On Jan. 23, 1988, Colin Pitchfork was convicted of murdering two girls in 1983 and 1986 in Narborough, Leicestershire, England after his DNA samples matched semen samples taken from the two dead girls. This was first time that DNA was used to resolve murders.

His conviction was based on the work of geneticist Sir Alec Jeffreys, and technician Vicky Wilson at the University of Leicester in England who in 1984 discovered minisatellites leading to the development of genetic fingerprinting. The new technology was first used in 1985 to resolve a disputed immigration case that confirmed the identity of a British boy whose family was from Ghana.