DNA clue in 20-year hunt for Lyn killer
DETECTIVES probing the 20-yearold mystery of a mother-of-two’s murder last night revealed a breakthrough which may trap a serial killer.
Police have obtained a partial DNA profile of the killer of Lyn Bryant.
She was found stabbed to death in a country lane on Cornwall’s Roseland Peninsula in October 1998.
They believe that Mrs Bryant, 40, may not be the killer’s only victim.
Investigators said that “significant” evidence had been uncovered using modern scientific techniques which were not available at the time.
However, the murder hunt has had a setback after DNA samples taken from 6,000 people following Lyn’s killing had to be destroyed in 2013, in line with legislation.
Police are now taking new DNA samples and comparing them with the partial profile.
Hundreds have been gathered from across Britain. The partial profile has so far drawn a blank on the National DNA Database.
Mrs Bryant was stabbed in the back, neck and chest as she walked her dog in her home village of Ruan High Lanes. The attack is believed to have been sexually motivated.
In a bizarre development, her gold tortoiseshell glasses were found five months after the killing when they were believed to have been returned to the scene by her killer.
She was stabbed to death 11 months after the murder of schoolgirl Kate Bushell in Exeter in nearby Devon. Her killer was never caught.
Kate, 14, was walking a dog in a quiet rural lane near her home when she had her throat cut.
Retired detective inspector Stuart Ellis, the senior investigating officer, said it would be “foolish to ignore” the similarities.
The new evidence emerged after cold-case investigators examined more than 100 exhibits from the scene of Mrs Bryant’s murder from which the partial profile, known as a crime stain, was developed.
Mr Ellis said of the breakthrough: “We have found a partial DNA profile. The crime stain that we have now found is significant. I am as confident as I can be that that particular DNA would relate to Lyn’s killer.”
Mrs Bryant lived with her husband Peter and had two daughters Lee, then 21, and Erin, then 19.
Lee, now 41, said: “I’m sure people think ‘Well, what are they going to do now, it’s so long ago’ but they do now have some new forensic evidence.”
A £10,000 reward is being offered for information leading to a conviction.