to commit a crime, fraud, or other wrongful act. Hell, the crime could have been
accomplished by one individual. Planting evidence at a crime scene is a good way to misdirect, especially if you use the DNA of a deceased person.
I would be looking at what they had in common and the possibility that they were murdered by the same person.

[tanyev]

4. Sounds like a Castle episode.

[malthaussen]

5. NCIS Episode, Season 2: "Lieutenant Jane Doe" n/t

[eppur_se_muova]

6. A good demonstration of the importance of being exquisitely careful in collecting evidence.

This is true not just in forensics -- there have been a lot of infamous wrong theories built on sloppy evidence.

Of course, if you're using the evidence to raise investment capital, the sloppiness may be quite deliberate (Blacklight Power, I'm looking at you).

[saidsimplesimon]

7. DNA match could be identical twins, raised or adopted by

different parents?

[dipsydoodle]

8. Yes Sherlock.

To which Holmes replied :

A lemon tree dear Watson.

[Jim Lane]

9. Spoiler alert: What you find out if you read the linked article.

It wasn't identical twins. It wasn't planted evidence. It also wasn't the other speculation I had, that the second murder was committed by a woman who had managed to hack into the national database and put her own DNA on file under the name of someone else (the someone else then having been murdered a few weeks before the hacker committed the second murder).

Here's what actually happened....

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It was lab error. Scissors were used to clip the fingernails of the first victim, so the nail clippings could be analyzed. The scissors retained some of her DNA. The same scissors were then used to clip the fingernails of the second victim, and some of the first victim's DNA was transferred from the scissors to the clippings from the second victim.

As a result, the UK implemented a new policy: Use disposable scissors to clip fingernails for DNA sampling, and put the scissors in the evidence bag with the nail clippings, so that you can establish that the scissors were used only once (against a possible defense argument that the same sort of error might have occurred again).

[saidsimplesimon]

10. Thanks Jim, so much to read, so little time. n/t