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Sweden: man goes on trial for 2004 murder after DNA matched to genealogy site:
A 37-year-old Swedish man has gone on trial for double murder after two killings that went unsolved for more than 15 years until police matched his DNA on a popular genealogy website.
Daniel Nyqvist, who confessed to the crime shortly after his arrest last June, has been charged with the 2004 murder of a 56-year-old woman and an eight-year-old boy.
The two victims – who were unrelated – were stabbed in a random act in the quiet southern Swedish town of Linkoping [sic Linköping].
The crime shocked the nation, with investigators unable to come up with either a perpetrator or a motive, despite finding the suspect’s DNA at the scene, the weapon that was used, a bloody cap and witness descriptions of a young man with blond hair.
Police even called upon the FBI for help, but to no avail. Over the years, the case file grew to become the second biggest in Sweden’s history, after that of the 1986 murder of former prime minister Olof Palme.
The case was finally cracked when new legislation in January 2019 allowed police to search for matches to suspects’ DNA on commercial genealogy websites, which are popular among Swedes seeking long-lost relatives.
[...] “We received a match almost immediately. And several months later, the suspect could be arrested. His DNA was taken and matched 100%,” police said in a statement the day after his arrest.
How much might other repositories uncover, and are any fundamental freedoms violated by so trawling?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday September 22 2020, @02:04AM (4 children)
What it can do is sweep the innocent into suspicion of things they never did. Police can be lazy, prosecutors can take the easy conviction rather than seeking the truth, and your DNA can end up lots of places you have never been.
The biggest mass murderer suspect after DNA testing started was an unknown woman, her DNA was found at dozens of unsolved crime scenes all over Europe for many years. Even when there were other killers convicted with confessions - her DNA was found there. Many years later, it turns out she worked in the cotton swab manufacturer used by the crime labs.
You will have no such alibi when your DNA ends up under the broken fingernails of a murder victim in the county dump because they happened to end up next to a bandage you threw away around the time of her disposal.
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 22 2020, @03:28AM
Yea, that happens a lot. Much more common than DNA actually pointing to the perpetrator. Slightly less common than aliens framing people for crimes.
(Score: 2) by requerdanos on Tuesday September 22 2020, @03:47AM (2 children)
Exactly. A DNA "match" from a DNA registry is not "100% matched" as if each and every chromosome is tested (contrary to police quote above). More like "100% of the markers we tested totally matched," which leaves most of the DNA untested.
Meaning that anyone having markers in common will likely be assumed to be guilty, and be investigated as guilty, by any police agencies involved in such work.
In the US, this would be a big 4th amendment [nccs.net] no-no, not to say that that prevents it from happening--just that it's a bad thing in that it violates the right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure.
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Tuesday September 22 2020, @04:08AM
so the superstitious are ahead of the curve?
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Tuesday September 22 2020, @04:11AM
https://www.bartleby.com/196/51.html [bartleby.com]
oops - missed the link
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex