So this is the story of the mysterious serial killer know as "The woman without a face." Now, what's so interesting about this woman is that she had police all across Europe looking for her, for 15 years, in connection with at least 6 brutal murders and a string of break ins.
Her DNA was found in connection with over 40 different cases, but that was the only clue to her involvement, that she ever left behind.
The first DNA found, connect to "the woman without a face" was in May 1993, on a teacup, at the home of a 62 year old German woman who had been strangled with a length of wire, that had originally been used to hold together a bunch of flowers.
And from that day on the same female DNA kept recurring at different crimes scenes all over Germany and Europe.
The police were baffled and started to DNA test over 3,000 homeless women, who were drug users and had a record of serious crime. But they were never able to find a DNA match.
When in 2007, a German police woman was shot dead in her BMW patrol car, and again, the DNA of "the woman without a face" was found to be present at the scene, they must have become even more infuriated at their inability to locate her.
They even put up a 3 million Euro reward, for anyone who could give them information that might lead to her arrest. Along with this they claimed that the reason the woman left no other traces of her presence beyond her DNA, was that she wore gloves.
But then after 15 years of searching, with her DNA continuing to turn up at a multitude of crime scenes, something very odd happened.
Police in France, on taking a swab from the charred remains of a male asylum seeker in an attempt to determine his identification, again found the DNA of "the woman without a face."
This instantly raised the suspicion, that the DNA that had been being found all over Europe at multiple crime scenes, was not DNA at the scene but DNA that had already been present on the swab.
German police who had been leading the hunt said "They had probably been involved in one of the longest and most perplexing wild goose chases in criminal history." With police spokesman Josef Schneider admitting "This is a very embarrassing story."
Now police investigators have established that the DNA had probably not been left by their quarry but by a German woman working for the German medical company, supply the swabs, who had inadvertently contaminated them.
Police have now launched an investigation into the methods used to produce the cotton swabs, in an attempt to establish, exactly how they became contaminated.
Can you imagine the frustration the police must have felt, who were involved in this case. All these years trying to catch "the woman with out a face" only to discover she was nothing more than a German factory working, just going about her job.
Having to revisit all those cases too. To try and uncover new evidence, after most of it has no doubt been destroyed or contaminated, over time.
We can laugh about their blunder, but the reality is, this blunter probably left to a lot of bad people continuing to roam freely and able to repeat their crimes again and again while the police were sent on a wild goose chase.
What do you think about this blunder? Are you as shocked as I was at how long it took for them to realise their mistake? feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments below.
love and hugs all
Joss xx
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