"The time is ripe"

Jack the Ripper: Victim descendant for investigation

The case of Jack the Ripper has still not been solved.

(Bild: AFP/EVANS SKINNER ARCHIVE / AFP)

More than 135 years have passed since the gruesome murders of Jack the Ripper in London. Now a descendant of one of the victims has come forward and called for new investigations. The investigation would "mean a great deal" to her, her family and many other people.

The time is ripe for the case to be reopened, said Karen Miller in an interview. "The name Jack the Ripper has become a sensation. He has gone down in history as a famous figure." However, the victims had been forgotten and had not received justice at the time of the crimes. "Now we need this investigation to legally name the killer."

Miller is a direct descendant of Catherine Eddowes, who was murdered on September 18, 1888. She was presumably the fourth of the serial killer's five victims.

Mysterious to this day
The case of Jack the Ripper is spectacular and mysterious. The true identity of the murderer remained a mystery and the criminal case was never solved. There were numerous suspects, including members of the royal family and a shoe salesman.

In 2014, Russell Edwards declared that he had identified hairdresser Aaron Kosminski as the perpetrator with the help of DNA traces. The DNA had been recovered from a scarf found at the scene of the murder of Catherine Eddowes. The traces matched both the genetic material of a descendant of Kosminski and that of Karen Miller.

This scarf came from Catherine Eddowes, one of the murdered women.

(Bild: AFP)

Edward then demanded a further investigation. However, experts doubt his research. Two years ago, the then Attorney General Michael Ellis also rejected an application. There was not enough new evidence, he said.