S2E44: The Eureka Moment

In the last hour of day 44’s evidence, the prosecution began reading out statements from the former PathWest manager, senior DNA analyst Laurie Webb, who was sacked from his role in 2016 for breaching testing protocols and cutting corners. He’s not giving evidence in court, and as Tim Clarke explained last week as he broke the story, it’s not likely we’ll find out why. But what we did find out was that he was the person who had that ‘eureka moment’ - he was the person who, in 2009 entered the male DNA found from UK testing into WA’s DNA database and found a hit. That DNA hit matched with a then-unsolved rape from 1995 - the Karrakatta rape. As Tim Clarke has explained in the podcast, what it would have felt like to see that, a lead in one of WA’s most notorious unsolved crimes for more than a decade, would have been astounding. We also heard in detail how those DNA samples made their way to the UK in the first place, taken in person by Laurie Webb, the samples never leaving his sight. But the court heard for the first time that there was also DNA samples from another victim unrelated to the Claremont Serial Killings case that was being taken to the UK at the same time. Join Emily Moulton, Tim Clarke and Natalie Bonjolo as they discuss the brief statements from Laurie Webb, as well as the completion of forensic scientist Aleks Bagdonavicius’ evidence-in-chief. If you have any questions for the podcast team, or any of their guests, send them in to [email protected], and for more coverage of the Claremont Serial Killings trial, head to thewest.com.auSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.