Turnout for dna test to solve 14-year-old murder hits 89%

Nearly 6,600 men have voluntarily given a dna sample in an effort to help police solve the 1999 murder of a 16-year-old girl.


Thursday was the final day of dna collection and the public prosecution department says 89% of the 7,300 men who were called up complied with the request to help.
Police hope the dna samples will allow them to identify someone related to the probable killer. The dna project is the biggest of its kind ever undertaken in the Netherlands.
Field
In total, 8,080 men were identified as living within a five-km radius of the field in Friesland where Marianne Vaastra’s body was dumped. Of them, 358 have died. The others have moved away from the north but police are still trying to track them down.
The decision to launch the dna appeal came after television crime journalist Peter R de Vries in May broadcast information about a Playboy cigarette lighter found in Vaatstra’s bag which contains dna traces that match the traces found on the schoolgirl’s body.
Tip-offs following the broadcast showed the lighter was on sale in the local area at the time, including in the village of Zwaagwesteinde where she lived.

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