DNA found in man’s apartment matched that of British backpacker
The man accused of murdering British backpacker Grace Millane told police he attempted to clean up blood on the floor of the apartment where she died.
The Crown claims that Millane was strangled to death by the man she met on a Tinder date. The defence claims her death was an accident during consensual sex.
The man, 27, who has name suppression, has denied a single charge of murder at his trial in the High Court at Auckland. But he admits being with Millane the night she died and disposing of her body.
Millane, 21, died between December 1 and 2 last year while travelling in New Zealand. Her body was found in a suitcase a week later, buried in the Waita¯ kere Range.
Defence counsel Ian Brookie said the defendant told police in an interview he encountered a small amount of blood on the apartment floor and, with various cleaning products, he went around trying to clean it up.
Forensic scientist Dianne Crenfeldt told the court: ‘‘Everything is consistent with there being blood present and it being cleaned up.’’
Another forensic scientist, Turlough Thomas-Stone, an expert in DNA profiling and body fluid identification, told the court DNA from a blood stain on the fridge in the apartment was 500,000 million times more likely to belong to Millane than anyone else.
Thomas-Stone said there was extremely strong scientific support it was Millane’s DNA.
Testing was also done on the carpet underlay and the major component, 98 per cent, of the DNA matched Millane’s. Blood with DNA matching Millane’s was also found on a suitcase in the wardrobe of the apartment. Crenfeldt, who carried out a scene examination of the accused’s room, told the jury about ‘‘probable blood stains’’ found in the CityLife hotel apartment.
Crenfeldt said there were two large ‘‘probable’’ blood patches at the foot of the bed, one about 70 centimetres in diameter but there was no blood visible on the carpet. However, once the carpet and underlay was lifted, blood was visible and there was red staining on the concrete floor in the ‘‘probable blood area’’, Crenfeldt said.
She said the circular shape of the staining provided strong support there had been attempts to clean the area.
The Crown’s case is that the accused hired a carpet cleaner and bought cleaning products in an attempt to cover up a murder. Crenfeldt said the cleaning of the carpet could have decomposed DNA evidence.
With reference to a photograph of footprints in the apartment shown with the use of luminol, Crenfeldt said this showed somebody with blood on their feet had moved around the room and transferred blood to those areas.
Forensic scientist Diana Kappatos, a specialist in toxicology, analysed a sample of Millane’s blood and found the alcohol content was double that of the legal limit for driving in New Zealand.
Millane’s blood had 106 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood. The legal driving limit is 50mg per 100ml.
Kappatos said she could not be certain the level of alcohol in Millane’s blood at the time the tests were done would have been the same at the time she died.
No traces of drugs or poisons were found in Millane’s system, Kappatos said.
The trial continues on Monday.