Police develop partial DNA profile for murder of Linda Bryant 20 years ago

Police investigating the murder of a Cornish mother-of-two 20 years ago have developed a partial DNA profile for her killer.

Linda Bryant, 40, was stabbed in her back, neck and chest as she walked her dog in her home village of Ruan High Lanes, near Truro, in October 1998.

The attack is believed to have been sexually motivated, as Mrs Bryant's clothing had been disturbed when her body was discovered.

Four months after the murder, Mrs Bryant's tortoiseshell glasses were found at the scene, which had been fingertip searched at the time.

A number of reviews of the case have taken place, with one in 2015 resulting in the discovery of new forensic evidence.

Retired Detective Inspector Stuart Ellis, senior investigating officer, said: "We have found a partial DNA profile.

"I am as confident as I can be that that particular DNA would relate to Lyn's killer."

Following the murder, DNA samples were taken from 6,000 people but these had to be destroyed in 2013 due to changes in legislation.

Police are now in the process of re-taking DNA samples and comparing them to the partial profile.

So far, hundreds of samples have been taken from across the UK.

The partial DNA profile has also been searched on the National DNA Database but there have not been any matches.

Police examined more than 100 exhibits from the scene of Mrs Bryant's murder to develop the partial profile, known as a crime stain.

Mr Ellis said: "The crime stain that we have now found is significant.

"It is frustrating, the fact that it is only now we have the advances in technology that we are able to have it."

The profile was developed from a broad range of samples, including tapings, swabs and clothing from the scene.

Mrs Bryant was local to the remote part of Cornwall where she lived with her husband Peter, who she had been married to for about 19 years.

They had two children, Lee, then aged 21, and Erin, then aged 19.

Lee's son Keelan was aged 10 months at the time.

On the day of her murder, October 20, Mrs Bryant cleaned a local house, went to see her parents and then bought groceries from a garage.

A scruffy white van was seen pulling up on the forecourt at the same time as Mrs Bryant arrived in her grey Ford Sierra.

The driver, a bearded man, has not been traced.

She returned home, where she had lunch and watched Emmerdale with daughter Erin.

She then took the family's lurcher dog, Jay, for a walk.

At between 1.45pm and 2pm, Mrs Bryant was seen talking to a clean-shaven man at a junction by Ruan High Lanes Methodist Chapel.

This man has not been identified.

Mr Ellis said: "This man is of great significance as he may be the last person to see Lyn alive."

A holidaymaker discovered Mrs Bryant's body, lying in the gateway to a field near the chapel, at about 2.30pm.

Around 15 minutes later, a farmer spotted a man walking along a field away from the murder scene.

Mr Ellis said: "Lyn had knife wounds to her back, to her neck and the fatal wound was a stab wound to her chest.

"There was an injury to her face, perhaps where the attacker tried to put a hand over her mouth.

"Her clothing was disturbed. That does lead us to the inevitable conclusion that this was probably a sexually motivated murder."

There were vivid blue fibres on Mrs Bryant's body that were not from her, or anyone connected to her home address.

On February 2 the following year, Mrs Bryant's tortoiseshell glasses were discovered where her body had been found.

"The crime scene was searched at a fingertip level at the time," Mr Ellis said.

"It is pretty unlikely that these spectacles were at the murder scene at the time of the discovery of the body.

"They were found by the farmer on that day in February in the gateway where Lyn was found, on top of the mud."

Police believe the glasses may have been returned to the scene by Mrs Bryant's killer.

The weapon used to attack Mrs Bryant has never been found but is thought to be a small knife, about 10cm in length.

The investigation into Mrs Bryant's murder was one of the biggest ever conducted by Devon and Cornwall Police.

Detectives are now appealing for any information about the death.

"Anybody that has any information that would fit into this complicated jigsaw of a case, however small, it may be the piece of information that we can use to finally provide answers to Lyn's family," Mr Ellis said.

Mrs Bryant's daughter Lee Taylor, now 41, and grandson Keelan Taylor, now 20, urged anyone with information to come forward.

"I know it's been 20 years and I'm sure people think 'well, what are they going to do now, it's so long ago' but they do now have some new forensic evidence," Mrs Taylor said.

"All they need is a name, any information that could help them in the investigation could make a real difference.

"You may be in a different relationship now, you may have suspected someone twenty years ago but couldn't say anything but now actually you can. If you can, please get in touch."

Devon and Cornwall Police's dedicated incident room can be contacted on 0800 096 1233 and people can also give information through the website www.dc.police.uk/lynbryant.

There is a £10,000 reward being offered by Crimestoppers for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Mrs Bryant's killer.