How private is your DNA on ancestry websites? Questions emerge after family of ‘Golden State Killer’ unwittingly led to his arrest
A man believed to be the notorious ‘Golden State Killer’ was arrested after his family members put their DNA online; how secure is your information on such sites?
Millions of people are doing it – packing up samples of their saliva and mailing it off to an online genealogy company to analyse their DNA and help trace their family tree. Any without knowing it, they may be helping law enforcement crack difficult cases.
A partial DNA match with an unidentified relative of Joseph James DeAngelo on a genealogy website led to DeAngelo’s arrest as the suspect in the notorious Golden State Killer case in California, the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office said on Thursday.
Investigators recently found a “familial DNA match” to a sample collected years ago at a crime scene linked to an attacker known variously as the Golden State Killer, the Original Night Stalker and the East Area Rapist.
The family link then led the Sheriff’s Department to DeAngelo’s home on a quiet middle-class street in Citrus Heights, where they obtained a direct DNA sample from him after following him and picking up an unidentified object he discarded, according to Sheriff Scott Jones.
When that sample came back as a hit for a series of crimes, DeAngelo was arrested.
