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The murder of a Harvard grad student -

In January 1969, Harvard grad student Jane Britton was found dead in her apartment after she failed to show up for an exam.

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The murder of a Harvard grad student -

The cause of her death was blunt force trauma, but the case went unsolved for over 40 years. It was only thanks to forensic advances that a breakthrough was made in 2012.

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The murder of a Harvard grad student -

The DNA on the preserved evidence was found to match that of a serial sex offender and murderer who had been convicted back in 1973.

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The girl in the bath tub -

In December 1977, the body of 16-year old Sharon Schollmeyer was found in her apartment. She had been raped and strangled to death, and was lying in six inches of bath water.

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The girl in the bath tub -

The evidence was waterlogged, which meant that DNA could not be extracted at the time. The mystery was finally solved in 2013, thanks to the advent of the M-Vac.

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The girl in the bath tub -

The M-Vac allows scientists to extract DNA from waterlogged material. It turned out the perpetrator of the crime was the building manager at Schollmeyer’s apartment.

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Murder in Utah -

The body of Krystal Beslanowitch was found in 1995. She was discovered along the Provo River in Utah and her skull had been crushed.

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Murder in Utah -

The suspected murder weapon was a rock, but at the time it was all but impossible to extract DNA from the surface of a rock. Enter the M-Vac.

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Murder in Utah -

DNA was extracted from the rock in question and it matched that of convicted murderer Joseph Michael Simpson, who had recently been released from prison at the time of the murder.

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The murder of Buckskin girl -

When the body of Marcia Lenore King was found in April 1981, it was without identification, and no one came forward looking for a woman matching her description. No one knew her name, and so she became known as the "Buckskin Girl," because she was wearing a buckskin poncho at the time of her murder.

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The murder of Buckskin girl -

Before burying her, investigators took photos of the woman’s face. Thanks to advances in forensic facial reconstruction, scientists were finally able to identify the victim in 2018.

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Sierra Bouzigard -

After Sierra Bouzigard was found murdered in Louisiana in 2009, the case soon went cold. The DNA evidence didn’t match anyone in the database.

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Sierra Bouzigard -

Six years later, thanks to the development of DNA phenotyping, forensic scientists were able to simulate what the killer would probably have looked like.

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Sierra Bouzigard -

The sketch was quickly recognized and the perpetrator of the crime was brought to justice. In another twist to the story, in 2018 he was found hanging in jail.

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The murderer who gave himself up -

After Marianne Vaatstra was found raped and murdered in 1999 in the Netherlands, the case went unsolved for years. Again, the DNA evidence failed to match anything in the system.

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The murderer who gave himself up -

In 2012, police revisited the case and asked all the men living within a five-mile radius of the crime scene to submit their DNA.

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The murderer who gave himself up -

One respondent to this appeal was a match, a middle-aged neighbor who willingly submitted his DNA to the police. Case closed.

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Christmas Eve killing -

On Christmas Eve 2001, Kevin Butler was stabbed to death in his apartment, along with his pet cockatoo, Bird.

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Christmas Eve killing - Investigators found human DNA in Bird’s beak and claws, and it turned out to be a match with someone Butler had financial trouble with.

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Christmas Eve killing -

When it was discovered that the man in question had wounds consistent with being pecked and clawed by a cockatoo, the case was solved.

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The murder of Leanne Tiernan - The murder of Leanne Tiernan in 2001 was also solved thanks to pet DNA. Her body was found buried in a shallow grave in West Yorkshire, England. 

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The murder of Leanne Tiernan -

The forensics team found strands of dog hair on the 16-year-old’s body, which they then matched to a dog owned by a man who hunted in the woods near the scene of the crime.

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The murder of Leanne Tiernan -

This was the first time DNA from a dog had been used to solve a murder; if it hadn’t been for that dog hair, the case may never have been solved.

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The disappearance of Shirley Duguay -

Forensic scientists are also able to use cat DNA to solve mysteries. When Shirley Duguay went missing from her home in Prince Edward Island, Canada, in 1994, police suspected her ex-boyfriend.

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The disappearance of Shirley Duguay -

They would not have been able to connect him to her disappearance, however, had it not been for the 20 white cat hairs found in her blood-stained jacket and shoes.

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The disappearance of Shirley Duguay -

Forensic scientists compared the DNA in the cat hairs to that belonging to the ex-boyfriend’s cat and, sure enough, it was a match.

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Catching Ted Bundy -

In 1978, three women were found murdered at Florida State University. One of the women’s bodies was found with distinctive bite marks on it.

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Catching Ted Bundy -

A forensics expert testified at the trial that the marks matched the teeth of Ted Bundy, who was a suspect in several other murders at the time.

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Catching Ted Bundy -

Although bite mark impressions would not be admissible evidence today, it was enough to convince the jury at the time. Ted Bundy was convicted as a serial murderer and executed in 1989.

Sources: (Reader's Digest) (National Institute of Standards and Technology)

See also: Unsolved murders of the ancient world

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