CASE STUDY: THE MURDER OF LEANNE TIERNAN
IMPORTANCE OF THE CASE-
Biggest search in the history. DNA of dog used for the first time in British Criminal Case.
When the forensic team examined Leanne’s body further, they also found several strands of dog hair. The hair was sent to scientists in Texas who produced a partial dog DNA profile. However, it turned out the dog he’d owned when Leanne disappeared had already died. Even though it never led to a conviction, this was the first time that dog DNA was used as forensic evidence in a British criminal case.
IMPORTANCE OF DNA??????
FACTS OF THE CASE:
Leanne Tiernan was a young girl who was murdered at the age of 16. Her body was found by a man walking his dog in Lindley Woods, Near Otley, in West Yorkshire buried in
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The police finally managed to get on to one such supplier who kept all the records of his customers and one of them being John Taylor who was also the person who was the poacher and the murderer. Due to this record from the supplier the police made John Taylor there primary suspect.
As one evidence is not enough to convict somebody with such a grave crime, the police further went on to investigate and collect other evidences, then they tracked down to a supplier in Devon who produced only one batch of such twines that were found/used to tie the body of Leanne and surprisingly, these twines which are so unusual also matched the twines found in john Taylor’s house.
One more thing the police noticed during investigation was that the cable ties used on Leanne were if a type used by the Royal Mail, and this was the parent company of John Taylor’s employer, Parcel Force . Later, when the police searched his house they found more of such cable ties and one of the dog collars. By the probe of investigation, involving a major hand of forensics, the police were able to find the murdered, John
There were no fingerprints found, but fiber evidence and biological evidence were collected at the scene. The reported time of death was 10:00pm Sunday night. We conducted a series of experiments to find the guilty suspect. There was a total of five suspects. Suspect one is Brandy Smith, John’s current girlfriend, she did have a strong motive to kill John; He had gone out with his ex and Brandy was very mad.
I have called in Ariya Shelton and Abigail Eaves to assist me on this investigation. We are now at the residence of Jacquelyn Boddy. Everybody split up to go look for her. We found her dead body in the library. The weapon was not found with the body. Her neck was severely burned and bruised. After searching the library the weapon still was not found. But soon we found the weapon in the hall. It was a bloody rope.
How the hair of fiber made a connection for the case: Leanne Tiernan was found dead by a man that was walking his dog. She had a black plastic bag over her head, held in place with a dog collar, with a scarf and cable tie around her neck, and cable ties holding her wrists together.The scarf tied around Leanne Tiernan’s neck had a few hairs caught in the knot. Forensic scientists found a strand of pink carpet fibre on her clothes, with specific patterns of dye. Police found strands around a nail that matched the fibre on her jumper leading to the police arresting John Taylor.
Leanne Tiernan, aged 16 years old from Bramley, Leeds, disappeared on 26th November 2000 after a shopping trip in her home town. Her body was found in August 2001 in Lindley Woods, West Yorkshire by a dog walker. Familial DNA testing and animal DNA testing helped with developments of the case and towards the arrest of John Taylor. Leanne’s body was found by a dog walker in Lindsey Woods, West Yorkshire roughly 10 miles from her home. Her body was found wrapped in plastic bags with her hands tied up with plastic cable ties.
While investigations were going on to determine how victims died, there was a discovery of fibers on the victims’ bodies. The goal of the investigator was to determine if any fibers in Wayne Williams home or person matched those fibers found on the victims. Williams denied killing
When Wayne Williams was trialed for the death of two victims, DNA testing was not a reliable source in courtrooms as evident (Polk, 2015). A conviction could have been rendered without the fiber evidence in this case. The prosecution had a strong case in providing the evidence from the DNA of the hair obtained from the crime scene. On February 13, 1981, when Patrick Baltazar's body was found dumped down a wooded slope behind an office park (Polk, 2015). A forensic scientist discovered two human scalp hairs inside Baltazar's shirt. The DNA sample was tested under a microscope by both the FBI and Royal Canadian Mounted Police (Polk, 2015). The hair sample was consistent with Wayne William's DNA. This placed William at the scene of the crime. The
Today in the crime world, DNA evidence is strongly accepted in solving crime cases. This is all based in part by allowing a crime laboratory to have a designated unit whose main goal is to analyze DNA evidence to aid investigators with positive outcomes in crime case solving. With that being said we are going to discuss the functions of a DNA unit within a crime lab as well as address the vital role these units play in solving crime.
That’s the 2nd one in 3 weeks, exclaimed Detective Clyde Allen saying this while looking down at the brainless body in the dumpster. ‘’it’s past the coindences, were looking for an individual. These murders must be connected in someway. ‘’ said Allen’s partner Karl Jefferies. Seeing there are no witnesses to these crimes we’re going to have to see if there is a connection between the threee and that might give us a lead’’ said Allen to Jefferies.
This paper explores the history and some interesting facts about DNA. The last couple centuries have seen an exponential growth in our knowledge of DNA. The history of the DNA can be traced back to multiple devoted scientist. This article attempts to summarize, and review the basic history of DNA while providing some fascinating information about it.
Beginning in the mid-1980s, the development of DNA analysis technology has revolutionised the field of forensic science within the criminal justice system. As the refinement of procedures and technology continues, even minute samples of biological material (including blood, saliva, semen and skin cells) are able to be analysed and used to link or acquit perpetrators of crimes. (Whitney, R n.d.)
Unfortunately, this did not deliver any further clues (Crime Investigation, 2015). There were numerous reports of potential sightings of Tiernan, which police investigated, but to no avail (Crime Investigation, 2015). Complicating the police search was the fact that the area in which Leanne Tiernan had disappeared consisted of vastly varying terrain (Crime Investigation, 2015). Police conducted an extensive house to house investigation and the search eventually grew enormous, involving uniformed officers, operational support, the dog section, the mounted section, underwater search and air support (Crime Investigation, 2015). Disappointedly, no indication of Leanne Tiernan was found (Crime Investigation, 2015). Nine months after she disappeared, on Monday, 20th of August 2001, a man out walking his dog in Lindley Woods, stumbled across Leanne Tiernan’s body, near Otley on the border of North and West Yorkshire, 16 miles from her house and several miles from the scene of the crime (Elvidge, 2016). She was wrapped in a floral duvet cover and buried in a shallow
In October of 2001 John Taylor was arrested for the murder of Leanne Tiernan due to the abundance of evidence that was found in regards to her murder. Due to the study of the pollen they were able to clearly say Leanne was at John Taylor’s place for certain. John Taylor was later given 2 more life convictions for 2 rapes he committed and they were able to say that he did them because of DNA
DNA from animals and plants can also be utilized in criminal forensics. One of the most common applications of this is the analysis of pet hair from a crime scene, which often links its owner to the crime. DNA fingerprints have also been applied to cannabis plants, and a database is being created to trace samples to their sources. This has been extremely successful so far, as this technology can distinguish between closely related, carefully bred plants (Westphal, 2003). Heather Miller Coyle of the Connecticut
Due to the uniqueness of DNA it has become a powerful tool in criminal investigations
This paper examines Carrell et al’s research along with three other scholarly research articles to better understand the effects that the DNA recovered from a crime scene has on a particular case and the forensic science community.