Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Dundee University expert’s starring role in true crime series

Dr Helen Meadows.
Dr Helen Meadows.

A Dundee University expert is taking a starring role in a new true crime series exploring some of the most challenging murder cases in theĀ  UK and USA.

How I Caught the Killer premiered on Sky Witness last week.

Produced by Woodcut Media, the series is narrated by former police officer and Crimewatch presenter Rav Wilding and takes an in-depth look at what it is like to be a police officer working on murder cases.

Dr Helen Meadows, an expert in hand identification and vein pattern analysis, will be on screen in a number of the hour long episodes talking about the forensic investigation involved in the cases and discussing points of interest in the investigations.

She said: “What appealed to me about this series is the holistic approach the production team wanted to take, looking at all individuals and teams involved in solving a crime and the fact that I was able to carry out my own research.

“I was given eight cases to work on and I had access to some of the case notes from the original investigation teams. My task was to clarify certain points in the case and answer specific questions ranging from basic queries about sampling to what interested me from a forensic point of view in a case.”

Dr Meadows added:Ā “Forensic science isnā€™t the sole focus of the series. The production team have really gone beneath the surface of these investigations and looked at the different people who are involved in solving them.

“They talk to family liaison officers, the original investigation teams and the families and it is that all-inclusive approach that makes it really interesting.ā€

Dr Meadows said the series includes a number of landmark cases including that of Colin Pitchfork, sentenced to life imprisonment for the rape and murder of two teenage girls in the 1980s and the first person convicted of murder based on DNA fingerprinting evidence.

Another episode focuses on Daniel Rosenthal, who was convicted of murdering his mother despite the body never being found.

“The cases are all unusual in some way and very interesting,ā€ said Dr Meadows.

Dr Meadows, a former post-doctoral researcher at the Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification at the university, led its highly successful and hugely popular Massive Open Online Course Identifying the Dead.

She is now working on developing new online courses for the university.