Phantom of Heilbronn


The Phantom of Heilbronn, often alternatively referred to as the "Woman Without a Face", was a hypothesized unknown female serial killer whose existence was inferred from DNA evidence found at numerous crime scenes in Austria, France and Germany from 1993 to 2009. The six murders among these included that of police officer Michèle Kiesewetter, in Heilbronn, Germany on 25 April 2007.
The only connection between the crimes was DNA, which as of March 2009 had been recovered from 40 crime scenes, ranging from murders to burglaries. In late March 2009, investigators concluded that the "Phantom" criminal did not exist, and the DNA recovered at the crime scenes had already been present on the cotton swabs used for collecting DNA samples; they belonged to a woman who worked at the factory where they were made.
The events were fictionalized in the 6th season episode "Dead Reckoning" of , the 15th season episode "Death Has No Dominion" of Silent Witness, the 3rd season episode “The Missing Piece” of “Bull” and 7th season episode "On the Scent" of Elementary.

Investigation

An analysis of the mitochondrial DNA from the samples collected in Austria showed that it was most often found among people in Eastern Europe and neighbouring Russia. This was not discovered in the German investigations as the analysis of DNA may not be used in criminal proceedings to determine few personal attributes of a suspect other than sex, and her existence was disputed, but is now said to be untrue.
The investigations were concentrated in a special task force "parking lot" at the Heilbronn police department. In January 2009, the reward for clues regarding the whereabouts of the person was increased to €300,000.
The existence of the Phantom had been doubted earlier, but in March 2009, the case took a new turn. Investigators discovered the DNA profile on the burned body of a male asylum-seeker in France - an anomaly, since the profile was of a female. They subsequently came to the conclusion that the mysterious criminal did not exist and that the laboratory results were due to contamination of the cotton buds used for DNA probing. Although sterile, the swabs are not certified for human DNA collection.
The cotton swabs used by many state police departments were found to have been contaminated before shipping. It was found that the contaminated swabs all came from the same factory, which employs several Eastern European women who fit the type the DNA was assumed to match. Bavaria, although a region central to the crimes, obtained their swabs from a different factory. They had no reports of crimes committed by the Phantom.

Associated crimes

The DNA attributed to the "Phantom" was found at the scene, as well as purportedly at the sites of the following crimes:
As a consequence of this severe case of contamination with human DNA in a series of forensic investigations, the International Organization for Standardization published the standard ISO 18385 in 2016 to define the requirements for producing consumables free of human DNA contamination designated for collecting biological evidence at crime scenes: "Minimizing the risk of human DNA contamination in products used to collect, store and analyse biological material for forensic purposes".

Literature