40 years after the fact: Woman murderer caught thanks to DNA technology: "Unsolvable cases become solvable"
Created: 11/29/2022, 5:09 am
By: Linus Prien
The press conference on the solved case.
© IMAGO/Chris Young
The crimes were committed in 1983.
But now the alleged perpetrator could be arrested.
Everything was made possible by modern DNA technologies.
Ottawa - After about 40 years, the police in Canada have managed to locate a suspected murderer.
He had probably murdered two women brutally.
The suspect was arrested thanks to DNA evidence.
The now 61-year-old man was arrested in a small town in northern Ontario province, the Toronto police said on Monday.
He is accused of sexually assaulting and stabbing a 45-year-old woman and then a 22-year-old woman within a few months in Toronto in 1983.
According to the police, the case could not be solved for decades until DNA found at the crime scene was examined using special new methods and finally led to the 61-year-old.
Murder cleared up after 40 years: the police never stopped investigating
"Toronto Homicide never dropped an investigation into this heinous case," a local police spokesman said, according to
ctv news
.
This also shows that the Toronto police never give up on catching criminals in their city, it said.
In addition, the police are investigating whether the alleged perpetrator could be connected to other cold cases.
In Toronto alone there are over 700 of them. In 43 cases it is known that DNA from a previous offender was found in connection with the crime.
Murder cleared up after 40 years: "Unsolvable cases can now be cleared up"
The only reason this long-cold case has been solved is because of the advances made in DNA detection.
Specifically, a technology called "investigative genetic genealogy" (IGG) was used.
A spokesman said: "IGG shows us with this case that cases that were previously unsolvable can now be clarified through science".
The American police also managed to catch the "Golden State Killer".
He was found guilty of 13 murders and multiple rapes between 1970 and 1980 and sentenced to prison.
(dpa/lp)
