Strewn across the dusty ground is the wreckage of a wetland forest
that suddenly wilted and died 215 million years ago. Paul Olsen gestures
at the broken lumps of white, red, and black quartz scattered about.
“You see how it looks ropey?” he asks. He holds up a piece. “It looks
like someone took little pieces of rope, snipped them up, and laid them
down.”
Olsen believes that these scattered rocks mark the moment of a mass
extinction that wiped out many species across North America. He would
like to identify the calamity that triggered this extinction. But as I
stand beside him in the midday sun, I’m unable to see the subtle clues
that his trained eye perceives so easily. As I look at the rocks all
about, I simply don’t see the ropey, cylindrical shapes that he’s
talking about.
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Alleged jewel thief's kiss for victim leads to DNA fingerprint - and arrest
French police hold man after taking swab from pecked cheek of gagged Paris store owner, then finding DNA database match...
An alleged jewel thief who sealed his crime with a kiss was
caught after police analysed the DNA on his victim's cheek. Forensic
scientists at the scene swabbed the woman's cheek to isolate the genetic
profile.
The robber and an accomplice were said to have tied up, gagged and threatened the owner of a Paris
jewellery store after following her home. They poured what they claimed
was petrol over her head and told her they would set it alight if she
did not give them the codes for the shop alarm.
When one of the
robbers returned from clearing out the shop of jewels the pair released
the woman, 56, who had been tied to a chair for four hours. It was then
that the 20-year-old thief made his mistake. "The crook gave the victim a
kiss on the cheek, in what was apparently a sign of compassion after
the ordeal he had put her through," a police source told Le Parisien
newspaper. "As soon as she was free the victim alerted the police.
"We
hoped we could isolate the genetic fingerprint of her assailant. And
indeed his DNA was identified and found to be on the national genetic
print database."
A few months later detectives discovered the DNA
matched a man who was being held by the authorities near Nîmes, southern
France, on suspicion of other crimes.
During questioning the man
admitted kissing his victim to "make up for the trauma". He has been
remanded in custody while detectives trace his accomplice.
