Le C.S.I. c'est Merde

Pardon my French, but this story from France amused me and shows that when you start a criminal investigation into a murder it would be useful to run a few tests before hand, like checking how old the skeleton is.

A skeleton was uncovered on a French beach during an unusually low tide. A long gash in the skull showed that the woman had been murdered. There followed a 2 year search for the identity of the victim with police searching through missing persons files and even coming up with a possible match which was discounted after DNA tests. Eventually someone radiocarbon dated the skeleton and discovered it was over 500 years old. You would think someone would have twigged a little earlier, especially the DNA specialist who surely should have noticed a certain degree of degradation in the quality of the DNA and bones? This is clearly a case for C.S.I, even the actors may have asked "how old is this thing anyway?".

However the funniest bit is the statement from the police

We are satisfied because at least we know the date now. We reckon it was pirates," said Francois Gerthosser of the Plourin-les-Morlaix police on Tuesday.

Johnny Depp is probably now on the 10 most wanted list in France.