[Lass]

I am a writer of crime fiction: at the beginning of my story, a young woman is raped and held down by another. Her partner comes home and is attacked (knocked unconscious). One of the attackers then slit's her throat. Her partner is charged with her rape and murder. He escapes at his first court appearance and goes looking for the real killers.

Later in the story it is explained why the police have charged him and are not looking for the people, the boyfriend said carried out the evil deed: when police officers first arrived at the scene, the boyfriend was cradling the victim in his arms. They were both naked and soaked in the victims blood. The knife used to slit her throat was laying by his side covered in his prints. The victim had traces of her boyfriends skin under her fingernails. The forensic guys had told the investigating officers that she was probably trying to fight the boyfriend off, scratching his neck as she fought for her life. The PM showed that the victim's body and genitalia had been scrubbed clean - a bowl of bloodied water, brushes and towels lay close by. The investigating officers belief that the boyfriend was in the middle of cleaning up after himself, when feelings of remorse over what he had done took over. The only DNA found on the victim was that of the boyfriends.

Question: If a woman is raped and the guy wore a condom then washed the genitalia and body afterwards would there be sufficient/any DNA/bodily fluids?

Help: If I've got it wrong, how could the real killers have staged it so that the boyfriend takes the wrap?

I want to make sure the content is as close to factual as a book of fiction needs to be.

Thanks in advance for your time.

[justcurious55]

If I were reading this book, and read that only the boyfriend's DNA was found on the victim, I would wonder about that. It's not like just cradling her is going to leave investigators with a bunch of DNA to analyze and convict him on. Maybe blood since he was knocked unconscious (idk, maybe they hit him in the frnt of the head and some of his blood dripped onto the victim when he was looking down at her?). And then his skin cells will be on her too of course. But those are easily explained away by the defense because he was cradling her when he came to. And then that leads to more questions. How did he sustain the injury? Are the victim's fingerprints on the weapon?

About the bloodied water though, there is some chance that they could take DNA from it but it's more likely that anything there would have been contaminated or maybe completely destoryed. To make it even more likely it was destroyed say it was warm soapy water that the suspects used and have it be a couple hours later that the police arrive.

[Xrayman]

1. You may have to ask, or at least come up with a good reason why/why not the BF would be wearing a condom. The DNA (semen) may be destroyed by soapy water-true, however the type of lubricant on the condom/boyfriends penis after a swab/in the vagina after a swab would all possibly link-up implying the BFs guilt.

2. WHY is the BF naked?? Soaked in her blood? I think the story has too many inconsistencies to sound believable.

3. if they locate the condom-is the ejaculate the BFs? This would further implicate him, if so.

4. there must be a reasonable motive for the BF to slit her throat? Sounds nasty for a BF to do this-okay if he is a crazed nutbag, but still crimes of passion are not usually so nasty/gory.

5. you made acomment about the fiction being as close as possible to "real". A fiction writer knows that this is imperative when writing fiction-as most fiction is actually based on credible scenarios/real life situations. Fiction has to sound real or you lost your audience/reader.

Hope this helps.

[justcurious55]

Ooo yeah. That's even more stuff I hadn't thought about.
As for #4, I've heard of much worse stuff at true crime scenes. Slitting the throat is nothing.

But the rest are all good points. When you get it all figure out you got to tell us where we can buy it. I always love a good murder mystery!

[hejLeigh]

How did his material end up under her fingernails? Why and when did she scratch him?