[HN Gopher] Botanist tells how nettles helped solve Soham murders
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Botanist tells how nettles helped solve Soham murders
        
       Author : isaacfrond
       Score  : 30 points
       Date   : 2024-06-30 06:04 UTC (3 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.theguardian.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.theguardian.com)
        
       | mellosouls wrote:
       | The _Desert Island Discs_ interview from which this article is
       | derived is available here fwiw:
       | 
       | https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0020qcs
        
       | tempaway4512641 wrote:
       | I remember that the detectives working on the Soham case in 2002
       | sent a voicemail to one of the missing girl's phones and then
       | appealed on TV for their abductor to listen to the message. At
       | the time this seemed like quite a strange thing for the
       | detectives to do (people were a lot less savvy about phone
       | evidence back then). It got a lot of coverage in the press.
       | 
       | In retrospect I wonder if it was a stingray-type gambit, whereby
       | if the abductor turned the phone on they would be able to trace
       | exactly where they were. I don't think it got mentioned in court
       | so perhaps it was unofficial/inadmissable
       | 
       | https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2002/aug/15/childprotection.c...
       | 
       | http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3303637.stm
        
         | mindracer wrote:
         | Weren't the news of the world hacking their voicemail?
         | 
         | I guess the police and others didn't know that at the time
        
           | whutsurnaym wrote:
           | You might be thinking of the murder of Milly Dowler. IIRC
           | there was a scandal about reporters hacking into her
           | voicemail, leading investigators to believe she might still
           | be alive.
        
       | jahnu wrote:
       | She was also interviewed on the excellent The Life Scientific
       | (dive into the hundreds of episodes)
       | 
       | https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000cz0p
        
       | IncreasePosts wrote:
       | It's cool, but after reading up on the murders, it seems like
       | they had already zeroed in on the suspect, and knowing the bodies
       | were placed where they were when they were was not particularly
       | impactful in the investigation - at the very least, the
       | gamekeeper who discovered the bodies noticed a smell a few days
       | before the discovery, and the remains were partially
       | skeletonized, indicating that they had been there for a while.
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2024-07-03 23:02 UTC)