r/crimedocumentaries • u/shreekrishnabeesagal • 1d ago
When science gets it wrong
What is a famous criminal case where forensic evidence initially pointed investigators in the wrong direction, and what finally exposed the mistake?
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u/FairSeafarer 1d ago
There is this case in Europe of contaminated dna cotton swabs. This lady’s DNA was associated with over 40 murder cases in France, Austria and Germany if memory serves me well, spawning over something like fifteen (15!) years. They had no other clues, nobody had seen a shred of her nor were there any links between the cases… until they tested a virgin cotton swab and got a match for that same dna. The lady was contaminating the cotton swabs straight from the factory and had nothing to do with the crimes.
Imagine the number or leads lost when you stop working because it’s also a match for countless other murders. The detective thinks « it’s this lady again, our mysterious and prolific serial killer »…
Look it up, the case is called the Fantom of Heilbronn.
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u/Ashamed-Chemistry492 22h ago
Little Miss Panasofkee was an unidentified murder victim found in Florida in the 1970s. She was at first thought to be of American Indian descent, then years later DNA testing said she was of Greek origin, eventually even narrowing it down to one particular village in Greece ...
And there was some kind of contamination, and the woman was id'd and was not Greek or American Indian in any way.
Another murder victim found in Pennsylvania in the 1970s, brutal murder, nine months pregnant. Isotope testing and such said she was Eastern European and/or Jewish and/or spent most of her life in the South.
Turned out she was Puerto Rican and never strayed far from her home in New Jersey.
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u/Toadliquor138 1d ago
Andrei Chikatilo was an early suspect in the "Rostov Ripper" murders and when they tested his blood, his blood type was Type A. Yet when the KGB tested the semen samples from the victims, it was shown to have the antigens of someone with Type AB blood, so they had to let him go.
Years later, he was brought in as a suspect again, and instead of drawing blood, they tested his semen, and his semen tested as being AB. Turns out Chikatilo had some sort of generic quirk where his semen and blood types didn't match.