Lesley Molseed

Advances in DNA technology made by the Forensic Science Service have helped to solve the murder of a schoolgirl committed more than 30 years ago.
 
 On Sunday 5th October, Lesley Molseed's mother sent her on an errand to a local shop in Rochdale to buy a loaf of bread and an air freshener. She never returned.
Three days later, a motorist (who'd  stopped at a lay-by on the A672, the Oldham to Halifax road ) , discovered Lesley's body about 50 yards away from the road  on Rishworth Moor, near Ripponden. She had been stabbed multiple times and stains were found on her fully-clothed body.

Now, more than 30 years on, advances in DNA technology pioneered by the Forensic Science Service have helped to convict the man responsible for this crime.

West Yorkshire Police reopened the case in 1999 and the FSS recovered samples taken at the time of the crime from their archives for further investigation using the latest DNA analysis technology. In 2000, scientists developed a ground-breaking technique especially for this investigation .The technique allowed the scientists to re-examine the tapings taken from Lesley’s clothes to discover if any sperm heads had been recovered with the fibres from the original investigation in the 1970s.

The tapings were examined to find out whether, during the original process to collect fibres from Lesley’s clothing, any sperm heads had been transferred on to the tapings. The tapings revealed some sperm heads and scientists obtained a full DNA profile from these using the SGM Plus technique. It amplifies small amounts of DNA and creates a profile using 11 areas of DNA to give a DNA profile.  The average discrimination potential for an SGM Plus is one in a billion.

The newly recovered profile obtained was placed on the National DNA database and immediately hit against the profile of Ronald Castree. This DNA match was passed on to police who were then able to arrest him.