DNA spurs hunt for killer

Police are making a fresh effort to solve a 12-year-old homicide.

Officers are taking DNA samples from possible suspects as they hunt the killer of Kevin O'Loughlin, a 30-year-old carpenter who was stabbed and bashed in May 1993.

Using advances in DNA technology, police now have a profile of the murderer and have revealed for the first time that the killer is a man.

They have also set up a toll-free hot-line for tip-offs and a website for information.

Mr O'Loughlin was found lying spread-eagled face down at the entrance to Nelson's busy Montgomery carpark off Hardy St in the early hours of May 2, 1993.

Despite interviewing hundreds of people, reconstructing the case on television and offering a $20,000 reward, police have no witnesses to the stabbing, no evidence linking anyone to the crime, no murder weapon and no motive.

However, the head of Operation Kevin, Detective Inspector John Winter, is confident DNA technology will provide the breakthrough needed to catch Mr O'Loughlin's killer.

"It gives us the confidence we will be able to solve this inquiry in due course, hopefully sooner rather than later," Mr Winter said.

In April 2003 police sent blood samples and exhibits from the crime scene to Environmental Science and Research in Christchurch to be analysed.

Because the O'Loughlin case was not a priority, police only received the results late last year, giving them a DNA profile of the killer.

They have now started gathering bodily fluid samples from "people of interest" in the original inquiry. Some are still in Nelson, while others have moved away - and at least one person has gone overseas.

One man is now dead, having committed suicide, but police have ruled him out on the basis of the DNA profile, Mr Winter said.

"We're out actively hunting people of interest to provide bodily samples, to eliminate them or otherwise."

He would not reveal the DNA profile, other than that it was a man, or say what exhibits had been tested, or how many people were providing samples.

On May 2, the 12th anniversary of the killing, Mr Winter travelled to Te Anau to brief Mr O'Loughlin's parents, Terry and Elsie O'Loughlin, about the development.

An emotional Mrs O'Loughlin said yesterday she hoped the development would lead to her son's killer.

Mr O'Loughlin's former partner, Leanne McLeod, said from Australia that she would love it if someone was brought to trial and that she and her three daughters with Mr O'Loughlin wanted closure.

The police hotline will be manned from 9am to 5pm with an answerphone service outside those times, while the website details the case and the area where the killing happened, and allows people to leave information.

"There are those, for reasons better known to themselves, who may have been economical with the truth back in 1993. We would ask them to examine their conscience now," Mr Winter said.

DNA breakthroughs

* High profile cases previously solved with DNA evidence include:

* Jules Mikus: Convicted of killing 6-year-old Napier schoolgirl Teresa Cormack 15 years after he abducted her while she walked to school.

* Jarrod Allan Mangels: Pleaded guilty last year to the 1987 murder of Arrowtown woman Maureen McKinnel after DNA linked him to the murder.

* David Doherty: Freed after serving five years in prison for a rape which forensic evidence proved he could not have committed.

- NZPA