36: Colin Pitchfork & DNA Profiling

Explicit

In 1984 British Geneticist and lecturer at the University of Leicester, Alec Jeffreys developed a method to profile DNA whilst studying x-ray images of a DNA experiment. This was first tested publicly in an immigration case the following year -- Jeffreys developed profiles for a young British boy whose family was originally from Ghana, and profiles from the boy’s parents and compared them to prove that the boy was in fact their son.

In 1986, Alec Jeffreys’ DNA profiling technique was used for the first time in a criminal case that took place just five and a half miles from the university at which Alec Jeffreys developed the profiling technique.

On July 31 1986 15 year old Dawn Ashworth from Enderby, a small town near Leicester in central England, had gone to a friend’s house, her parents expected her home by 9.30 that night,  ...