GEDmatch

Last updated

GEDmatch
GEDmatch logo 12pct.png
GEDmatch-screenshot.png
Available inEnglish
Owner Qiagen
URL gedmatch.com
RegistrationRequired
Users 1.45 million DNA profiles (in Fall 2020)

GEDmatch is an online service to compare autosomal DNA data files from different testing companies. It is owned by Qiagen.

Contents

The website gained significant media coverage in April 2018 after it was used by law enforcement to identify a suspect in the Golden State Killer case in California. Other law-enforcement agencies started using GEDmatch for violent crimes, making it "the de facto DNA and genealogy database for all of law enforcement", according to The Atlantic 's Sarah Zhang. [1]

In May 2019, GEDmatch then tightened its rules on privacy by requiring users to "opt in" to sharing their data with law enforcement. In December 2019, GEDmatch was acquired by Verogen, Inc., a sequencing company dedicated to forensic science. [2] A new version of the existing site known as GEDmatch Pro, which went live in December 2020, focuses on solving crimes using the more than 1.2 million DNA profiles hosted on GEDMatch's platform. In 2023, GEDmatch was acquired by Qiagen. [3]

History

GEDmatch was founded in 2010 by Curtis Rogers, a retired businessman, and John Olson, a transportation engineer, [4] in Lake Worth, Florida, [5] with its main purpose being to help "amateur and professional researchers and genealogists", including adoptees searching for birth parents. [6] [7]

GEDmatch users may upload their autosomal DNA test data [8] from commercial DNA companies to identify potential relatives who had also uploaded their DNA data. [9] Names of participants may be hidden by the use of aliases, but each account must have an email address attached to it. [10] Users may share the ancestry of each DNA participant by uploading a GEDCOM file containing that person's ancestry, or by linking to the assigned DNA kit number from that person's profile at WikiTree, a free, shared global family tree. Tools available on the GEDmatch site include the ability to sort results by the closest matches to a user's autosomal DNA, determining whether one's matches also match to each other, using a genetic-distance calculator, estimating the number of generations to the most recent common ancestor, determining whether one's parents are related, and using various ethnicity calculators. [10] These tools do not disclose raw genetic data to other users. [11]

Tier 1 premium membership includes triangulation, [12] matching segment search and a custom comparison system. [10] By May 2018, the GEDmatch database had 929,000 genetic profiles, with 7,300 users who paid $10 a month for Tier 1 premium membership, [13] which was used to pay for the $200,000/year server costs. [14] In 2018, the website was still being run by Rogers and Olsen with five volunteers; [15] it had no full-time staff. [14] Rogers said in 2018 that the site had already helped 10,000 adoptees find their biological parents. [15]

Access for law enforcement to the user data was given without informed consent; negative user reactions led to the implementation of an opt-in system for law-enforcement matching. For new uploads, "opt in" is the default selection actively recommended for users, [16] and what is being opted into is not explicitly stated.

In September 2019, the U.S Department of Justice released interim guidelines governing when federal investigators or federally funded investigations [17] could use genetic genealogy to track down suspects in serious crimes. This first-ever policy covering how these databases should be used in law-enforcement attempts to balance public safety and privacy concerns. The policy said that “forensic genetic genealogy” should generally be used only for violent crimes such as murder and rape, as well as to identify human remains. (The policy permitted broader use if the ancestry database's policy allowed such searches.) Investigators should first exhaust traditional crime-solving methods, including searching their own criminal DNA databases.

Under the new policy, investigators could not quietly upload a fake profile to a genealogy website, as some had done in hopes of finding a suspect's distant relatives, without first identifying themselves. And the site itself must have informed its users that law-enforcement agencies may search their data.

The policy also barred federal investigators from using a suspect's DNA profile to look for genes related to disease risks or psychological traits. Another provision attempted to limit situations in which federal investigators secretly take a DNA sample from a suspect's relative—from a discarded cup or tissue, for example—to help hone in on a suspect. The policy said that the person must give their informed consent unless federal investigators have obtained a search warrant. [18] These guidelines applied to federal investigators and federally funded investigations but did not apply to state or local law-enforcement agencies – the vast majority of investigations. [17]

In November 2019, a Florida judge approved a police request for a warrant to search the database of GEDmatch. [19]

