First use of DNA profiling to clear a criminal suspect
According to Official Guinness Records,
The world's first DNA-based manhunt took place between 1986 and 1988 in Enderby, Leicestershire, UK, during the investigation of a double rape-murder: Linda Mann (UK) in 1983, and Dawn Ashworth 1986. The prime suspect, a local boy named Richard Buckland (UK), confessed to the second killing, but Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) profiling of the victims revealed that the killer's DNA and Buckland's DNA did not match. Buckland thus became the first suspect cleared using DNA profiling. The actual killer, Colin Pitchfork (UK), who sent another man's blood sample during the testing of 5,000 local men - was finally caught after the falsehood was realised. Pitchfork's DNA matched that of the killer and he was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1988.