British CSI Solves Two 1980's Cold Cases

Filed under Testing on 5/27/2011 by Author: .

In 1998, John Cooper, a farm laborer was jailed at Swansea Crown Court in Wales, Great-Britain, for 16 years for 30 burglaries and a violent armed robbery. But even before Cooper stood trial for burglary, he was the prime suspect in two double murder cases. Police thought he was responsible for the 1985 murders of a brother and sister in their house and the 1989 murder of a couple taking a walk in the Wales countryside. All four murders included robbery and were accomplished by shooting the victims at point-blank range with a sawn-off shotgun.

Although Cooper was convicted of burglary in 1998, police, still lacked the evidence to prove that they had a quadruple killer behind bars. Evidence taken from Cooper included; a black balaclava, a green fleece jacket, jewelry, and a sawn-off shotgun. Finally in 2008, forensic science scientists where able to extract key biological evidence from some of these items. With the use of new DNA technology, Cooper was finally convicted of the quadruple homicides on May 26, 2011.

Watch the news report here.

Watch a news report about the evidence used in court here.