Before the era of forensics, one could (theoretically) only rely on detectives like Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot to solve murders. However, modern forensics has replaced conjecture and scientific evidence, when produced in a court of law, can prove any crime with very little room left for doubt.
The first time a crime was solved using forensic evidence was in New Zealand, in the case of William Bayly who was charged with the murder of Samuel Lakey on January 10, 1934.
On 16 October 1933 neighbours alerted the police of the disappearance of dairy farmers Sam and Christabel Lakey. Upon arrival at the farm, the police discovered Christabel’s body in a duck pond and Samuel still missing. Blood stains found on the property led the police to believe that Samuel must have been shot and disposed of. Soon William Bayly, another dairy farmer who lived nearby was picked up for questioning. Although Bayly protested that he was innocent right till the end, evidence found at his farm proved otherwise.
Police found fragments of Lakey’s bone and hair in a drum containing charred remains, on Bayly’s property. The police suspected that he had killed Christabel by drowning her in the pond and disposed of Samuel’s body by burning it. Upon arrest, Bayly insisted that the remains found in the drum were animal remains but forensic scientists went to great lengths to establish the body as Sam Lakey’s. They cremated a calf in a similar drum and conducted tests on the original hair and bone fragments which proved that they were human in origin.
On June 23 in 1934, Bayly was convicted and sentenced to death. The police forensics involved in the Bayly case set new standards and the verdict which was based on forensic evidence alone, set a new precedent in crime detection thereafter.
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