5 August 2006
Belfast Telegraph
Eddie the spaniel sniffed out Attracta's killer
This is the dog which helped police catch the evil murderer of Strabane woman Attracta Harron.
Eddie, a springer spaniel, was drafted in from a special unit based in England to help police gather the forensic evidence they needed to snare the retired librarian's killer, 23-year-old Trevor Hamilton.
Hamilton was jailed yesterday for life with no possibility of release for the murder of Mrs Harron in what has been described as a landmark legal decision for Northern Ireland.
The investigation into Mrs Harron's murder was given a significant boost when sniffer dog Eddie detected her blood on a car mat in Hamilton's burnt-out Hyundai.
Tests on the blood sniffed out by Eddie matched the DNA of the dead woman.
"At this stage in the investigation, we still had not recovered Mrs Harron's body and this was a very significant development in the case," a PSNI spokeswoman said yesterday of Eddie's contribution to the investigation.
A canine colleague of Eddie's from the same South Yorkshire unit later found Mrs Harron's body in a shallow grave near Hamilton's home.
Previous Article
