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"I'm not exceptionally religious, but I believe
God had a hand in this DNA business."
- Detective Tony Painter
On the 21st of November, in 1983, 15 year-old Lynda Eastwood was raped and strangled in the village of Enderby, near Leicester England. Despite hundreds of tips and a massive police investigation, no suspects were apprehended. One night a little more than three years later, Dawn Ashworth didn't come home. The next day, she was found dead, having suffered the same fate as Lynda Eastwood - she also was 15 years old.
These crimes were eventually solved, and involved the first use of DNA fingerprinting in a homicide. Alex Jeffreys first reported this technique in 1985, and this was his first real test.
A detailed description of the Enderby Murders and their investigation and solution is to be found in The Blooding, by Joseph Wambaugh (Wm Morrow and Co, 1989). This is a very good book and, to avoid spoiling it for you, the only other information presented here is that the investigation entailed:
- the first use of DNA fingerprinting to exonerate a suspect.
- collecting blood for DNA typing from 4,583 young men during the hunt for the murderer.
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