2015/05/15

Times Higher Education May 14, 2015: WMG’s 3D printed bones help to solve murder case

Prosecutors rely on techniques developed by team at the University of Warwick to secure conviction in ‘body in suitcase’ killing

Experts at the University of Warwick have helped West Midlands Police to convict a man who killed his friend before disposing of the body in a canal.

Last month, Lorenzo Simon was convicted of murdering Michael Spalding then dismembering the body, stuffing it inside two suitcases, and throwing them into a canal in Birmingham.

The 34-year-old was found guilty of murder and sentenced to 19 years in jail; his girlfriend, Michelle Bird, 35, was cleared of murder but sentenced to two and a half years in prison after admitting to assisting an offender.

However, had it not been for 3D technology based at WMG, a unit of the university, the conviction at Birmingham Crown Court might never have been secured. more