Dundee student’s skills on show in BBC1 programme

A DUNDEE University student who is on track to become the world’s first “forensic jeweller” appeared in a BBC historical crime series today.

Maria Maclennan has just handed in her PhD, which examines how jewellery can be used as a secondary source in forensic investigations. She has spent several years helping investigators identify victims at crime scenes or disaster sites from the jewellery they were wearing.

After studying jewellery design at the university’s Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, she completed her master’s on a project at the university’s Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification.

She was asked to apply her expertise to a historical case for BBC1 series Murder, Mystery and My Family. The programme sees two top UK barristers revisit historical cases where the victims were all hanged for their crimes, but went to their deaths still maintaining t heir i nnocence. They use modern methods of investigation to determine whether t he cases were miscarriages of justice or not.

Maria said: “The episode I appear on involves the murder of a woman who was thought to have been killed by her husband.

“She was photographed a few days before her death on a beach wearing a long chain. The chain was missing when the police recovered her body, but a very similar one was recovered f r o m h e r h u s b a n d ’s possession.

“Much of the court trial at the time focused on the debate as to whether this was the same necklace, or whether they were in fact, two separate, albeit similar, chains.”

Those who missed today’s 9.15am screening of the show will be able to watch it on iPlayer.