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Genealogy Websites Were Key To Big Break In Golden State Killer Case (nytimes.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the needle-in-the-haystack dept.

An anonymous reader shares a report from The New York Times: The Golden State Killer raped and murdered victims all across the state of California in an era before Google searches and social media, a time when the police relied on shoe leather, not cellphone records or big data. But it was technology that got him. The suspect, Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, was arrested by the police on Tuesday. Investigators accuse him of committing more than 50 rapes and 12 murders. Investigators used DNA from crime scenes and plugged that genetic profile into a commercial online genealogy database. They found distant relatives of Mr. DeAngelo's and traced their DNA to him.

"We found a person that was the right age and lived in this area -- and that was Mr. DeAngelo," said Steve Grippi, the assistant chief in the Sacramento district attorney's office. Investigators then obtained what Anne Marie Schubert, the Sacramento district attorney, called "abandoned" DNA samples from Mr. DeAngelo. "You leave your DNA in a place that is a public domain," she said. The test result confirmed the match to more than 10 murders in California. Ms. Schubert's office then obtained a second sample and came back with the same positive result, matching the full DNA profile. Representatives at 23andMe and other gene testing services denied on Thursday that they had been involved in identifying the killer.

11 of 237 comments (clear)

  1. This is one side by amiga3D · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is the good side of DNA databases. This data can also be abused. It's an awesome power and power is very corrupting. This needs serious regulation...ironclad. But of course that wont happen.

    1. Re:This is one side by Excelcia · · Score: 5, Insightful

      From a public safety and for the interests of the state, this is a good outcome. But for any particular individual contemplating sending their DNA in to one of those sites, there is no good side. In this case it's a serial rapist and murderer. Queue the ticker tape parade. But your personal interests can only be harmed. This is becoming more like Gattaca every day. If any piece of random sloughed off skin is public domain, then at some point everywhere I've been, everything I do becomes public domain. Which bodes ill if there is a rare book I happen to touch immediately before or after a serial killer. If, for example, it's known that a suspect touched this book, my DNA on it suddenly puts me in the running for man of the hour. This is just one example, and an unlikely one to be sure, but I honestly can't think of any use of my randomly shed DNA in correlation with these genetic genealogy sites that serves my self interest.

    2. Re:This is one side by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 5, Insightful

      This is the good side of DNA databases. This data can also be abused.

      While the end result is positive for society, this is already abuse.

      --
      Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
  2. In this case, they catch a killer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    but what about other cases, where the state desperately wants to hunt down someone (for whatever reason, not necessary for murder) --- will they employ similar tactic?

    Looks like the West is not that far behind China, or North Korea, or Russia, in terms of BIG BROTHERHOOD

  3. Not so fast! by SirAstral · · Score: 2, Insightful

    https://www.theguardian.com/co...

    There is growing concern over stuff like this. DNA tests often only test a small subset of information which means that false positives are possible and when you have a whole database to match against the greater that chance of a false positive happening.

    We already know that law enforcement is sloppy, lazy, and corrupt. Until accuracy and better controls on this data have been instituted then this is going to result in more innocent people getting fucked over while the real criminals get of Scott free with society ignorantly believe it has its man.

    1. Re:Not so fast! by omnichad · · Score: 4, Insightful

      They did at least compare his actual DNA with crime scene DNA. The guy is a loner, prone to sudden outbursts to neighbors. At least he fits some sort of profile rather than being taken in on DNA matching alone. That doesn't mean that other cases will fare so well, but there is a lot of evidence to comb through on this guy so it's likely we'll see some sort of successful proof one way or the other.

    2. Re:Not so fast! by SirAstral · · Score: 3, Insightful

      As long as there is other matching evidence I am more agreeable with the testing, but if the only evidence is DNA match that is just not enough.

      While the chances of false positives are low, reality is just too following case of a person being arrested for looking like and having the same first name of a criminal..

      https://nypost.com/2017/06/12/...

      or this one...

      https://www.theguardian.com/us...

      there are 8 billion people on the planet and a lot of people share a lot of similar genetic information name and other identifying information. It is also shocking how much law enforcement is happy to put an innocent person in jail because at least they have someone to arrest just so they can call it a case closed.

      There is a reason we need to make Law enforcement jump through hoops and get warrants to exercise power. They are humans like the criminals they go after. An open database of DNA they can use to scan people with is going to end badly for a lot of people.

      Just becoming a suspect in a case like this will leave an impact and possibly wreck their life! It has happened all too often!

    3. Re:Not so fast! by SirAstral · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Nope, looking at it completely the right way.

      The problem does not even approach false arrest and conviction... the problem starts at just becoming a suspect. And your none of that gets worse because of a new vector is not represented in the math. The more suspects the police can create the more they get to put in jail. This also has knock on effects for people with past convictions... sure just one more on the pile won't hurt, and you surely will not get into trouble if you happen to still be on probation while being falsely suspected either huh?

      Stopping the police from going database shopping for DNA like this IS trying to hold them to a higher standard. I am not denying them better tools, I am denying them a bad tool that they definitely won't use well and will definitely abuse.

      Like you said...
      "More information, more accurate information means a greater possibility for more accurate results."

      This is what I want to demand!

    4. Re:Not so fast! by The+Cynical+Critic · · Score: 4, Insightful

      DNA tests not being absolutely 100% accurate has been known since law enforcement started using it as a tool to solve crimes. Anyone raising alarm right now is either decades late or just trying to stir up manufactured controversy.

      The reason why DNA testing is so popular is that a false positive is a literally a one-in-a-million type scenario, which makes it several orders of magnitude more accurate and less likely to provide a false positive than any other investigative tool law enforcement has at it's disposal. There's a reason why a large part of the people who have been convicted and then found innocent in cases from before the use of DNA evidence became widespread have been done so using DNA testing.

      In other words, like any of the investigative tools available to law enforcement, DNA testing is not absolutely 100% accurate, but it is several orders of magnitude more accurate than any other tool available to law enforcement meaning that if you're going to raise alarm over it's accuracy, you ought to raise an even bigger alarm over every other tool they have at their disposal.

      --
      "Why should I want to make anything up? Life's bad enough as it is without wanting to invent any more of it."
  4. Re:Such good access by Dorianny · · Score: 2, Insightful
    They are not so secretly selling access to their data to anyone that is willing to pay! Why do you think they are so eager to analyze your spit so cheaply. Match it up with other big data and it's marketers dream, imagine being able to identify targets that fit the genetic profile of people predisposed to poor impulse control.

    Most likely the investigators simply bought access in order to avoid getting one of those pesky search warrants

  5. Ah, geneology sites... by jenningsthecat · · Score: 4, Insightful

    They're the genetic counterpart of Facebook. Even when you explicitly don't sign on for that crap, you're still swept up in it. It's good that they caught the guy and all; but it's going to be bad when insurance companies and potential employers use genealogy databases to deny coverage and jobs to blood relatives of those who have 'undesirable' or 'risky' something-something-somethings.

    --
    'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.