As of December 9, 2019, GEDmatch was acquired by Verogen, Inc., a sequencing company solely dedicated to forensic science. For the 1.2 million DNA profiles, a new version of the existing site will focus on solving crimes. How much GEDmatch continues to serve genetic genealogical research has been heavily discussed since then. [20] BuzzFeed News reported that Verogen hopes to monetize the site by charging for access to the database and tools for DNA analysis. [21] Founder Curtis Rogers, in a website statement, announced that "basic tools will remain free", he will remain involved in all aspects of the business, and Verogen will commit to the vision of a consumer genealogy site and take care of infrastructure and security/privacy. At the same time, Rogers claimed that "genealogy has made our communities safer by putting violent criminals behind bars". [22] As of September 2020, there were about 1.45 million users on the site, and by October, the site had led to an estimated 150 arrests in cold cases. [23]

Usage by law enforcement

In December 2018, police forces in the United States said that, with the help of GEDmatch and genetic genealogy, they had been able to find suspects in a total of 28 cold cases of murder and rape that year. [24] [25] Also in December 2018, Family Tree DNA allowed law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, to upload DNA profiles from crime scenes to help solve cold crimes. As of that time, GEDmatch was not the only site that could be used by law enforcement officials to solve crimes using genetic genealogy. [26]

White people are overrepresented on GEDmatch and are believed to be underrepresented in CODIS, the FBI's collection of DNA samples pulled from crime scenes, arrestees, and criminal suspects. Thus, GEDmatch may be especially effective in facilitating the arrests of white suspects who might otherwise have eluded law enforcement. [27] On May 18, 2019, GEDmatch revised its privacy statement to users regarding the collection and use of genetic information, including the circumstances in which it may cooperate with law-enforcement use of its database. As of September 2020, GEDmatch has been credited for helping facilitate nearly 120 cold-case arrests and for helping in 11 "Jane and John Doe" identifications across the United States. [28] [29]

General cases solved or suspects identified using GEDmatch

Parabon Nanolabs

In cooperation with American law enforcement organizations, Parabon NanoLabs started uploading DNA evidence from crime scenes to GEDmatch in an attempt to identify perpetrators. In November 2018, Parabon was reported to be working on 200 such cases. [44] [45] In May 2019, they said they were solving cold cases at the rate of about one per week. [46]

DNA Doe Project

Two genealogical researchers, Dr. Colleen M. Fitzpatrick and Margaret Press, started the DNA Doe Project in 2017 to identify unknown bodies using GEDmatch. They use volunteers to construct the sometimes very large family trees resulting from genetic data, in order to identify missing persons. Their successes include the following:

Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s Genetic Genealogy Program

In 2018, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement set up a Genetic Genealogy Program to use GEDmatch to solve cold cases. They reported in 2019 that they had solved four cases. [57] [58] By the end of 2020, the program had led to 10 arrests/identifications and closed several more cases.

Data policy

In April 2018, GEDmatch's privacy statement said that it "exists to provide DNA and genealogy tools for comparison and research purposes". The statement said that this, "by its very nature, requires the sharing of information. Because of that, users participating in this site should expect that their information will be shared with other users". [7]

After the arrest of the suspect in the Golden State Killer Case, co-founder Curtis Rogers said he spent weeks trying to figure out the ethics of the situation and legal options to pursue. He concluded that they did not have the resources to require police to obtain court orders to use the website. [59] Rogers said: "It has always been GEDmatch's policy to inform users that the database could be used for other uses, as set forth in the Site Policy", and that "While the database was created for genealogical research, it is important that GEDmatch participants understand the possible uses of their DNA, including identification of relatives that have committed crimes or were victims of crimes." [60] In late May 2018, GEDmatch updated its policy to say law enforcement could use the database to identify perpetrators of a "violent crime", meaning "homicide or sexual assault", or to identify the remains of a deceased individual. [61] The number of people uploading their DNA increased from 1,500 per day to 5,000 per day after the DeAngelo case went public. By November 2018, there were 1.2 million GEDmatch website users. [15]

In May 2019, GEDmatch was used to help with the arrest of a teenager who was charged with violent assault. This was the first and so far the last time GEDmatch had been used by Law Enforcement (and Parabon) for a case that did not involve homicide, rape, or kidnapping. [62]

