Cold case successes

DNA Low Copy Number (DNA LCN) was used to obtain a DNA profile from a microscope slide retained from an unsolved rape case from 1995. The unsolved case was selected for review in 2004 as part of Operation Advance. The profile was loaded to the NDNAD, and matched against the profile of Mark Henson, who was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in 2005, nearly 10 years after the crime was committed.

DNA LCN was used to obtain a profile of the killer of Marion Crofts who was raped and killed in 1981. Microscope slides were deliberately left untouched for 20 years until techniques would be sensitive enough to obtain a profile. In 1999 using DNA LCN a profile was obtained from Tony Jasinskyj that matched samples taken from Marion’s clothing. He was convicted and jailed for life in 2002.

DNA LCN enables scientists to produce DNA profiles from samples expected to contain very few cells, even if they are too small to be visible to the naked eye.

The main application of this technique is to target areas on items where it is believed that an offender may have transferred DNA through touch, like the residue believed to have come from cells such as skin or sweat, left in a fingerprint.

DNA LCN can be a particularly useful tool for investigating serious crimes where other profiling techniques have been exhausted or when options for forensic evidence appear to be limited.

One of DNA LCN’s most effective uses is in cold case reviews. The technique allows the FSS to re-test historic samples that have either previously failed to yield a DNA profile through less sensitive profiling techniques or where DNA profiling had not been thought possible previously because of the evidence type and /or substrate available.