More than 25 years after his first rape, Bruno L., nicknamed “Robber of the Forest,” was arrested at the end of 2022 thanks to genetic genealogy, a first in France. Other cold cases could be solved using this new technique from the USA.
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The now 63-year-old man is suspected of kidnapping five teenage girls between 1998 and 2008, each time in the middle of the road, driving them into the forest in a car to rape them, before leaving them “almost naked” left behind, according to reports. Investigation documents known to the AFP. All with their faces uncovered, under the threat of a knife.
Despite an identical workflow, car model, identity proof and DNA discovery, we had to wait until December 13, 2022 to handcuff this pensioner living in the Paris region. He has since admitted most of the facts.
“I was so angry with myself. “I wanted (…) to be arrested, to be treated,” he assured the investigating judges in March.
It was a long road to find the suspect. In particular, the French criminal police, including the Central Office for Combating Violence Against Persons (OCRVP), have exhausted all the techniques at their disposal to exploit DNA found at crime scenes.
When queried, the National Automated Genetic Fingerprint File (FNAEG) yielded no names.
Parental DNA research, which allows identifying a suspect based on the genetic profile of a direct ancestor or descendant present in the FNAEG, has also failed. Like the request to compare DNA from 194 Interpol member countries.
Up to 600,000 genetic markers
In August 2021, a Paris examining judge then issued an international request for legal assistance to the American authorities regarding the use of genetic genealogy.
This technique experienced its first major success with the arrest of Joseph James DeAngelo in California in 2018, the “Golden State Killer”, the perpetrator of twelve assassination attempts in the 1970s and 1980s. The head of the OCRVP, Franck Dannerolle, even estimates that it allows “one cold case per week” to be solved in the United States. But there is no legal framework in France.
This method allows the unknown genetic trace to be compared with American databases, in particular with the millions of DNA voluntarily shared with sites offering recreational genealogical testing – illegal in France – by people curious about their origins.
“It is estimated that almost a million French people have taken this step, on websites such as MyHeritage or 23andMe,” says Colonel Sylvain Hubac, an expert in forensic genetics at the Court of Cassation.
According to the National Scientific Police Service (SNPS), it is significantly fewer than the 3.9 million profiles registered with the FNAEG as of December 31, 2022.
But in genetic genealogy, “we will analyze between 10,000 and 600,000 DNA-specific markers,” while the profiles integrated into FNAEG only include about twenty, explains Colonel Hubac. “The more genetic markers you analyze, the more people you can bring together that are genetically distant from each other (…) and the less you need a large database.”
“It is enough for 2% of a population to be present in such a base to identify a large proportion of a population,” adds Claire Lions, genetic fingerprint expert at SNPS.
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Aime and Juliette
Return to the United States. In early 2022, the FBI discovered “multiple matches” to the sample submitted by France and then, by tracing their ancestry, finally identified a couple born at the beginning of the 20th century, Juliette (1902-1975) and Aimé (1901). -1977).
“We are then faced with a huge forest of family trees that, thanks to various research, we will begin to prune in order to concentrate on the right tree that will lead us to the suspect,” summarizes Franck Dannerolle.
Four of the couple’s descendants have been identified. Among them was Bruno L., a sixty-year-old whose age and car matched the elements of the investigation and who was convicted of assault in 1983, but whose fingerprints were unknown in the files.
When asked about the legality of using this technology in the French justice system, the Paris public prosecutor’s office responsible for the investigation did not want to comment. Bruno L.’s defense did not request annulment.
And several judges, police officers and lawyers contacted by AFP claim that this action is within the law.
“Legally, each country carries out foreign investigative requests in accordance with its national law, that is what we call the law of the forum,” explains to AFP Pascal Prache, the prosecutor of the Nanterre court in charge of the national center for serial or unsolved crimes .
This progress in the investigation of the “predator of the forest” convinced the Cold Cases Unit, which had received 97 cases at the end of September.
Since the beginning of the year, the department’s prosecutor’s office has been working “in close cooperation with the United States on several unsolved cases to advance their resolution.”
“Ready”
However, requests for cooperation are subject to conditions.
They must refer to “extremely serious facts such as serial rapes, the disappearance of children, assassinations…” emphasizes the prosecutor. “The other requirement to make this application is to have DNA, even in very small amounts. In many cold cases, the DNA is degraded or absent.”
In addition, most portals that offer recreational testing do not give the FBI access to their data unless their customers agree.
To this day, the French judiciary is dependent on the good cooperation of the American authorities, which is particularly in demand from Sweden and Germany.
Meanwhile, police and gendarmerie scientists are preparing, going to the United States for training and already have DNA sequencers compatible with genetic genealogy.
“We are able to create a genetic profile with more than 10,000 markers comparable to those in genetic genealogy databases,” assures Colonel Hubac.
“We are ready, our job is to propose innovations and be at the forefront,” emphasizes Pierre Pascaud, chief of staff of the Science Police (SNPS). “When it comes to investments, we will of course propose them to the authorities because it is worth bringing the truth to light.”
Several lawyers specializing in cold cases were interested in this “impressive” tool, but warned that it would not “solve all cases,” Corinne Herrmann nuanced. This research in genetic genealogy is “not proof in itself,” adds Didier Seban, but it serves to “guide the investigation” and “open new avenues.”