Open Question
Hawley Harvey Crippen was convicted and executed in 1910 for murdering his wife based on remains found in his cellar, but in October 2007 Michigan State University forensic scientist David Foran published mitochondrial DNA analysis concluding the remains were not those of Cora Crippen, raising doubt about whether they were even female. In December 2009 the UK Criminal Cases Review Commission nonetheless decided not to refer the case to the Court of Appeal for a posthumous pardon, so the conviction stands legally while the scientific doubt remains unresolved.
What would resolve this A definitive identification of the cellar remains, whether by further DNA comparison against a confirmed maternal-line relative of Cora Crippen or a fresh forensic anthropological reassessment accepted by a reviewing court, would settle whether the remains were hers at all.
OpenForensic genetics and forensic anthropologyWikipedia: Hawley Harvey Crippen
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