Forensic tests question blood on knife in Moring case

Blood found on a folding knife linked to the death of Saara Arva may not be human blood, according to Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation forensic laboratory, Yle reported. DNA testing on the knife also failed to produce a result.

Mika Moring is charged with the manslaughter of Arva in the Northern Savonia District Court. Prosecutor Antti Lampén says the suspected weapon is a rusty folding knife found beneath moss near Arva’s remains in Vesanto.

The trial began in Kuopio last Thursday. The court is due to inspect the site where Arva’s remains were found this Thursday.

The forensic laboratory detected indications that the blood on the knife could be human, but was unable to confirm this because the knife was badly rusted, laboratory director Teppo Talka told the court.

“There are indications that it could be human blood, but it is not certain. It is also possible that it may not be human blood,” Talka said.

DNA tests produced no result

The laboratory initially attributed the failure to determine a DNA result to a device malfunction. Talka said the laboratory experiences 200 to 300 such malfunctions a year, accounting for less than one per cent of all samples examined.

In this case, a robot was unable to extract material from one sample taken from the knife because there was too little of it. After water was added and the analysis was repeated, the result was negative.

Talka said the laboratory could have initially reported the finding as a negative result rather than as a device malfunction. According to him, none of the six knife samples contained DNA.

Moring is also known to have asked twice during the trial whose blood had been found on the knife.