NEW DNA technology could help to bring one of Kent's longest unsolved murder cases to a successful conclusion.

Claire Tiltman was 16 when she was stabbed more than 40 times in an alleyway in Greenhithe, near Gravesend, on January 18 1993.

Now a Kent police review team involving retired detective superintendent David King and Det Insp Tony Hubbard are hoping exhibits from the crime scene, including clothes, may give them more clues when they are subjected to the latest tests with technology not available before.

Detectives are planning to shortly send about 10 exhibits to the Forensic Science Laboratories in Lambeth.

Claire's mother Lin said: "This is encouraging news. If we can nail Claire's killer it would make our day. We've waited so long."

Speaking from her home in Woodward Terrace, Stone, near Dartford, she added: "Not a day goes by without us hoping that the killer can be brought to account. We don't give up hope. You just can't knock the work that Kent Police have done. They have always been there for us."

"From day one I have always said there must be someone out there who suspects something. Whoever did it must have spoken to somebody. You just can't do a thing like this, and still live with yourself.

Claire was a pupil at Dartford Grammar School. "She would have been 28 years old last Friday," said Mrs Tiltman.

"She always wanted to be in the Fire Brigade. It was her ambition and I suppose that is what she would have been doing today. Once a week she would go to her local fire station while she did her Duke of Edinburgh Award thing."

Claire's father Cliff said: "It's hard but we keeping going."