100 years on, DNA casts doubt on Crippen case

A few months back, Vanity Fair published a fascinating excerpt from a book (Thunderstruck) about this case. Dr. Crippen was one of the first people ever to be captured because of radio transmissions. He fled the UK on a US-bound ship, and the captain of the ship recognized him and basically started a sting operation. It's pretty awesome hearing about him dining with the disguised Crippen by night and communicating frantically back to the mainland by day.

As for this DNA evidence, fine, it's pretty compelling. I just wish the article made some attempt to explain the presence of a dismembered, putrefying body in Crippen's cellar. Here are the facts. Crippen's wife disappears, a police investigation begins, and shortly thereafter, Crippen and his lover--both in disguise--flee across the Atlantic. Then detectives find a body in Crippen's house.

Maybe Crippen really was innocent and fled because he feared (rightly, as it turned out) that no one would believe him. But if that's not his wife's body, whose was it and what was it doing buried in the cellar?