DNA tests could help to convict Irishman's murderer

After years of inaction the investigation into the unresolved murder of a young Irishman in northern France has resumed with a series of DNA tests that could at last lead to a conviction.

Trevor O'Keeffe was 19 when found strangled in a shallow grave in August 1987. He was hitch-hiking home to Ireland.

Mr Pierre Chanal, a former French military officer, was officially placed under investigation for Mr O'Keeffe's murder in 1994. He was freed from prison a year later after serving 6 1/2 years of a 10-year sentence for raping a Hungarian hitch-hiker named Mr Palasz Falvay.

Since 1993 Mr Chanal has also been under investigation concerning the murder or disappearance of seven conscripts from the Mourmelon army base, where he trained commandos.

He has lived freely in the south of France for the past four years while Trevor O'Keeffe's mother, Mrs Eroline O'Keeffe, Naas, Co Kildare, demanded he be brought to trial.

Now Judge Pascal Chapart of the Chalonssur-Marne high court has finally ordered DNA testing of hair found in Mr Chanal's van when he was caught raping Mr Falvay in 1988.

Blood samples were taken from the O'Keeffe family and the families of the seven French conscripts. Their DNA will be compared with that of the hair in the van.

French authorities bungled the O'Keeffe investigation. "I'm not holding my breath," Mrs O'Keeffe said yesterday after news of the DNA tests was broadcast on French radio. "I don't trust them that much, but I hope something comes out of it. I hope this would be the start of the finish of it."

Mrs O'Keeffe said she would not be surprised if hair from Mr Chanal's van proved to be her son's. "I've always suspected they were Trevor's hairs and that [French authorities] did nothing about it," she said.

The French press has long alleged Mr Chanal was protected because he was in the French army.

The public prosecutor in Chalons-sur-Marne said Judge Chapart will present the results of the DNA tests to Mrs O'Keeffe, Mr Chanal and their lawyers when he receives them in March. Mrs O'Keeffe said the persistence of her French lawyer, Mr Eric Dupond-Moretti, forced the judge to order the tests.

Mr Loic Le Ribault, a French forensic scientist, says the soil on a shovel found in Mr Chanal's van in 1988 corresponds to the soil in Trevor O'Keeffe's victim's grave.