RootsChat.Com
General => The Common Room => The Lighter Side => Topic started by: Erato on Friday 27 April 18 07:13 BST (UK)
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"Investigators tracked down the 72-year-old former police officer and retired mechanic by comparing DNA collected at numerous crime scenes to information submitted to an online genealogical service, Sacramento County Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Grippi told the Sacramento Bee and the New York Times on Thursday. While the details of how the search unfolded were not immediately clear, Grippi told the news organizations that a genetic profile from one of DeAngelo’s distant relatives led investigators to him."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2018/04/26/authorities-begin-racking-up-cases-against-golden-state-killer-suspect-ex-cop-turned-mechanic/?utm_term=.0fb0b9a87fb5
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GEDmatch perhaps. I'll suppose we'll never know. I don't think any site would want us to think it's customers details are being revealed willingly. Look what's happened at Facebook.
Watson & Crick probably never imagined this scenario back in the 50's.
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Great result, so good to see someone caught so long after those horrific crimes.
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also a thread about this here
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=792465.new#new
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"The bulk of the DNA grunt work investigators used to help capture the suspected Golden State Killer, the notorious rapist and killer who eluded law enforcement for four decades, came on a no-frills, “open-source” genealogy website that allows users to share their genetic profiles for free.
Lead investigator Paul Holes, a cold case expert and retired Contra Costa County District Attorney inspector, said his team’s biggest tool was GEDmatch, a Florida-based website that pools raw genetic profiles that people share publicly. No court order was needed to access that site’s large database of genetic blueprints. Other major private DNA ancestral sites said they were not approached by police for this case."
https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/04/26/ancestry-23andme-deny-assisting-law-enforcement-in-east-area-rapist-case/