Category Archives: Transhuman News

The Irish Times - Monday, October 15, 2012

PETER CLUSKEY in The Hague

DUTCH police have carried out the biggest DNA sweep in the history of the Netherlands, taking samples from more than 6,500 men in 12 separate villages, in a renewed attempt to solve the countrys most infamous murder that of 16-year-old schoolgirl Marianne Vaatstra, in 1999.

The DNA sampling was completed on Thursday, and police said at the weekend that they had successfully collected samples from 89 per cent of the 7,300 men still living within a five-mile radius of the meadow where Vaatstras body was dumped 14 years ago.

The schoolgirls age and the particularly gruesome nature of the murder she was raped, strangled and had her throat cut caused revulsion in the Netherlands. As a result there have been repeated attempts over the years to find her killer, most recently in 2007 using 3D technology.

The department of justice has refused on a number of occasions to give permission for such a wide sweep, but in June it relented on the grounds that DNA testing has become much more sophisticated and that police say they may have some of the killers DNA, which was discovered at the scene.

Hopes of a breakthrough now centre on a Playboy cigarette lighter found in the grass near the victims body in the field in Veenklooster, in the northern province of Friesland.

DNA found on the lighter, which was bought in a local shop, matches DNA found on the dead girls body and police hope it may still lead them to someone closely related to the killer.

One of the most controversial aspects of this murder case in 1999 was that, because the body was found near a centre for asylum seekers, the focus of the investigation and of local anger rapidly became the refugees.

An Iraqi who had recently left the camp was detained in the UK, while an Afghan was detained in Turkey. Both voluntarily gave DNA samples and were ruled out.

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New DNA hunt for killer of Dutch schoolgirl

THE owner of Argentina's powerful Clarin media group wants kidnapping charges dropped after DNA tests failed to link her adopted children to those stolen during the country's 1976-1983 "dirty war," her newspaper has reported.

The request, filed on Friday, comes after DNA samples submitted by the two adult children of Ernestina Herrera de Noble showed no matches with a DNA data bank of relatives of those who disappeared during the dictatorship.

Some 30,000 people vanished during the military's war on leftist activists.

The Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, which represents female relatives of dictatorship-era victims, alleges that some 500 babies were stolen from those who disappeared - and then were adopted by pro-junta families.

Of those, only 107 have been identified.

The kidnapping case against Herrera de Noble was originally filed in 2001, and, after years of legal manoeuvering, a court ordered Marcela and Felipe Noble Herrera to submit to the DNA testing.

"There is no more cross-checking to do," attorney Gabriel Cavallo told the daily Clarin.

The case should be closed because "the experts have already determined that neither Felipe nor Marcela are the children of people who disappeared during the dictatorship," Mr Cavallo said.

But the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo were not ready to admit defeat.

The group has long suspected the Noble Herrera children, both born in 1976, were kidnapped. It says the data bank is being still being updated because many people did not know that their daughters or daughters-in-law were pregnant at the time they vanished.

Continued here:
DNA 'clears magnate of kidnapping'

A retrial is expected in a San Francisco cold case murder in which DNA evidence failed to lead to a conviction Tuesday.

Just three of the 12 jurors believed there was enough evidence even after matching DNA samples to convict 48-year-old William Payne of strangling to death 41-year-old Nikolaus Crumbley while raping him in a car in John McLaren Park on Nov. 16, 1983.

On Wednesday, Deputy Public Defender Kwixuan Maloof, who represents Payne, said the hung jury proves that despite what we see on television, the presence of DNA does not prove a person is guilty of a crime.

But prosecutors appear determined to prove otherwise. Motions in Paynes retrial begin today, the Public Defenders Office said, with opening arguments scheduled for Oct. 22.

DNA evidence and independent corroborating testimony linked the defendant to the brutal rape and murder of Mr. Crumbely, District Attorney George Gascn said following Tuesdays outcome.

Payne was 19 years old when Crumbleys body was found facedown at the intersection of John Shelley Drive and Mansell Street. Prosecutors said Crumbleys pants and underwear were pulled down to his ankles.

Prosecutors believe Payne killed Crumbley while the two were having sex in Crumbleys rental car, which was later found in Oaklands Lake Merritt.

Three years ago, cold case investigators tied DNA found in Crumbleys rectum to Payne, whose DNA had been entered in a criminal database after he assaulted a woman in 1984.

In January, Payne was charged with first-degree murder during the course of sodomy.

But the DNA evidence wasnt enough to convince nine jurors of Paynes guilt.

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DNA evidence fails to convince jury of man’s guilt in 1983 killing