Australian police are taking DNA samples from some of the country's most notorious murderers to try to clear up hundreds of unsolved crimes and for use in cases that haven't happened yet, according to a report.
Australian police are taking DNA samples from some of the country's most notorious murderers to try to clear up hundreds of unsolved crimes and for use in cases that haven't happened yet, according to a report.
Police in New South Wales and Queensland states are taking the samples from convicted murderers to file in a national criminal database, The Australian newspaper reported.
The convicts include some of the country's most prolific killers, such as Ivan Milat, who killed several backpackers, and John-Wayne Glover, known as the "Granny Killer" for attacking elderly women.
The samples, which provide a unique genetic fingerprint for each person, will then be matched against evidence from hundreds of unsolved crimes stretching back 30 years, it said.
DNA technology was not available in many earlier cases, but tests on evidence from the cases can still be used to show if a convict was at the scene.
The DNA will also be run in any future case after convicts are released.
Eventually, Australian police hope to have a nationwide DNA bank of convicted criminals to help solve crimes.
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