Global CSI search

Shop assistant Suzanne Poll was knifed to death at a newsagency in Salisbury.
DNA samples from two of the state's most baffling cold-case murders will be the first checked against millions of offender profiles around the world.

Interpol, the world's largest international police organisation, with 54 affiliated countries, will examine samples taken from the scene of the 1993 stabbing murder of Suzanne Poll and the shooting of Robert Sabeckis nine years ago.

South Australia Police believe the samples they have sent – if a match is found – will identify the two killers.

Major Crime detectives said the "strong" male DNA evidence in each murder belonged to the prime suspects, but the samples had not matched any of Australia's more than 323,000 DNA profiles. The murders are not linked.

Major Crime Detective Superintendent John Venditto said the new link with Interpol was the "perfect tool" to find killers who had fled overseas.

"The availability of DNA databases has been evolving around the world and now there's an opportunity to use it to solve murders in South Australia," he said.

"If there are suspects . . . and they are mobile with links internationally, this is the perfect tool.

"It's entirely consistent with the consciousness of guilt, that people who commit murder, flee. We're not saying that's happened, but it's a possibility that hasn't been explored.

"Today, we have the opportunity to explore it and we owe that to the victims."

A DNA match would prove the suspect had been involved with police in the identifying country and a name and photograph could be produced.

If the suspect had subsequently left that country, they could be tracked electronically through their passport details anywhere in the world.

If a match were registered, SA detectives would begin negotiations with overseas police to ensure the evidence would stand up in court. SA Police may also travel overseas to continue investigations. Supt Venditto said more requests for international DNA testing were possible "depending on the circumstances of each case".

"With this (case), there's only three hypotheses – they've died, never offended again or they've fled," he said.

"To exhaust that theory, we have a process that's available and we're taking advantage of it."

In SA, DNA samples are taken from criminals serving a jail term and from suspects interviewed by police over serious crimes with penalties includingjail terms.

Forensic Services Superintendent Paul Anderson said international DNA testing could become routine. "Even if it comes back `no result' . . . we'll know the jurisdictions are at least willing to help," he said.

"Whether we go down this path again will depend on the outcomes (but) it's certainly a good investigative tool."

A computer model of the samples is crosschecked with registered profiles. The process is not expensive and is considered 100 per cent accurate when there's a "full match".

DNA management section Inspector Paul Bahr said each country would decide on the extent of testing and what details could be released depending on their laws.

"The UK database has 3.4 million profiles," Insp Bahr said.

"If (countries) tell us (they have) a result but not . . . what that result is, there's another avenue of federal legislation we can go down to seek co-operation to provide that detail."

It was unclear how quickly test results would be returned to Adelaide because of differing legislation in other countries.

Shop assistant and mother of two Mrs Poll, 36, was stabbed more than 10 times in a frenzied attack at a newsagency in Parabanks shopping centre, Salisbury.

Mr Sabeckis, 42, was gunned down by two shots from a double-barrelled shotgun in a car park at Maslin Beach. Police say they have eliminated hundreds of people from the investigations and studied new information from a dozen calls received after a story on the Poll murder was published in The Advertiser last month.

Her killer burst into the Sands & McDougall shop where she worked and repeatedly stabbed her with a knife. The killer was injured in the struggle and he left his blood and a clear footprint in a pool of Ms Poll's blood on the office floor.

Mr Sabeckis was shot about 1am on January 13, 2000, with a stolen shotgun, which was found near the scene. The killer left in Mr Sabeckis's silver Ford sedan but crashed it into a fence at a nearby a caravan park.

His DNA was collected from the car, along with gun parts and a fawn-coloured jacket which had blood stains from the victim and another person, believed to be the killer.