General Chat

They might find blood and that would indicate injury but to assume death they would have to find an amount of blood, the loss of which would be incompatible with life. Abigail

only if there is enough evidence Lucia

I am not yet convinced of the reliability of DNA evidence. It is all very well for scientists to go on about strands of DNA which are totally invisible except under a really powerful microscope, but what if they have the strands upside down? Or worse yet, a strand of DNA from a flake of your dead skin which, blowing in the wind, settled on the victim's body.

This is a bit of a raw nerve in a town near us, Lisa. The case that Paul mentioned is that of a missing girl called Charlotte Pinkney from Ilfracombe, Devon. A guy called Nicholas Rose has been found guilty of her murder, although her body has not been found. Glenys x

By the way, I hope I didn't sound like 'don't talk about it anymore', I didn't mean that at all. It's been dominating the local news lately (understandably). It's a reasonable question, but am undecided on what I think. Er, does that make sense?

When I lived in Germany a few years ago there was a case in the news about a woman who had gone missing in a small town. The local police pulled in a man and charged him, on the basis that he had a record for petty theft ten years previously, and that he had been seen talking to her on the day that she disappeared. He was subsequently found guilty of her murder based on this flimsy evidence. Three years later this woman turned up alive and well, said 'sorry, things were getting on top of me, needed some space so I disappeared.' Amazingly it took the German justice system another three months to release this poor bloke, due to their obession with obtaining all the correct paperwork!! I know that was not in the UK and every country is different, but it a scenario that could possibly happen here and I find that very scary.

Bodies are pieces of evidence; as long as there is enough evidence in total it doesn't matter what the bits are. Creating a 'no body, no murder' scenario wouldn't be any more just than the present system. I don't trust DNA evidence either. You squeeze passed someone on the Tube and a strand of hair sticks to a stranger's clothing. Stranger is later the victim of a crime. Guess what: your DNA has been found at the crime scene. The police had no problem fitting up the Guildford Four and the Bridgwater Three without DNA; just imagine what they could do with a few nice juicy samples at their disposal.