"For years, the solution has been a DNA hit away"

On October 19, 2004, 8-year-old Mohammed Ammouri and language teacher Anna-Lena Svensson in central Linköping were attacked by a knife man. Both victims died from their injuries. 16 years later, a man is arrested on suspicion of double murder. Now he has acknowledged the deed, states his lawyer for SVT.

The arrest comes after the police used commercial genealogy records to get a DNA hit. Lars Olof Lampers, editor at Veckans Brott, comments on the deed in SVT Nyheter's live broadcast:

- The police have had DNA on the perpetrator from the start. In connection with the murder, a hat and a knife were found, and on both of them there was this person's DNA.

It was not until 2019 that the police had the opportunity to extend the search to commercial DNA registers - which are used by genealogists, among others. These registers are voluntarily built up all over the world - and only then did the police get a match with the DNA they had from the cap and knife.

- You have long been waiting for this meeting. For years, the solution has been a DNA hit away, but he has never been in the regular registers, says Lampers.

The fact that the police are being given more opportunities to search the DNA register is becoming more and more common, and this has among other things led to the finding of the so-called Billdalsman. Twenty-four years after he raped an 8-year-old girl, the police managed to locate his close relatives via a DNA register. In May 2019, the man was sentenced to six years in prison.

- This is something that is coming more and more, and it has partly revolutionized the criminal investigation, says Lars Olof Lampers.