The Forensic Files of Colin Pitchfork
The Devil Holds the Pitchfork
Ref: The Casebook of Forensic Detection, Colin Evans
Author Statement: To show DNA evidence was used to convict Colin Pitchfork. The fifteen year old girl, Lynda Mann, was found dead on the morning of November 22, 1983. She was located in a footpath in Narborough, England by a hospital porter making his way to work. She had been raped and strangled the night before, while headed to a friend’s house. Traces of semen showed that the murderer was a Group A secretor with a strong phosphoglucomutase (PHM) 1+ enzyme. These two factors are found in only 10 percent of the adult male population. Even though this wouldn’t identify the exact killer, it surely narrowed down the amount of suspects. In a rapid attempt to identify suspects, authorities went straight to the Carlton Hayes Mental Institution. When this failed, searches rooted out to nearby adjacent villages such as Enderby and Littlethorpe. Although detectives were hindered by every move they made, later they would realize that they had actually questioned the man during the sweep out. The computer had marked the man for two reasons, he had previous convictions for indecent exposure and he had been referred for therapy as an outpatient at the mental institution. The suspect had claimed to have been babysitting his son the night of the murder, and at the time of the murder he had lived a few miles outside of the probable catchment area, so he was dismissed as a suspect. Two years in a row, someone had left a small cross at the spot where Lynda’s body was found. Before it could happen a third year in a row, the murderer struck again. Dawn Ashworth, also age fifteen. She was from Enderby, and disappeared in broad daylight on July 31, 1986. Two days later, her torn up body was found less than a mile from where Lynda’s body was found. A kitchen porter at the Carlton Hayes Hospital knew an awful lot about the murder of Dawn Ashworth. Although a blood test showed that he wasn’t a PGM 1+,
Ref: The Casebook of Forensic Detection, Colin Evans
Author Statement: To show DNA evidence was used to convict Colin Pitchfork. The fifteen year old girl, Lynda Mann, was found dead on the morning of November 22, 1983. She was located in a footpath in Narborough, England by a hospital porter making his way to work. She had been raped and strangled the night before, while headed to a friend’s house. Traces of semen showed that the murderer was a Group A secretor with a strong phosphoglucomutase (PHM) 1+ enzyme. These two factors are found in only 10 percent of the adult male population. Even though this wouldn’t identify the exact killer, it surely narrowed down the amount of suspects. In a rapid attempt to identify suspects, authorities went straight to the Carlton Hayes Mental Institution. When this failed, searches rooted out to nearby adjacent villages such as Enderby and Littlethorpe. Although detectives were hindered by every move they made, later they would realize that they had actually questioned the man during the sweep out. The computer had marked the man for two reasons, he had previous convictions for indecent exposure and he had been referred for therapy as an outpatient at the mental institution. The suspect had claimed to have been babysitting his son the night of the murder, and at the time of the murder he had lived a few miles outside of the probable catchment area, so he was dismissed as a suspect. Two years in a row, someone had left a small cross at the spot where Lynda’s body was found. Before it could happen a third year in a row, the murderer struck again. Dawn Ashworth, also age fifteen. She was from Enderby, and disappeared in broad daylight on July 31, 1986. Two days later, her torn up body was found less than a mile from where Lynda’s body was found. A kitchen porter at the Carlton Hayes Hospital knew an awful lot about the murder of Dawn Ashworth. Although a blood test showed that he wasn’t a PGM 1+,