This Day in History: American writer Joseph Wambaugh was born on this day in 1937. While he has written fiction, I liked him mostly for his non-fiction crime writing in books, such as The Onion Field, Fire Lover: A True Story, and particularly, The Blooding, which chronicles the very first conviction of a murder using DNA evidence.
On 21 November 1983, 15-year-old Lynda Mann took a shortcut on her way home in Narborough (UK) from babysitting instead of taking her normal route home. She did not return and so her parents and neighbors spent the night searching for her. The next morning, she was found raped and strangled on a deserted footpath known locally as the Black Pad. Using forensic science techniques available at the time, police linked a semen sample taken from her body to a person with type A blood and an enzyme profile that matched only 10% of males. With no other leads or evidence, the case was left open.
About 3 years later, a second 15-year-old girl, Dawn Ashworth, left her home to visit a friend's house. Her parents expected her to come home at 9:30 PM; when she failed to do so they called police to report her missing. Two days later, her body was found in a wooded area near a footpath. The modus operandi matched that of the first attack, and semen samples revealed the same blood type.
The prime suspect was Richard Buckland, a local 17-year-old with learning difficulties, who revealed knowledge of Ashworth's body, and admitted to the Ashworth crime under questioning, but denied the first murder.
The previous year at the University of Leicester, a promising new technique had been developed allowing for a unique DNA ‘fingerprint’ to be produced from a DNA sample. 5000 local men were asked to give blood or saliva samples for DNA testing for comparison with the suspect’s DNA profile. After six month and thousands of samples taken, no match had been found. You see, the actual killer paid someone to take the DNA test for him. This person was overheard in a pub bragging about being paid £200 to give a DNA sample for one of his friends. That friend was local baker Colin Pitchfork. Pitchfork was arrested and a DNA sample was taken and matched to the crime scene samples, and he admitted to the rape and murder of the two girls.
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