Particle.news
Download on the App Store

U.S.-Aided Genetic Genealogy Leads to Arrest in 2015 Poitiers Jogger Attack

After years without a DNA match in France, the cold-case unit turned to U.S. genealogy databases.

Overview

  • A 28-year-old man was taken into custody in Indre-et-Loire under a cold-case judge’s warrant, prosecutors confirmed.
  • He is being questioned on suspicion of "attempted murder preceded, followed or accompanied by another crime" and rape, offenses punishable by life imprisonment.
  • Investigators, working with U.S. authorities including the FBI, used genetic genealogy to trace relatives from private databases and identify a candidate suspect.
  • The man was 17 at the time of the assault on a 25-year-old jogger in Poitiers, where a clear male DNA trace had not matched the French FNAEG.
  • His DNA will now be compared with the 2015 sample as judicial inquiries continue and he remains presumed innocent.