Mass DNA check in hunt for widow’s murderer (From Basingstoke Gazette)

Mass DNA check in hunt for widow’s murderer

1:00pm Monday 8th March 2010 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
• Comments(0)

THE DNA of almost 2,000 people will be screened in a bid to find the killer of a Basingstoke coffee merchant’s widow.

Detectives will this week begin taking mouth swabs from men and women to compare against a DNA profile they believe belongs to whoever murdered Georgina Edmonds.

Mrs Edmonds was the widow of businessman Harry Edmonds whose son, also called Harry, runs the family’s coffee wholesale company The Edmonds Group, which is based in the town.

Hundreds more people – including some living in other parts of the UK and abroad – will also be visited or spoken to as part of separate lines of inquiry into the killing.

It is more than two years since the 77-year-old widow was brutally bludgeoned to death in the kitchen of her cottage in Brambridge, near Otterbourne.

Police believe that she was first tortured with a knife in a bid to extract her cash card PIN before her murderer began to rain blows to her head with a marble rolling pin.

The grandmother’s body was discovered by her son when he returned home from work on January 11, 2008.

The Gazette reported in January how officers leading the inquiry, with the help of geographical profilers, believe that her killer could still be living or working in the community nearby.

He is known to have left the scene along a towpath towards Eastleigh, which only a local person would know existed, discarding the victim’s mobile phone on the ground as they fled.

Police have now sent letters to the homes of 120 people living in the Eastleigh area, including a handful of women, asking them to provide their DNA at a mass screening.

They form part of some 1,876 people whose DNA profile needs to be checked.

Police have already obtained samples from a majority of these.

They hope that by eliminating large numbers of people from the inquiry, it will help identify the killer.

The mass DNA screening will take place just a short walk from the cashpoint at Tesco Express where the man police believe killed Georgina attempted to use her cash card hours later.

Detective Chief Inspector Paul Barton, of Hampshire CID, said the DNA screening would help eliminate large numbers of people from the inquiry.

Det Chief Insp Barton added: “As always, we continue to appeal to anyone with any information to get in touch with us and help us find the person responsible for this horrific crime.

“A £30,000 reward is still available and the smallest bit of information could lead us to the killer.”

Anyone with any information should contact the Operation Columbian investigation team on 101 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.