ITV's Cold Case Forensics returns for a new series on Tuesday night, with renowned forensic scientist Dr Angela Gallop and her team investigating the mysterious death of Italian banker Roberto Calvi, known as 'God's Banker'.
The first episode delves into the 1982 death of Calvi, whose body was found hanging under Blackfriars Bridge in London. The case led investigators into a murky world of financial deals involving the Vatican and the Mafia. Actress Nicola Walker narrates the episode.
Past Cases Revisited
Since the series began three years ago, Dr Gallop and her team have examined the deaths of solicitor Cheryl Lewis, ten-year-old Damilola Taylor, Rachel Nickell, Lynette White, and Stephen Lawrence.
In the Stephen Lawrence case, Dr Gallop described how her team found a crucial blood stain. She told ITV News London: "We had looked for it [blood] and not found it, and other scientists before us had looked for it and not found it, and we only found it by looking for something else first." She added: "We now understand much better about how to find things, but we did not have the technology to analyse blood stains in that depth of detail in the decade before."
Rachel Nickell Case
Another harrowing case involved 23-year-old Rachel Nickell, murdered on Wimbledon Common in 1992. Initially, Colin Stagg was arrested, but new profiling techniques identified the killer's DNA, ruling him out and leading to Robert Napper, who was already detained for a 1993 double murder.
Professor Angela Gallop said: "It was extremely rewarding. It gave the police a name to go and investigate. And it told them that it wasn't the chap that they'd been investigating for so many years."
Cold Case Forensics airs on Tuesdays on ITV from 9pm.
