The odds are high that police will find a match for unidentified DNA on murdered prostitute Mallory Manning if it is that of the killer, a crime expert says.
Ms Manning's family are also backing police to find the person they are looking for almost three years after she was bashed and stabbed, and her body dumped in Christchurch's Avon River.
Police described the killing in December, 2008, as among the most brutal they had come across. It appeared she was taken to a section occupied by the Mongrel Mob and attacked there.
Police revealed yesterday that Ms Manning, 27, was also sexually assaulted, and a semen sample had been recovered from her body. The semen would have been left at the time of her death or very close to it.
From this, a full DNA profile was obtained within days of the killing. In the time since, police have compared the DNA profile against hundreds of people, including Ms Manning's partner at the time and two clients Ms Manning had on the night she was killed.