The Blooding

Archival Summary & Scope

In 1983, the rape and murder of fifteen-year-old Lynda Mann near Narborough, England, remained unsolved despite a massive investigation. Three years later, another teenager, Dawn Ashforth, was found murdered nearby, sparking widespread fear. This case became a landmark: a four-year hunt culminating in a groundbreaking scientific discovery—the first use of DNA fingerprinting in a criminal case—and the largest manhunt in British history, involving the DNA testing of over four thousand men, to finally identify the killer.