LONDON — A British university said Wednesday that its DNA database of British felines helped convict a man of manslaughter, illustrating how the genetic material of pets can be used by crime-scene investigators.
“This could be a real boon for forensic science, as the 10 million cats in the U.K. are unwittingly tagging the clothes and furnishings in more than a quarter of households,” said Jon Wetton of the University of Leicester.
The Veterinary Genetics Laboratory at the University of California at Davis has used animal DNA to catch criminals for more than a decade. In the latest case in Britain, investigators tapped the same lab to identify the cat hair discovered around the dismembered torso of David Guy, 30, who was found in a trash bag on a British beach in July 2012.
Detectives matched the hair to a cat belonging to the man’s friend, David Hilder, who was eventually sentenced to life in prison.
