OMEN
02-09-2009, 10:34 PM
Detectives investigating the murder of a German student in Northern Ireland 20 years ago say they want to speak to a number of women.
A DNA sample taken from the Co Antrim forest where Inga Maria Hauser's body was found in 1988 has been shown to match the profiles of a number of women stored on the UK genetic database.
Police now want to contact these women in an attempt to eliminate any of their male relatives from their enquiries.
Detective Superintendent Raymond Murray said DNA science was developing all the time.
'We can infer from the way that DNA characteristics are inherited that there is a possibility, and no more than that, that in this small female group there is a male relative's DNA profile which could match the DNA profile from the crime scene', he said.
The 18-year-old from the Munich area was found dead in a remote part of Ballypatrick Forest on the outskirts of Ballycastle in April 1988.
Police say she had been subjected to a vicious and ruthless assault.
The backpacker had arrived in Larne on a ferry from Scotland and police believe she died shortly afterwards.
Forensic scientists found a DNA sample from a male at the crime scene.
However, despite extensive investigations, he has never been identified.
Members of the local community have already cooperated extensively in a voluntary DNA screening process.
RTE
A DNA sample taken from the Co Antrim forest where Inga Maria Hauser's body was found in 1988 has been shown to match the profiles of a number of women stored on the UK genetic database.
Police now want to contact these women in an attempt to eliminate any of their male relatives from their enquiries.
Detective Superintendent Raymond Murray said DNA science was developing all the time.
'We can infer from the way that DNA characteristics are inherited that there is a possibility, and no more than that, that in this small female group there is a male relative's DNA profile which could match the DNA profile from the crime scene', he said.
The 18-year-old from the Munich area was found dead in a remote part of Ballypatrick Forest on the outskirts of Ballycastle in April 1988.
Police say she had been subjected to a vicious and ruthless assault.
The backpacker had arrived in Larne on a ferry from Scotland and police believe she died shortly afterwards.
Forensic scientists found a DNA sample from a male at the crime scene.
However, despite extensive investigations, he has never been identified.
Members of the local community have already cooperated extensively in a voluntary DNA screening process.
RTE