https://www.9news.com.au/2019/03/23/20/27/madeleine-mccann-dna-car-evidence-could-now-be-solved-maddie-podcastEXCLUSIVE: Maddie's DNA could be present in crucial samples as world expert rips up 'failed' UK forensic tests
One of the world's leading DNA scientists – whose lab helped identify victims of the 9/11 terror attack - has told Nine.com.au he believes he can answer a major forensic question that baffled investigators and could finally help solve what happened to missing girl Madeleine McCann, more than 11 years after she mysteriously vanished.
Speaking in tomorrow's fifth episode of Maddie, an American DNA expert reveals potentially case-changing insights into the DNA samples that were taken from the McCann's holiday apartment and rental car in 2007. Those samples were later judged to be inconclusive.
The chief scientist at a US-based, world renowned lab has reviewed the now out-dated testing methods used by the UK's Forensic Science Service (FSS) in 2007 to analyse the McCann samples. He has also examined a crucial final DNA report that was sent to the Portuguese police.
Portuguese police sent DNA samples to the FSS for testing after two specialist sniffer dogs trained to detect the scent of death and human blood alerted in the McCann's holiday apartment and a rental car hired three weeks after Maddie vanished. The FSS analysed the samples but struggled to untangle and decipher the potentially explosive evidence.
"[The FSS testing] failed in this case 10 years ago," the DNA scientist said.
"If a lab can produce informative data, even if it is complex and mixed, but they can't interpret it then you can have tremendous injustice - of guilty people not being convicted, or innocent people staying in prison. What is needed is an objective and accurate interpretation that can scientifically resolve the DNA."
The inconclusive DNA results from the FSS appeared to cast serious doubt over the earlier work of the cadaver dogs that had searched the potential crime scenes.
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The US forensic lab has forged a global reputation through solving previously indecipherable DNA samples. It has played a pivotal role in a number of high-profile US criminal trials involving wrongful convictions based on dodgy DNA evidence and controversial prosecutions.
In 2007, the now-closed British lab, the FSS, was forced to undertake a massive review of up to 2000 cases of violent crime, including rape and murder. There were concerns that the DNA tests relating to these criminal cases had failed to detect minute traces of DNA that could potentially have identified guilty parties.
The American DNA scientist will feature in Monday's episode five of Maddie, Nine.com.au's podcast investigation into Madeleine McCann's disappearance. Maddie quickly reached number one in the UK, Australia and New Zealand iTunes charts.