The first piece of evidence Angela Gallop examined as a young assistant in the Forensic Science Service was a plastic handbag heavily stained with the blood of a woman killed by her husband who had been trying to exorcise evil spirits. She recalls thinking: “Is this really what I want to do with my life?” The answer was yes. Gallop has spent more than 40 years analysing evidence and is now one of this country’s foremost forensic scientists.
She visited her first crime scene in 1978, a Huddersfield wood yard where the body of 18-year-old Helen Rytka had been discovered, murdered by the Yorkshire Ripper, Peter Sutcliffe. Gallop quickly learned “how critical it is to examine the scene of a crime very thoroughly” in order to form a clear idea of the sequence of events. There’s no doubt she has an almost uncanny ability to interpret the signs of violence. In particular, blood-stain patterns are “one of the most powerful forms of evidence for understanding what happened at the scene of a violent crime”. Gallop’s reading of these splashes, spots and smears of blood has often been crucial in resolving a case.
She led a team that reinvestigated the 1988 murder of Lynette White in Cardiff, for which the men who became known as the Cardiff Three were wrongly convicted. Working more than a decade after the murder, Gallop recreated the flat where the murder occurred, using lengths of blood-spattered wallpaper removed during the first investigation. It was only then that what actually happened in 1988 became “blindingly obvious” to her. Her investigation took nearly four years. Sections of skirting board and the front door of the flat were examined and beneath layers of paint they found blood splashes that provided enough DNA evidence to convict the real murderer, Jeffrey Gafoor, in 2003. The trial and the investigation made legal history. It was one of the first times a person who had committed a murder was identified and convicted through a familial search (using close relatives) of the National DNA Database and the first miscarriage of justice to be resolved by the conviction of the real murderer.
Gallop has helped solve many seemingly intractable cases, such as those of Damilola Taylor and Stephen Lawrence. Her ability to reconstruct violent events in her mind and to see how forensic science can be used to reveal a suspect would leave even Sherlock Holmes in awe. Her reinvestigation of the 1992 murder of Rachel Nickell gives rise to her book’s title. She was struck by the lack of DNA evidence discovered in the original investigation: “When things don’t stack up and the dogs aren’t barking, find out why.” After developing new processes for detecting DNA that took two years, her team identified Robert Napper as the murderer. She says “it was a good result”.
Gallop’s book is not for the squeamish and she admits to “disengaging the emotional side of my mind” to do the work: “You have to be stoical to be a forensic scientist.” As with the best fictional detectives, it is the intellectual challenge of the job that motivates her, despite the often gruesome nature of her work: “Every complicated puzzle solved is a source of immense satisfaction.” This is a fascinating scientific memoir of a life dedicated to uncovering the truth behind some of the most shocking crimes. And a book that will be essential reading for every aspiring crime writer.
• When the Dogs Don’t Bark: A Forensic Scientist’s Search for the Truth is published by Hodder & Stoughton (£20). To order a copy go to guardianbookshop.com or call 0330 333 6846. Free UK p&p over £15, online orders only. Phone orders min p&p of £1.99.
