A newly formed team of qualified genealogists is ready to assist the police with their knowledge of DNA genealogy in investigating crimes.

- For me, it is a matter of course that we can use everything that can be used in this type of serious crime and that includes access to the genealogy databases.

This is what Anders Eriksson, head of the Cold Case group in Region West, says, where they would like to try DNA genealogy research on the unsolved murder in a fabric store in 2005.

600 unsolved serious crimes

The murder in the fabric store is one of about 600 old unsolved serious crimes, which were transferred to the police's Cold Fall groups.

In addition, there are many other difficult-to-solve crimes with several years on their necks that are being investigated at the police units for serious crimes in the country.

SVT's survey shows a great interest in having unsolved cases tried according to the genealogy method.

But it is not yet free to use DNA genealogy in criminal investigations.

The Linköping case was a pilot project that is currently being evaluated by the police authority, which will then make a decision on whether the method should be used regularly.

Must meet criteria

In order for it to be applicable, the unresolved cases must meet several criteria.

- It is not possible to use it in any case.

First, there must be a good DNA trace, of course, and a person who has his roots in areas where it is possible to do genealogy, says DNA genealogist Peter Sjölund, who traced the suspected perpetrator in the Linköping case.

"Must be sharp"

He has now formed a team of seven qualified genealogists who are trained in DNA genealogy with the aim of being able to assist the police if the method is approved.

- To be able to help the police with this type of case, you must not only be sharp on genealogy but also on DNA genealogy.

When you upload a DNA to a genealogy site like this, you have to understand what it means, why I get these DNA matches, how they relate to each other.

It requires that you know both DNA and genealogy, says Peter Sjölund.