DNA in Blood from Dead Mosquito at Burgled Apartment Leads Cops to Culprit

By Tim Binnall

Authorities in China managed to catch the individual behind an apartment burglary after they detected his DNA in blood that was extracted from a dead mosquito found at the crime scene. The amazing detective work reportedly unfolded last month in the city of Fuzhou as authorities were attempting to solve the case of a ne'er-do-well who had broken into a residence. Surveying the scene, investigators surmised that the suspect had spent the night at the apartment, cooking dinner there and even sleeping in the bed. However, unbeknownst to the brazen burglar, he had inadvertently left behind a proverbial smoking gun in the form of a mosquito that had been squashed at some point in the evening.

Assuming the owners of the apartment would not have left a dead mosquito's body smeared on a wall, cops set about collecting some of the blood from the insect to see if it might contain a clue as to the perpetrator of the crime. As luck would have it, DNA found in the material wound up matching that of a criminal who had previously been arrested and had their identifying genetic information entered into a police database. When cops arrested the man, he not only confessed to the burglary, but also admitted to being behind three other break-ins that had yet to be solved. While it is unlikely that the mosquito will be posthumously honored for its role in cracking the cases, at least the bug can rest easy now, knowing that it did not die in vain.