Medindia » Consumer Health » Health Information » DNA Finger Printing - A Boon to Solving Criminal Cases
Disease Info Index
Page Options
find a doctor

DNA Fingerprinting

DNA Fingerprinting - A Boon to Solving Criminal Cases

RSS Feeds   Text 
In 1983, on a narrow footpath that passed by a psychiatric hospital in the central English village of Narborough, 15-year old Lynda Mann was raped and strangled. Investigating detectives found new substantive clues. Conventional forensic tests on recovered semen, for example, could only narrow the identity of the killer to about 10% of the population. Despite a year wide-ranging police work, the case was eventually dropped when hundreds of leads all proved futile.

Three years later, 15 year old Dawn Ashworth was similarly sexually attacked and slain within a few hundred yards of the first crime and semen was again recovered from a vaginal swab. Richard Buckland, a 17 year old kitchen worker who had known the victim was arrested and after extensive interrogation, confessed to the rape and murder.

The Lynda Mann was reopened and the samples were sent to a Professor Alec Jeffreys at a nearby university. He had developed the novel technique of DNA fingerprinting and using it, he concluded that both girls had been raped by the same man, but the man was not Buckland. Infact, Buckland mentally a bit dull and easily confused -had not even fit into the 10 % class of possible suspects.

Men and teenage boys in Narborough and nearby villages were asked voluntarily submit to blood drawing and any blood that met the right criteria was sent to the Professor for analysis. The police hoped that this massive undertaking would somehow flush out the killer. After thousands of samples nothing turned up.

Colin Pitchfolk, a 28 year old bakery worker who was well known for creative cake decoration had not given blood when his notice was sent. He had used a falsified identification document regarding his community. This was reported to the police by his coworkers. Pitchfork's blood was the last of 4583 to be drawn and tested. His DNA proved a perfect match to the genetic fingerprint obtained from the semen samples.

The technology today has proved to be so powerful that even the blood-stained clothing of Abraham Lincoln was used and the DNA analyzed for evidence of a genetic disorder called Marfan's Syndrome.

Share it!
Comment & Contribute
Comments should be on the topic and should not be abusive. Comments are normally moderated and are reviewed after they are posted.
* Your comment can be maximum of 2500 characters

Notify me when reply is posted
I agree to the terms and conditions
  
If you have a question about health related issues, you can now post it in our Ask An Expert section on our community website Medwonders.com and get answers from our panel of experts.
Posted by:  Shivani17  Posted on: 08/30/2011
why do we use VNTR's inspite of bulk DNA ? How VNTR's are related to introns ?



Posted by:  qq101(Guest)  Posted on: 06/16/2010
dna can detect criminals such as stealing and more


Posted by:  guest  Posted on: 06/23/2010
YAH IT CAN DETECT. AND IS VERY HELPFUL FOR POLICE.




Posted by:  dimple payal(Guest)  Posted on: 11/26/2008
please tell me method of dnafingerprinting or its mechanism...


Posted by:  guest  Posted on: 08/19/2009
DNA fingerprinting uses electorphoresis, very basically samples are put into aragose gel, through which a current is passed causing the samples to move through the gel. the smaller parts of DNA move faster so the DNA sample is broken out into bands according to its makeup, the bands of different DNA samples can then be compared. i think that is right, if you search gel electrophoresis there a few sites that can tell you more




Posted by:  guest  Posted on: 05/15/2007
Which situations[ biological]donot permit to implement DNA analysis/fingerprinting? That is even the cells are dead [ recent or thousands of year old-Mummy],can DNA be extracted and evaluated?


Posted by:  guest  Posted on: 01/08/2009
what does a mummy have to do with anything??



Posted by:  qq101(Guest)  Posted on: 06/16/2010
yes




X
Related Links
Alzheimer's Disease 
Genetic Counseling 
Citing this Health Article
The information on Medindia is factual, unbiased and authentic. If you find the content useful - PLEASE INCLUDE A LINK TO THIS PAGE.

Highlight the text, right-click, and select “copy”. Paste the link into your website, email, or any other HTML document.

News on DNA Finger Printing
* Some Forms of Severe Combined Immunodeficiency can be Rectified by Gene Therapy
* Gene Behind Chronic Inflammation Accelerated Aging and Cancer Identified
* DNA Vaccine and Duck Eggs Shields from Hantavirus Disease: Army Study
* Scientists Map Gene Sequence of Drug Resistant VRSA
* Gene Therapy Aids Kids With Rare, Untreatable Brain Disease for the Better
Total News Item 1819
Are you a member of Facebook? Become a fan of Medindia and get breaking news delivered to your Facebook page.