Reported lack of DNA is another dead end in O.J. Simpson knife investigation

The discovery of a knife   found years ago at O.J. Simpson’s former estate set off a wave of speculation that it could shed new light on the...

The discovery of a knife found years ago at O.J. Simpson’s former estate set off a wave of speculation that it could shed new light on the 1994 slayings of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.

It probably won’t.

TMZ reported Tuesday that the Los Angeles Police Department’s investigation into the knife will produce no DNA matches because “microbes in the soil degraded any DNA to the point it was impossible to get a meaningful result.” Police also failed to find any hair or other physical markers on the knife, TMZ says, adding that the investigation is over.

[A reminder that the O.J. Simpson trial was nuts]

Last week, a law enforcement official with knowledge of the investigation told the Associated Press that detectives in the case doubt the knife had anything to do with the slayings because it was too small — five inches, according to TMZ — to make the wounds that killed Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. The murder weapon was never found. Reporter Jeffrey Toobin — who wrote the book upon which FX’s “The People vs. O.J. Simpson” is based and believes Simpson committed the slayings, despite the non-guilty verdict in his trial — speculates that Brown Simpson and Goldman were killed with a knife taken from her kitchen that was then was thrown away, either at Los Angeles International Airport or O’Hare Airport in Chicago, where Simpson traveled shortly after the slayings.

The knife was found by a construction worker on the perimeter of Simpson’s estate in 2002 or 2003, after he had sold the property. The worker then handed the knife to LAPD officer George Maycott, who was working as a security guard at a nearby film shoot. Maycott’s attorney told the AP last week that he attempted to turn in the knife to the LAPD but was told the department didn’t want anything to do with it. So he kept it in a toolbox until January, when he again alerted the LAPD to its presence.

The knife found at Simpson’s former estate is common among gardeners, the AP source said.

Reached Tuesday morning for comment, an LAPD spokeswoman said the department had no new information and described the investigation as “ongoing.”

via washingtonpost