At the end of the year a new law entered into force which gave the police increased opportunities to use dna technology to solve old cases. Recently a 58-year-old man linked to a brutal rape in Billdal, in the south of Gothenburg, sweden, 24 years ago. About the same time came the news that the investigation of a 15-year-old dubbelmord in Linköping, sweden may be close to a solution.
Even the police cold case team in Stockholm, has begun the process to find solutions to older cases, most of the unsolved murder. From 1985 to the present day, there are approximately 220 such cases in the Stockholm region.
is a so-called familjesökning in the dna register, which in the best case matches dna evidence from a crime scene with a person who can be a close relative of the sought-after gärningspersonen. In the case of the murdered infant, the police has in addition to a dna search also developed a genetic identikit.
” We are aware that fantombilder is a bit controversial because the image is based on probability and assumption and is not in any way a photography. But we have noticed it here from the USA, where there have been a number of cases have been successful where tips from the public made to come closer to a solution, ” says Mats Pettersson, the investigating authority at the police cold case team in Stockholm.
It was on 22 december 2002 that the newborn girl was found in the underpass of a passed man. The girl must have choked to death and left wrapped in a piece of cloth. The child was found the dna of a woman who, at the time must have been about 25 years old. It is through the dna from the woman, who now produced a photofit.
– Despite an intensive investigation that stretched over several years, where a number of women topsades we found no one suspicious. With the help of familjesökningen hope we might get any hit will lead us in the right direction. The woman we are looking for can be the child’s mother or any close relative, but we are still waiting on the results.
also that there never was any missing infant, despite the separate attempts with dörrknackningar and visits to various places.
– you Are pregnant for nine months, you think someone should have noticed it and reacted, but we never came anywhere. We also want to emphasize that even if we get hold of a suspicious person, so the case is far from clear, then start the next phase in the investigation.
the Cold case team in Stockholm will continue now to look at more cases where it may be appropriate to ask the public for help and tips. All 220 of unresolved cases is not suited for the method with fantombilder but there are a couple of pieces.
a pilot project where police and the forensic authority National forensiskt centre, NFC, to test how you can use private släktforskningsregister to solve unsolved crimes.
” Right now there is no stockholmsfall but I have requested that they should take one of our cases. You never know what it brings but when it comes to this serious of unexplained murders that are never time-barred, we have a responsibility from the community to solve them.
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