Hope of new Madeleine McCann breakthrough as DNA expert offers to re-test samples to help solve mystery case
A DNA expert in the US could provide a breakthrough in the Madeleine McCann case after he offered to analyse samples held in the UK.
Dr Mark Perlin has claimed his Cybernetics lab in Pittsburgh, which was used to identify victims of the 9/11 terror attack, could get results after testing in the UK failed to get any meaningful evidence.
Madeleine McCann went missing on May 3, 2007 while her family were on holiday in Praia da Luz and Portuguese cops sent the samples taken during the investigation and sent them to the UK’s Forensic Science Service (FSS) in Birmingham.
But the evidence was said to be “too complex” for the team and did not have a “meaningful inclusion/interpretation”.
Dr Perlin told the : “Most of the apartment's samples were taken from the wall, floor, and skirting board. One item was from the curtains.
“The mixture evidence could contain DNA from an unknown person who was not a member of the immediate McCann family.
“However, we wouldn't know whether or not that stranger was actually an ‘intruder’.
POSSIBLE BREAKTHROUGH
"But the DNA results could provide an investigative lead, eg., for conducting a DNA database search to find the unknown person.
“And, once DNA from a suspected intruder became available, a TrueAllele comparison between the evidence and suspect would provide a match statistic.”
TrueAllele is a computer programme said to be able to analyse complex data, which Cybernetics has.
It uses a mathematical formula to determine statistical likelihood whether or not a particular genotype came from one person compared to another.
The programme is said to have been used in hundreds of cases since 2009.
However the Met have yet to respond to the offer and the doctor said that he would probably contact Maddie’s parents Kate and Gerry McCann in the near future to offer his services directly to them.
Should the samples be handed over to the Dr Perlin, he said it then should take just “one to two weeks” to be able to give a preliminary report.
The TrueAllele programme was recently used to help overturn the murder convictions of two American men who had been behind bars for more than 30 years.
Ralph Birch and Shawn Henning were convicted when they were teenagers of stabbing to death Everett Carr, 65, in 1985.
The Met Police said the investigation into the disappearance of Maddie was ongoing but would not provide a “running commentary”.
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