DNA identifies murder suspect after 20 years

[tosharetoshare]

A really sad story but an amazing day for the family and Dutch police to be able to identify a 100% DNA match 20 years after an 11-year-old boy was murdered in mysterious circumstances in the Netherlands.

The boy, Nicky Verstappen, was killed while on a camping trip and his family have never had clear answers as to what actually happened. More than 15,000 men from the region voluntarily gave DNA as part of a large-scale investigation announced in January.

The man who turned out to be a 100% DNA match has been missing since February and is now being sought by police.

Article and photos: nltimes.nl/2018/08/22/suspect-identified-20-years-dutch-boys-murder-still-large

The man who turned out to be a 100% DNA match has been missing since February and is now being sought by police.

Would they have tried familial matching, if they hadn't got 100% match first pass ?

I don't think DNA is ever '100%'? Particularly 20 year old DNA

I don't think DNA is ever '100%'? Particularly 20 year old DNA

I let that slip as a result of shit reporting .

Now reading the article it seems the suspect was originally identified as a result of familial matching. Thus rendering my initial question redundant.

Of course far more newsworthy is the use of familial matching in the first place. Because I have to wonder at what stage will we start punishing the relatives of people like this because we can ?

Yes, the purpose of the DNA-gathering was to aim to find a familial match. Even 18- and 19-year-olds were asked to supply DNA for testing, although they weren't even born at the time that Nicky Verstappen died, because their DNA could lead police to a family member. According to an article I just read (sorry, in Dutch) this has been legal in the Netherlands since 2012.

I don't believe this man gave DNA but I'm not 100% sure; I think the assumption is that he deliberately disappeared rather than get caught up in the whole thing.

There was another historic murder case in the Netherlands in which voluntary regional DNA testing resulted in a murderer being caught - he gave a sample because he knew that they would get him anyway via his relatives. (I'll include the link because it would be strange not to, but I do want to stress that I'm very aware that this is about real people losing their lives.) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Marianne_Vaatstra

And a similar case last year in which someone was found through a relative: www.dutchnews.nl/news/2017/12/police-arrest-murder-suspect-in-25-year-old-cold-case-breakthrough/

I am glad for Nicky’s family that he’s been identified but I really hope he’s found and convicted.

This is just the beginning of justice, it must be deeply painful for Nicky’s family to never have had justice or any peace.

Mind you whole familial DNA thing is a head pickler. I’m adopted, so apart from my kids have never met anyone biologically related to me!

I don't think DNA is ever '100%'? Particularly 20 year old DNA

In fairness, that's what the police said at the press conference (direct translation). I suppose they didn't want to trouble us with science .

Rossetti, I'm not sure exactly what you mean about punishing relatives? In what way?

All super stuff, and all swerving the question posed .

As we build bigger and bigger databases, and no one can manage their own data profile anymore, how - if at all - are we going to manage in a world where we can't actually find a murderer, but can tell you who their cousins and siblings are. Even if said cousins and siblings didn't know they had a relative ?????

To be honest, I'm surprised it hasn't happened already (or maybe it has, but not in English ). Imagine the scene ... horrid murder ... DNA trawl ... a knock at the door, and a family learns for the first time that Mum - or Dad - had a secret child ?

It could happen.

And from there, it's but a short scriptwrite to imagine a situation where said family is punished as they must know the whereabouts of said suspect.

DNA has finally caught the Original Night Stalker serial killer from the 70s/80s.

Came about because a family member of his added themselves to one of those discover your origins dna database websites. It got flagged as a family match for some dna which the police knew was from the killer and had added to the database.

I’m adopted, so apart from my kids have never met anyone biologically related to me!

That you know of.

I was at a public science event once, and a geneticist got everyone to shake hands with the person next to them, and then told us we'd just met our fifth cousins ....

edition.cnn.com/2018/04/25/us/golden-state-killer-development/index.html

I think the days of us being able to manage what information about us is public/easily available are long gone.

Unless you don’t vote, have a bank account, drive, work, use the NHS, pay bills or anything else.

DNA also caught the bastard that wasted the time of the Yorkshire Ripper team with the "Geordie Jack" letter and tape.

That you know of

Fair point, although my bio father is Spanish and I’ve never been to Spain and my parents moved hundreds of miles from where I was born so it’s unlikely that I’ve met any close bio relatives.

Did it? I always wondered what happened with Geordie Jack!

This is just the beginning of justice, it must be deeply painful for Nicky’s family to never have had justice or any peace.

I know hen, I can't even imagine (thank God). His mother spoke a few words at the press conference, thanking the crime journalist Peter R. de Vries who read a very well-worded statement on behalf of the family. She broke down. And I broke down listening to the statement, in which De Vries gave just one heartbreaking example of how much the family has been affected by these 20 years of.... uncertainty doesn't even begin to describe it!

His poor mummy. My heart just broke for her.

I can’t imagine how awful it must be for her, and for his dad too.

My friend was murdered, and that was hard enough! The trial and conviction helped with the grieving process, and Nicky’s family have been denied that. So sad.

I think the days of us being able to manage what information about us is public/easily available are long gone.

Oh, for sure.

Which is why it would be a good idea to think about safeguards in advance of the damage that can be done, rather than when it's in the rear-view mirror.

I don't think either of these are particularly new developments, though, are they?

First successful use of familial searching in the UK was in 2003 with the Michael Little case. There was a 26 year old murder solved in 2009 by use of familial DNA.

www.theguardian.com/uk/2009/dec/21/crimewatch-first-case-solved-26-years

Aye fair point.

It formed a plotline in "Law and Order:SVU" a few years back. I vaguely recall it's explicitly banned in some US states ?

To be honest, I'm surprised it hasn't happened already (or maybe it has, but not in English smile). Imagine the scene ... horrid murder ... DNA trawl ... a knock at the door, and a family learns for the first time that Mum - or Dad - had a secret child?

That rang a bell yesterday but I didn't have time to look for it until just now:

From: www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/02/yara-gamirasio-murder-massimo-bossetti-dna-evidence-italy-guilty-verdict

"Through a sample given by a relative of Giuseppe Guerinoni, who had died in 1999, police found the DNA evidence was a close match to the deceased and in 2013 decided to exhume his body.

Further tests confirmed the suspected killer was Guerinoni’s illegitimate son, sparking a hunt throughout the area to discover who had borne him a child decades earlier. It wasn’t until June 2014 that police pinpointed Bossetti as the chief suspect, through a DNA match with his mother, Ester Arzuffi, who was married and has denied the affair with Guerinoni.

The breadth of the police investigation revealed a number of other illegitimate children and affairs, including allegations by two men who claimed to have had affairs with Bossetti’s wife."

Longer explanation: www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/08/-sp-the-murder-that-has-obsessed-italy