Police spent 20 hours investigating ‘body’ before shocking suitcase discovery The suitcase that brought Australian police to a very strange conclusionAustralian police spent around 20 hours investigating what appeared to be a woman's body inside a dumped suitcase — only to discover that the suspected corpse was actually a lifelike sex doll. The extraordinary incident began on Sunday when two members of the public discovered the suitcase abandoned beside a roadside in Oallen, around 200 kilometres southwest of Sydney. They opened it and were sufficiently convinced by what they saw that police were called to investigate what appeared to be human remains. But what initially looked like a grisly murder scene turned out to be something considerably more embarrassing. Investigators thought they had found a woman's bodyNew South Wales Police said officers initially believed the suitcase contained the body of a woman. The object was dressed in clothing and had hair and a nose piercing. Even more remarkably, it had markings which appeared to resemble bruises and grazes. With investigators treating the discovery as potentially connected to a serious crime, the suitcase was handled as potential forensic evidence. And that is why police didn't simply open everything up and immediately discover the truth. Why didn't police realise it was a doll?To anyone looking at the story afterwards, the 20-hour investigation might sound like an extraordinary failure. Forensic experts, however, say it was actually the opposite. Police deliberately avoided disturbing the suitcase and its contents at the remote roadside location because doing so could have destroyed crucial evidence if they really were dealing with a body. Instead, investigators arranged for the suspected remains to be examined under controlled conditions. Dr Xanthe Weston, a forensic expert at the University of Newcastle, said the timeframe was “not extraordinary” from a forensic perspective. She said officers had followed the correct procedure rather than risking contamination of a potentially important crime scene. Better safe than sorryHad the suitcase actually contained a murdered woman, investigators opening and moving the contents unnecessarily could have destroyed fibres, hair, skin cells or DNA that might have helped identify a killer. That made the bizarre outcome considerably preferable to the alternative. Police would rather spend 20 hours carefully investigating a sex doll than spend 20 minutes casually handling a real body and accidentally destroying evidence that could solve a murder. Modern dolls can also be remarkably realistic. Weston said manufacturers deliberately design them to look and feel increasingly lifelike, while markings on the particular doll that looked like bruises or grazes could simply have been dirt or damage. In other words, once investigators believed they were looking at human remains, the evidence apparently fitted that assumption surprisingly well. The doll may still have forensic valueThe bizarre discovery did not necessarily mean investigators could simply throw the suitcase away and forget about it. Forensic experts said the doll could still potentially provide useful evidence if it were connected to another crime. Examiners could check it for traces such as DNA or other biological material, including evidence that might link it to someone who had handled or used it. So even after the “corpse” turned out to be synthetic, forensic examination could still have a legitimate purpose. It was not an illegal child-like dollPolice confirmed another potentially important detail: the doll was not designed to resemble a child. Adult sex dolls are legal to own in Australia, although federal and state laws prohibit dolls resembling minors or children. Possessing, importing or distributing a child-like sex doll can carry a prison sentence of up to 15 years. Police said the doll recovered at Oallen did not fall into that category and the investigation into the discovery had concluded. Britain has had its own ‘body’ scareAustralia is not the first country where a discarded sex doll has caused a serious police response. In Britain, officers once closed a road for two days after reports of a dead body in woodland. The terrifying discovery turned out to be an inflatable sex doll, with police reportedly expressing considerable relief when the apparent hand and foot emerging from the undergrowth turned out not to belong to a murder victim. A very strange ending to a very sensible investigationSo while the image of Australian police spending 20 hours investigating a sex doll is undeniably hilarious, the reality is rather different. They were faced with what appeared to be a human body dumped in a suitcase. They treated it as a genuine crime scene, protected potential evidence and waited for forensic examination before reaching a conclusion. The mistake was spectacular. The procedure, apparently, was not. And somewhere in Australia, one extremely realistic sex doll has probably had a more thorough forensic examination than most people ever will. SOURCE
