DNA

In a 16-year span, forty crimes in Europe were attributed to a woman from DNA evidence collected at each scene.

Law enforcement had no success finding her. Profilers were brought in from across Europe, and when she murdered a policewoman in Heilbronn, Germany, over 16,000 hours of overtime were logged by Heilbronn police officers. They named her the Phantom of Heilbronn.

She was never caught on security cameras; a couple of eyewitnesses claimed she appeared to be a man.

Eventually, investigators determined the "Phantom" did not exist. DNA recovered at crime scenes had already been present on the cotton swabs used by police for collecting DNA samples.

The DNA belonged to a woman who worked at the factory where the swabs were made, and she had unknowingly contaminated the swabs.

Photograph © 2024 Larry F. Levenson.

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