Detectives hope a new DNA database will help crack unsolved murders.

Five slayings have recently come under the spotlight from a team of cold-case experts, comprised of local and UK investigators. These were the stabbings of Gleen Wolffe in 1999 and Marcus Gibbings in 2006, and the shootings of Shaundae Jones in 2003, Jason Lightbourne in 2006 and Shaki Crockwell in 2007.

Last week, the Police signed a $987,000, three-year contract with Florida-based Trinity DNA Solutions to create a DNA database for the Island. This will see samples from crime scenes old and new compared to samples taken from suspects who are arrested.

According to Superintendent Paul Wright, who is working in the project, this could prove to be the key to bringing culprits to justice, despite the years that have passed.

"As with all cold case reviews, advances in science always come into play. Things that were not solvable a few years ago are suddenly highly solvable now," he told The Royal Gazette.

"One aspect of doing a cold case review is to consider all improvements in science, to re-examine all the exhibits, to read through all the statements and to see if there are any new lines of inquiry."

While he and colleague Inspector Robert Cardwell were reluctant to get into the specifics of which of the cases might be cracked by DNA evidence, Insp. Cardwell revealed: "We do have profiles that have been detected at crime scenes and not related to a person on file. As we start building up our database it's very possible and highly likely that we're going to start solving our historical crimes as well, right across the board, whether it be a burglary right through to the more serious crimes that we have seen.

"What will happen is that every time new data is added to the criminal database, those samples collected from crime scenes will be speculatively searched through the database."

Supt. Wright said old samples do not in themselves create new convictions. However, if they give officers sufficient grounds to arrest someone on suspicion of committing the old offence, a new DNA sample would then be taken and used for comparison and potential evidence.

Listing another benefit of the new system, he explained: "What we do know is that people graduate in their crimes. In a lot of cases, before they get to that serious crime they've actually come through that criminal system for lesser crimes such as a shoplifting or a burglary and we would have detected the serious crime a lot quicker, had we had their profile."

The Police have only recently been granted the power to collect DNA samples from persons arrested for relatively minor offences such as burglary and theft. However, the forensic technique has been used before in the more serious cases before Bermuda's courts.

In March, the jury hearing the trial of Matthew Clarke's murderers heard how two of the three culprits left their DNA through blood or skin cells on a gold bracelet he was wearing at the time he was stabbed.

The two men convicted the month before of shooting Aquil Richardson dead were brought to justice in part through DNA evidence found on their clothing, together with gunshot residue.