Decade old burglary case resolved

Police solved a nearly ten-year-old burglary case through a DNA sample taken from a flashlight left at the crime scene, a Finnish language daily Helsingin Sanomat reported on Tuesday.

The case took place in 2008. Two men broke into a car firm in Joensuu, eastern Finland, stealing a variety of car testers for professional use and other stuff, which were worth nearly 20,000 euros (21,830 U.S. dollars)

Kimmo Wetterstrand, senior investigating officer at the Eastern Finland Police Department, told the daily that police had carried out a technical investigation at the scene after the burglary occurred, but no trail of the suspects had been reached until DNA evidence was found from a flashlight left at the scene.

The DNA profiles fit to a Lithuanian man born in 1983, who was caught in another crime in 2010 in Oulu, northern Finland.

The man was listed on the European arrest warrant and jailed in absentia in North Karelia District Court of Finland in June last year. He was found in England in September 2016 and extradited to Finland via Estonia in April 2007.

Wetterstrand said that it was rare that such an old case was resolved.

The suspect is currently in custody and the case has been sent for consideration of charges.

The burglary was conducted by the suspect together with another man, but his identity has not been found yet, said the police.