A 40-year-old Romanian man is currently on trial in Roskilde, accused of raping a 22-year-old woman at the Roskilde Festival in 2022. The case hinges on DNA evidence, kinship searches, and advanced DNA analysis methods. The defendant maintains his innocence, claiming the encounter was consensual.

The investigation utilized kinship searches, a technique that examines whether DNA from a crime scene trace might belong to a relative of someone in the DNA register. This method has been instrumental in several recent cases, including the conviction of a man in the Bøtø case for the 1999 rape of an 11-year-old girl and the identification of the perpetrator in the 1990 murder of Hanne With.

In addition to kinship searches, investigators employed y-chromosomal DNA analysis, which focuses on DNA found in the male sex chromosome. This method produced a match between DNA found on the victim and the defendant.

DNA analysis plays a crucial role in criminal investigations. A DNA profile extracted from a trace at a crime scene is compared to profiles in a central DNA register, which contains information from charged individuals and unknown persons from other criminal cases. Forensic geneticists assess the probability of a match, either ruling out a person or determining the likelihood they deposited the trace.

It’s important to distinguish kinship searches from DNA-based genealogy, a method used in the United States involving commercial genealogy databases. While DNA-based genealogy will be permissible in Denmark starting July 1, 2025, the Roskilde Festival case did not involve this technique. The combination of kinship searches and y-chromosomal DNA analysis led to the arrest of the 40-year-old Romanian man now facing trial.