DNA Phantom

[dellwak]

I don’t know if any of you have been following this story.
For those of you who can read German, here is a link.

http://www.morgenpost.de/printarchiv/seite3/article1062541/Der_Wattestaebchen_Skandal.html

For the rest, here is the story so far.
Over the last two years or so, the police in Germany have been reporting the activities of a serial murderess.
She has been involved in crimes of murder and theft all over south-west Germany and evidence of her activities have also popped up in other parts of the country.
Her most spectacular crime was the shooting of a young police woman and her partner. The police woman died and her partner was seriously injured.
The police have offered rewards for information leading to the arrest of this woman and have issued identikit pictures of her supposed accomplice.
They knew that this terrible woman was involved in more than 40 crimes over the last two years because they have always found the DNA traces that she has left behind.
Now it has been discovered that these DNA traces belong to a woman who works for the company who make the cotton wool buds that the police pathologists use to collect DNA evidence from crime scenes. It seems that she hasn’t been quite as careful as one would expect when packing these sterile buds.

[anneoctober]

I don’t know if any of you have been following this story.
For those of you who can read German, here is a link.

http://www.morgenpost.de/printarchiv/seite3/article1062541/Der_Wattestaebchen_Skandal.html

For the rest, here is the story so far.
Over the last two years or so, the police in Germany have been reporting the activities of a serial murderess.
She has been involved in crimes of murder and theft all over south-west Germany and evidence of her activities have also popped up in other parts of the country.
Her most spectacular crime was the shooting of a young police woman and her partner. The police woman died and her partner was seriously injured.
The police have offered rewards for information leading to the arrest of this woman and have issued identikit pictures of her supposed accomplice.
They knew that this terrible woman was involved in more than 40 crimes over the last two years because they have always found the DNA traces that she has left behind.
Now it has been discovered that these DNA traces belong to a woman who works for the company who make the cotton wool buds that the police pathologists use to collect DNA evidence from crime scenes. It seems that she hasn’t been quite as careful as one would expect when packing these sterile buds.

What a relief ! I thought you were going to say that her DNA linked her to Caithness.....

[dellwak]

Here is a link in english for anyone interested
http://www.time.com/time/world/artic...888126,00.html

[joxville]

Does the place that makes the cotton buds only have one person packing them? Also, wouldn't you think that cotton buds, which will be used in various applications, be packaged in a sterile environment and require the packer to wear gloves?

[dellwak]

According to the manufacturer, the police did not specify that the buds would be used for collecting DNA evidence. So no special precautions were taken apart from making sure they were sterile.

[Stefan]

Does the place that makes the cotton buds only have one person packing them? Also, wouldn't you think that cotton buds, which will be used in various applications, be packaged in a sterile environment and require the packer to wear gloves?

They must all wear gloves as that would be checked. Maybe the person in question has hay fever and keeps sneezing on them?
However, the police would have to specify if they needed sterile cotton buds as they should be sterile but are not guaranteed to be unless specified....

[Fluff]

God could you imagine if she got arrested for something trivial like a parking ticket!

[wifie]

Surely the buds are packed by a machine!

[canuck]

Does the place that makes the cotton buds only have one person packing them? Also, wouldn't you think that cotton buds, which will be used in various applications, be packaged in a sterile environment and require the packer to wear gloves?

DNA knowledge has advanced leaps and bounds since I studied microbiology, but I don't think that it is destroyed by sterilization, so hand handled items would still have DNA traces even if sterilized after the fact. But then maybe the expression 'sterile' environment means an uncontaminated environment not just one free of bacteria and virus.

[Metalattakk]

Now it has been discovered that these DNA traces belong to a woman who works for the company who make the cotton wool buds that the police pathologists use to collect DNA evidence from crime scenes. It seems that she hasn’t been quite as careful as one would expect when packing these sterile buds.

I don't believe it. I think she's guilty. GUILTY, I say.

They should hang her.

No, hang on (), hanging's too good for her. They should burn her at the stake.

No wait, they should hang her, then cut bits off her, and burn the bits at the stake. Yeah, that'll teach her to commit all those heinous crimes.

Well, DNA evidence can't be wrong, eh?