OSLO, March 12: DNA samples from a Norwegian pine forest were presented as evidence in a murder case on Tuesday using a genetic technique that could herald the wider use of plants as silent crime-busters.

“Courts use DNA from human hair, blood or sperm quite extensively,” said Leif Sundheim, research director at the Norwegian Crop Research Institute. “We’re using the same techniques with plants.”

An Institute scientist told a court in Lillestroem, north of Oslo, that samples from 42 trees near a farmhouse where three people were shot dead in 1999 failed to match a needle in a sock owned by convicted killer Kristin Kirkemo Haukeland.

Haukeland, who says she is innocent and had not visited the farm, is appealing against her conviction with her half-sister and brother-in-law, who are also serving life sentences.

“Plant material is a promising tool because it is quite frequently associated with dead bodies or clothing,” Sundheim said, adding so far the use of plant DNA in trying to solve crimes had been extremely rare anywhere in the world All cells have a unique DNA “fingerprint”.

DNA from pine needles is also being presented as evidence in another murder case in Norway, the first use of such plant DNA techniques in the country.

In Tuesday’s case, scientists said they were sure the pine needle found in Haukeland’s sock did not come from any of 36 of the 42 trees. They said they would need more time to study the remaining six.

Police suspect the killers put thick socks over their shoes to disguise their footprints as they fled the crime scene near Lillestroem.

Sonja Klemsdal, the researcher who presented the evidence in court, said she tapped DNA from a part of the plant cell responsible for the green colour — the chloroplast.

“What I did was very similar to the way human samples are studied,” she said. “It may be more reliable than the faster technique usually used in mapping plant DNA.”—Reuters