Between 1993 and 2009, investigators across Austria, France, and Germany found DNA from the same unknown woman at 40 crime scenes — murders, burglaries, a police officer shot in Heilbronn. A special task force codenamed Parkplatz worked the case for years; by January 2009, the reward had reached €300,000.
In March 2009, investigators found the same DNA on a male asylum seeker's fingerprints. They traced the contamination to the cotton swabs used to collect DNA samples. The swabs all came from one factory that employed Eastern European women — women whose DNA matched the profile.
"Although sterile," Wikipedia notes, "the swabs were not certified for human DNA collection."
As a result, the Phantom of Heilbronn case led the International Organization for Standardization to publish ISO 18385 in 2016, establishing requirements for DNA-free forensic collection supplies.
