The 2018 arrest of Joseph James DeAngelo, infamously known as the Golden State Killer, put genetic genealogy on the map. Investigators created a DNA profile of DeAngelo using crime scene evidence, and uploaded it to a public genealogy database people use to find relatives. From there, police were able to identify DeAngelo’s distant genetic connections and, using public records, build out a family tree to eventually zero in on him.
It was the first publicized instance of genetic genealogy being used to identify the perpetrator of a violent crime. By one estimate, more than 500 murders and rapes have been solved with the technique
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