A sample of DNA taken from a man suspected of the 1996 murder in France of British schoolgirl Caroline Dickinson matches the DNA found at the scene of the crime, according to a French judicial source.
Dickinson, aged 13, was raped and suffocated in a youth hostel in Brittany on July 18, 1996, while on a school holiday.
The DNA sample was brought to France from the United States, where the suspect, identified as Francisco Arce Montes, 56, was arrested in Miami Beach on March 13 on charges of "lewd and lascivious behavior," burglary and an immigration violation.
The samples had to be examined in France using the same method and the same materials as in the original tests on DNA found at the scene of the crime, officials said.
The prosecutor's office in the western town of Rennes, in charge of the investigation, is expected to issue an official statement later Saturday at 10:00 pm (2000 GMT).
In their own testing, police in Miami had also said they found "no inconsistencies" between a first DNA sample they took shortly after Arce Montes' arrest and DNA evidence found at the scene of Dickinson's murder and analysed in France.
Arce Montes was one of 50 suspects wanted for questioning in the affair. DNA analyses were conducted on more than 3,500 people during the investigation.
DNA fingerprinting uses an individual's deoxyribonucleic acid, from human body cells, as a method of identification for forensic purposes.
Arce Montes has been in the United States since February. US immigration officials said he entered the country legally as a tourist.
AFP
