StillDiggin
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You asked – we answer
Our appeal for this cold case mystery has had an excellent response.
People seemed really interested in the investigation and many of you left questions in the comments section.
So we decided to share the most common questions with our Cold Case Investigation Team.
They’re currently reviewing the case, which began with an anonymous phonecall in 1981 directing police to a woman’s remains near Sutton Bank. Despite a major investigation and DNA analysis, her identity remains a mystery.
Here’s what they had to say…
"Could commercial DNA services be used?"
Some online companies offer DNA analysis for people who are interested in their family history. Customers have to opt-in to share this information and the pool of data in the UK is relatively small. We’re looking into whether commercial DNA matching services could help us identify the woman. But there’s potentially other information out there that could help us...
"Were the ‘national security’ reasons cited by the caller valid?" ️
This was explored at the time and investigators believe it was not true. Tracing the call would be much easier nowadays, even if it was made from a phonebox, due to advances in technology, intelligence systems and more CCTV, which would likely record parts of the caller’s journey to that phonebox. But most of that technology didn’t exist in 1981 and the caller has never been traced.
"Why haven’t her children come forward?"
We know she had two or three children thanks to forensic analysis at the time. However, it’s possible these children died in childbirth or infancy, or were taken into care and never found out the identity of their mother. All these scenarios have been considered by investigators.
"The caller said the body was in a rosebay willowherb patch but not many people know what willowherb is. Was that used to narrow down the search for him?"
Yes it was – it would suggest he knew about nature. But in rural communities lots of people do so it wasn’t specific enough to target an investigation in a certain area. Plus it was near a main road, suggesting he could have been from out of the area. However, the plant was helpful to establish how long the remains had been at the location.
"Why couldn’t the DNA evidence taken in 2012 generate a match?"
There’s no match on the current police DNA database, which was established in 1996. So it would rely on one of her relatives committing a crime and joining the database, thereby allowing police to use techniques around familial DNA searches. These techniques are centred on the inheritance of the male chromosome, which affects how it can be used in this case.
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Our appeal for this cold case mystery has had an excellent response.
People seemed really interested in the investigation and many of you left questions in the comments section.
So we decided to share the most common questions with our Cold Case Investigation Team.
They’re currently reviewing the case, which began with an anonymous phonecall in 1981 directing police to a woman’s remains near Sutton Bank. Despite a major investigation and DNA analysis, her identity remains a mystery.
Here’s what they had to say…
"Could commercial DNA services be used?"
Some online companies offer DNA analysis for people who are interested in their family history. Customers have to opt-in to share this information and the pool of data in the UK is relatively small. We’re looking into whether commercial DNA matching services could help us identify the woman. But there’s potentially other information out there that could help us...
"Were the ‘national security’ reasons cited by the caller valid?" ️
This was explored at the time and investigators believe it was not true. Tracing the call would be much easier nowadays, even if it was made from a phonebox, due to advances in technology, intelligence systems and more CCTV, which would likely record parts of the caller’s journey to that phonebox. But most of that technology didn’t exist in 1981 and the caller has never been traced.
"Why haven’t her children come forward?"
We know she had two or three children thanks to forensic analysis at the time. However, it’s possible these children died in childbirth or infancy, or were taken into care and never found out the identity of their mother. All these scenarios have been considered by investigators.
"The caller said the body was in a rosebay willowherb patch but not many people know what willowherb is. Was that used to narrow down the search for him?"
Yes it was – it would suggest he knew about nature. But in rural communities lots of people do so it wasn’t specific enough to target an investigation in a certain area. Plus it was near a main road, suggesting he could have been from out of the area. However, the plant was helpful to establish how long the remains had been at the location.
"Why couldn’t the DNA evidence taken in 2012 generate a match?"
There’s no match on the current police DNA database, which was established in 1996. So it would rely on one of her relatives committing a crime and joining the database, thereby allowing police to use techniques around familial DNA searches. These techniques are centred on the inheritance of the male chromosome, which affects how it can be used in this case.
Log in or sign up to view
