U.K. DNA database helping solve old crimes

LONDON, July 24 (UPI) -- Police in Wales and England are reopening unsolved murder cases after a new DNA technology revealed at least 33 prime suspects.

Officials with the Home Office's Forensic Science Service extracted 76 DNA profiles from 213 samples that matched 33 people in the national DNA database, the BBC reported Saturday.

"The most serious offenses' samples were kept in deep freezers because we thought that the technology might improve to the stage where we would be able to do something with it eventually," said Peter Lamb, a senior scientist with the service.

"The names have now been given to the police and the police will now progress their enquiries."

The U.K. database, set up in 1995, was the world's first national DNA database. It currently has 2.2 million DNA profiles, taken from people suspected of, charged with, reported for, or convicted of a recordable offense.

It also has 225,000 samples from crime scenes.