Welsh police solve ‘moo-dunnit’ using DNA test on cow
Sometimes headlines just suggest themselves! This story tells us:
Police in rural south-west Wales have used DNA profiling to solve the mystery of a missing cow.
Dyfed-Powys police say they are the first force in the UK to employ a technique more often used in serious crimes such as murder to reunite a heifer with its owner.
The case – described locally as a “moo-dunnit” – centres on a £3,000 animal that went missing from a field in St Clears on the River Taf in Carmarthenshire. Police were called in and suspicion fell on a neighbouring farmer, David Aeron Owens.
The complainant, who has not been named, pointed out to officers the cow he believed was his. PC Gareth Jones was handed what Owens claimed was the cow’s passport – its identification document.
Unsatisfied, police oversaw the taking of blood samples from the disputed animal, which were compared against samples from cows on the complainant’s farm to prove a familial link. The cow in question was returned home and Owens, 51, pleaded guilty to theft at Swansea crown court this week.