– No. I would not rule out barcode BC20001445. This barcode is the 52-year-old defendant. The world-leading DNA expert Professor Walther Parson explained himself in the Haugaland and Sunnhordland District Court today. He works at the Institute of Forensic Medicine at the University of Innsbruck, GMI. They have not dealt with the people in the case. Only references that are given with numbers. Parson gave a detailed and comprehensive explanation of how his laboratory made a breakthrough in the more than 27-year-old murder case in 2017. Using new methods, they found a Y-profile from the man who is now charged. Only men have the Y chromosome, and this profile is normally inherited in the same family line from father to son. Today, Parson was able to inform that they also got a partial hit on small amounts of mtDNA from the accused. This is DNA that lies outside the cell nucleus and is inherited only from the mother. We are talking about small amounts of mtDNA. The hit was in the same sample that gave the Y profile – a sample from a clipping from Birgitte Tengs’ pantyhose. It was this analysis that Parson was referring to when he said he could not rule out the defendant. Both Y chromosome analysis and mtDNA analysis are normally used for exclusion because they normally do not identify more than paternal or maternal lineage. In the mtDNA analysis, very small amounts of material were also found which did not originate from either the defendant or Birgitte Tengs. Parson believes this is due to contamination. He did not want to say that it was because there was DNA from a third person in the sample which contains DNA from the defendant and Birgitte Tengs. – Then I would expect to see a third family line, says Parson. Shown “new” results At the end of the day, which must have felt extra long for the three interpreters who were to translate Parson, the DNA expert asked if the court wanted to see results that had not been included in his report. You would. The results of the mtDNA research came out here. Two tests were performed. In one test, the defendant’s mtDNA was divided into 35 points or regions. He was able to find 28 of these in the sample from Birgitte Teng’s tights. In the second test, 14 areas of the defendant’s mtDNA were examined. Nine were again found in the sample from the pantyhose. – They have low or very low signal intensity, Parson pointed out. This means that a very small amount was found. Yesterday, it became known that the sample that eventually matched the accused contained approximately 50 times more DNA from Birgitte Tengs than from the accused. The challenge has been to isolate the small amount of DNA. That is why the world-leading institute in Innsbruck was connected. Has solved several riddles Parson has previously analyzed the enigmatic Isdalskvinnen’s DNA, and established which part of the world she came from. He has also helped to identify the Russian Tsar family who were executed in 1918 during the Russian Revolution. Parson says that GMI in Austria worked on the Tengs case for the first time in 2001. Until 2010, all investigations were carried out with electrophoresis, but in 2010 a new method called parallel sequencing (MPS) was introduced. Pason says GMI adopted MPS early on. – We don’t just measure the length of the molecules, but also the sequence. When we use MPS, we get full information about the size and the sequence, he says. If you analyze STR with MPS, we not only know the size, but also the sequence. – The advantage of this, as you can imagine, is that there can be DNA fragments of the same size, but different sequences, says Pason. DNA gradually disappears, explains Parson. But if the DNA is frozen, this process is dramatically delayed. The prosecution’s main evidence, a clipping from Birgitte Tengs’ pantyhose, was frozen from 1996 to 2017. Defendant: – There is nothing to indicate that he was at the scene. – They only show that he cannot be ruled out as a contributor. Nothing more than that, says Stian Trones Bråstein. THE DEFENDERS: The 52-year-old defendant’s defenders, Stian Bråstein and Stian Kristiansen. Photo: Marthe Synnøve Johannessen / news The defense’s most important argument has always been about the fact that it cannot be ruled out that DNA material from the accused may have ended up in the sample from the pantyhose through contamination or contamination. Bråstein refers to the coroners who yesterday made it clear that DNA should not be used as evidence alone. It has to be put in a context. – We believe there is no context here. No one has seen our client in the area. His car has not been observed, and there is nothing to indicate that he was at the scene, he says. The prosecution summarized at the end of the day that they had found both a Y-profile and mtDNA which is compatible with the accused. In terms of context, the prosecution has shown that in addition to DNA results, they also refer to mode and lack of alibi. On Friday, an expert from the Dutch Forensic Institute, NFI, will testify in the trial. It was this institute that discovered the mutation in the Y chromosome, which excludes the defendant’s male relatives. Birgitte Tengs was found murdered on 6 May 1995. A 52-year-old man from Karmøy is now charged in the Tengs case, and the trial begins on Monday 7 November 2022.
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World-leading DNA expert made several discoveries that may be from the accused – news Rogaland – Local news, TV and radio
