Society

Thanks to DNA research, a mysterious cold case has just been solved.

On 16 May 1999, then 17-year-old Iona from Romania was found dead on the streets of Antwerp. She had been horribly murdered and had as many as 20 stab wounds.

A witness had seen the perpetrator flee and in the immediate vicinity of the crime scene, the forensic lab found the murder weapon, a butcher's knife with a large blade, recovered in a waste container, as well as a glove. The perpetrator had used that glove to hide his fingerprints, but it is precisely because of that glove that a breakthrough has just been made in this murder case.

Thanks to DNA testing, this case could be solved after 25 years. The DNA on the kitchen glove was matched to a now 51-year-old Albanian. And that was no easy task as the man constantly used false identities. The man was arrested in Rome, Italy, and was transferred to Belgium. The murder presumably took place in the Albanian prostitution milieu.

"Due to the evolution of science, a single DNA profile of a man could be discovered on the glove left at the scene," reports the Antwerp public prosecutor's office. 

Based on all the new elements, the investigating judge had issued a European arrest warrant and the man was seized. He was finally arrested in Rome on 21 August 2023 and was transferred to Belgium on 5 April 2024. The man remains in a Belgian prison awaiting trial. 

(FVDV for Tagtik/Source: Het Nieuwsblad - HLN/Illustration picture: Pixabay)