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How Genealogy Websites Make It Easier To Catch Killers (ieee.org)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from IEEE Spectrum: Over the past six months a small, publicly available genealogy database has become the go-to source for solving cold case crimes. The free online tool, called GEDmatch, is an ancestry service that allows people to submit their DNA data and search for relatives -- an open access version of AncestryDNA or 23andMe. Since April, investigators have used GEDmatch to identify victims, killers, and missing persons all over the U.S. in at least 19 cases, many of them decades old, according to authors of a report published today in Science. The authors predict that in the near future, as genetic genealogy reports gain in popularity, such tools could be used to find nearly any individual in the U.S. of European descent.
GEDmatch holds the genetic data of only about a million people. But cold case investigators have been exploiting the database using a genomic analysis technique called long-range familial search. The technique allows researchers to match an individual's DNA to distant relatives, such as third cousins. Chances are, one of those relatives will have used a genetic genealogy service. More than 17 million people have participated in these services -- a number that has grown rapidly over the last two years. AncestryDNA and 23andMe hold most of those customers. A genetic match to a distant relative can fairly quickly lead investigators to the person of interest. In a highly publicized case, GEDmatch was used earlier this year to identify the "Golden State Killer," a serial rapist and murderer who terrorized California in the 1970s and 1980s, but was never caught. In April, investigators were able to use a genealogy database to narrow down DNA data from crime scenes and identify the "Golden State Killer," a serial rapist and murderer who terrorized California in the 1970s and 1980s.
GEDmatch holds the genetic data of only about a million people. But cold case investigators have been exploiting the database using a genomic analysis technique called long-range familial search. The technique allows researchers to match an individual's DNA to distant relatives, such as third cousins. Chances are, one of those relatives will have used a genetic genealogy service. More than 17 million people have participated in these services -- a number that has grown rapidly over the last two years. AncestryDNA and 23andMe hold most of those customers. A genetic match to a distant relative can fairly quickly lead investigators to the person of interest. In a highly publicized case, GEDmatch was used earlier this year to identify the "Golden State Killer," a serial rapist and murderer who terrorized California in the 1970s and 1980s, but was never caught. In April, investigators were able to use a genealogy database to narrow down DNA data from crime scenes and identify the "Golden State Killer," a serial rapist and murderer who terrorized California in the 1970s and 1980s.
Well, it seems those really hard to solve crimes often involve corrupt law enforcers perhaps start the DNA search there ;D?
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
given the nature of our justice system. Very few cases go all the way to trial. Most of the time the prosecutors can get a plea deal with the threat of long jail time (take a 20 year sentence instead of life since you know the jury's likely to convict).
It doesn't help that juries are overly emotional. I've been on a jury where a women said, no joke, "We can't allow our personal feelings to sway our ruling and we need to get this guy off the streets". She didn't even pause for breath when she contradicted herself, which given her girth was impressive...
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I have always thought that submitting your information to those sites was kind of like submitting your information to sites like facebook and since I don't have a facebook account I won be using them either.
Any information you make available at large on the Internet may be used, not only to catch serial killer but for other reasons as well. It may also be used by serial killers to target you!
Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
Where everyone is a suspect and you're guilty unless proven innocent.
It doesn't work that way. Even a DNA match alone is not enough to convict. There has to be corroborating evidence.
But if the DNA match flags 20 people, and 19 of them live in other states, and the other one is the murder victim's ex-boyfriend with a domestic violence restraining order on him, then he's goin' down.
If you're trawling trough a database of everyone's genes it means per definition that they are ALL suspects.
Saying "everyone" is a suspect is the same as saying no one is a suspect. It is meaningless.
DNA evidence has more often been used to exonerate the innocent than to convict the guilty. Just ask the Central Park Five, although Donald Trump still insists they are guilty.
Those databases should not be available to law enforcement. We don't let law enforcement DNA test random or innocent people, why should they get access to these databases to go around the law?
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or dissedents
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
If I remember correctly there was a case in the news recently when the DNA for a number of cases pointed to a single perpetrator. Turns out the DNA was from the forensic analyst who collected the DNA samples, contaminated them and found his or her own DNA. Doubtful the analyst was indicted but not sure what happened to the DNA of the actual perps.
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. George Orwell
>"It doesn't work that way. [...] There has to be corroborating evidence."
Ask Kavanaugh how that worked out. He wasn't convicted of anything, but without a single bit of corroborating evidence, his name was smeared to high hell and back and his career stained forever. Accusation without corroborating evidence can still be very damaging.
if you can use the threat of life in jail to get that ex-boyfriend to take a 5 year plea deal then sure, it works that way. Not sure about the rest of the country but in the South and South West there's a lot of racism still, so it's terrifyingly easy to get a conviction. Sure, if the guy is well off he'll have a lawyer that'll shut down the circumstantial evidence but, well, the South & South West aren't well known for their well to do minority communities...
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How is his career stained, exactly? He's a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. You can't go up from there. Sure, he had to sit through interrogation and a couple of weeks of intense media scrutiny, but in the end, he got what he wanted. Cry me a river.
Meanwhile, Dr. Ford, the accuser, got nothing out of the experience other than a chance to confront her (alleged) attacker.
Remember, Gorsuch got through with hardly any drama, so this can't just be about politics.
Lesson 1: Don't drink so much you can't remember what happened.
Lesson 2: If someone sexually assaults you, pursue it immediately and to the fullest extent possible because, some time later, that person could be a candidate for Supreme Court at which point politics will rule the day and not justice.