Cat DNA Readings Link Killer to Dismembered Torso
Cat DNA was used for the first time in the UK court system to convict a man who last month was arrested for manslaughter, supporting the argument that a cat DNA database could be useful in helping to solve crimes.
Dave Hilder was convicted of manslaughter on Wednesday after DNA from cat hair left behind at a crime scene linked Hilder to his next door neighbor, 30-year-old David Guy. Guy's dismembered torso was discovered last July in a garbage bag at a British beach.
Cat hair found in the trash bag with the dismembered body was linked back to Guy's next-door neighbor, Hilder, through DNA testing. But it was the cat database that helped strengthen the case against Hilder. While the cat hair found on Guys' body proved a match to Hilder's cat, the strength of the sample could only be proved if the cat hair was compared to multiple other cat hair DNA samples as well.
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"This is the first time cat DNA has been used in a criminal trial in the UK," Jon Wetton, who led the project, told USA Today. "This could be a real boon for forensic science, as the 10 million cats in the UK are unwittingly tagging the clothes and furnishings in more than a quarter of households."
When the cat hair was taken from the evidence, Wetton explained that it was not a perfect match.
"Only three of the samples obtained matched the hairs from the crime scene," he said in a statement. Without being able to compare other samples and prove the rarity of matching cat DNA, the results may have been less convincing.
While cat hair has never led to an actual conviction in the past, it has still aided crime scene investigators. In 1994 police discovered that an estranged husband had murdered his wife after hair belonging to the man's cat was discovered in a coat left behind at the crime scene.
