The fact that the police had high hopes is evidenced by the fact that the Kalla case group in the Police Region West barely recovered from the New Year's celebration before submitting a request for family search in the now known Billdalsfall. An eight-year-old girl was brutally raped when she cycled home from school on a September day in 1995. The time was running out because the limitation period in such a case is calculated based on the victim's 18th birthday. In the spring of next year it would be too late.

On January 4 this year, the NFC - National Forensic Center - received the order and some time later they were told that they found one or even several relatives in the DNA register. After a little screening, there were only a few candidates left, they asked for tops but one of them, a 58-year-old man living in a small village in southwestern Sweden, stayed away. He was arrested in his absence on February 25 and arrested three days later. He is now in custody, probably on suspicion of the serious rape in Billdal 24 years ago.

Results also in the double murder in Linköping

Of course, we who have worked with the Week's crime for many years are beginning to look back at the many elements we have made with this new insight. What other crimes could be cleared up with the new technology? We understood that the double murder in Linköping must be very high on the list and when we called the investigative leader Jan Staaf at the head of the Investigation Unit Police Region East he immediately confirmed this.

Not only that, the double murder is included with the Billsdals rape in what is described as a pilot project in this context. But there are, of course, many more crimes: The brutal murder of the sewing shop assistant in Gothenburg in 1995, where the police have long known that a woman is behind the crime and where they recently went out with a phantom image based on DNA technology. And the murder of the hotel receptionist on a December night in Visby 1996.

Has probably committed several serious crimes

In all cases, these are perpetrators who for some reason have so far gone under the DNA radar and where you can imagine that they have committed significantly more crimes. For example, the detained 58-year-old in Billsdalsfall would not have committed any similar crime for nearly 40 years of adult life, feels less likely.

We have some cases where you have certainly taken DNA, but in such small quantities that you do not yet venture into an analysis of fear to destroy it. The murder of a 16-year-old girl in Husum, also in 1996, is one such example. When technology allows, a family search based on the microscopic amount is of course a matter of course. It has long been imagined that the work of the cold case groups around the country is quite comfortless. The work on the Billdals rape charge and the double murder in Linköping should mean a change here and that in many cases they have been given a second chance in many cases that have long since been added to the documents.

And finally, you can't help but think of what could have happened if you had only managed to recover DNA from Olof Palme's killer.

See more in the program Week's crime editorial on SVT Play.