FRESH DNA technology is being used in a new attempt to solve a 38-year-old murder of a Glasgow woman that police once linked to World’s End monster Angus Sinclair.
Sinclair, 70, was prime suspect in the 1977 killing of Anna Kenny, 20, but the case never went to trial.
In November, last year he was jailed for a minimum of 37 years for raping and murdering teenagers Helen Scott and Christine Eadie after a night out at the World's End pub on Edinburgh's Royal Mile in October 1977. Forensic techniques not available at the time of the killings were used to secure the conviction.
Investigators are reportedly now using the latest forensic technique called DNA24 to trace the killer of Anna Kenny who was found a shallow grave near Skipness, Kintyre in August, 1977. It gives scientists the ability to process smaller or lower-quality samples held on file for decades.
The latest technology looks at 24 areas of a person’s DNA – a big step up from the 11 areas that made up previous DNA profiling and an advance on the 17 that is the European standard.
The body of Anna Kenny, 20, from Glasgow, was found in a shallow grave two years after she disappeared. She was last seen alive waiting to catch a bus home after leaving The Hurdy Gurdy pub in Glasgow.
The Crown Office said: “Anna Kenny’s murder is under reinvestigation.”
“Our cold case unit regularly reviews cases to ascertain if there are any new evidential developments, including advances in forensic techniques, which would assist in providing a basis for criminal proceedings.”
Cold case review Operation Trinity was formed in 2004 to try to tie Sinclair to the murders of Anna Kenny, 20, in August 1977, Hilda McAuley, 36, in October 1977 and Agnes Cooney, 23, in December 1977.
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