Civil libertarians have said the use of websites such as GEDmatch by law enforcement raises legal and privacy concerns. [63] [64] [65] Professor Rori Rohlfs at San Francisco State University noted that, whereas California police had to get a judge's permission to search the CODIS police criminal database for a murder suspect's brother, they had no limitations when uploading a murder suspect's autosomal DNA to GEDmatch to identify relatives. [4] In 2019, Charles E. Sydnor III, a Maryland delegate, sought a bill to prohibit law enforcement from using DNA databases for crime solving, [66] but the bill was not passed. [67] A state representative in Utah introduced a similar bill that would ban genetic genealogy searches by police. [68]

Opt-in policy

In May 2019, GEDmatch began requiring people who had uploaded their DNA to its site to opt in to allow law-enforcement agencies to access their information. This change in privacy policy was expected to limit law enforcement agencies' abilities to identify suspects using genetic genealogy. [69] By May 2020, about 260,000 GEDmatch users had opted in. [70] [71]

Despite GEDmatch's opt-in policy, in fall 2019, it was served with a warrant by law enforcement in Florida, demanding access to all of its DNA profiles, including those of the vast majority of users who had not opted in to allow law-enforcement access (at that time, approximately 185,000 of 1.3 million users had opted in). [72] GEDmatch complied with this warrant. [72] [73]

See also

Related Research Articles

A cold case is a crime, or a suspected crime, that has not yet been fully resolved and is not the subject of a current criminal investigation, but for which new information could emerge from new witness testimony, re-examined archives, new or retained material evidence, or fresh activities of a suspect. New technological methods developed after the crime was committed can be used on the surviving evidence to analyse causes, often with conclusive results.

Genetic genealogy is the use of genealogical DNA tests, i.e., DNA profiling and DNA testing, in combination with traditional genealogical methods, to infer genetic relationships between individuals. This application of genetics came to be used by family historians in the 21st century, as DNA tests became affordable. The tests have been promoted by amateur groups, such as surname study groups or regional genealogical groups, as well as research projects such as the Genographic Project.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Family Tree DNA</span> Commercial genetic testing company

FamilyTreeDNA is a division of Gene by Gene, a commercial genetic testing company based in Houston, Texas. FamilyTreeDNA offers analysis of autosomal DNA, Y-DNA, and mitochondrial DNA to individuals for genealogical purpose. With a database of more than two million records, it is the most popular company worldwide for Y-DNA and mitochondrial DNA, and the fourth most popular for autosomal DNA. In Europe, it is the most common also for autosomal DNA. FamilyTreeDNA as a division of Gene by Gene were acquired by MYDNA, Inc., an Australian company, in January 2021.

Colleen M. Fitzpatrick is an American forensic scientist, genealogist and entrepreneur. She helped identify remains found in the crash site of Northwest Flight 4422, that crashed in Alaska in 1948, and co-founded the DNA Doe Project which identifies previously unidentified bodies and runs Identifinders International, an investigative genetic genealogy consulting firm which helps identify victims and perpetrators of violent crimes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bear Brook murders</span> Four murder victims found in Bear Brook State Park in New Hampshire

The Bear Brook murders are female American murder victims, two discovered in 1985 and two in 2000, at Bear Brook State Park in Allenstown, New Hampshire, United States. All four of the victims were either partially or completely skeletonized; they were believed to have died between 1977 and 1981.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Marcia King</span> Formerly unidentified murder victim from Arkansas, United States

Marcia Lenore Sossoman King was a 21-year-old Arkansas woman who was murdered in April 1981 and whose body was discovered in Troy, Ohio approximately 48 hours after her murder. Her body remained unidentified for almost 37 years before being identified via DNA analysis and genetic genealogy in April 2018. King was one of the first unidentified decedents to be identified via this method of forensic investigation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">DNA phenotyping</span> DNA profiling technique

DNA phenotyping is the process of predicting an organism's phenotype using only genetic information collected from genotyping or DNA sequencing. This term, also known as molecular photofitting, is primarily used to refer to the prediction of a person's physical appearance and/or biogeographic ancestry for forensic purposes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CeCe Moore</span> American genetic genealogist (born 1969)

CeCe Moore is an American genetic genealogist who has been described as the country's foremost such entrepreneur. She has appeared on many TV shows and worked as a genetic genealogy researcher for others such as Finding Your Roots. She has reportedly helped law enforcement agencies in identifying suspects in over 300 cold cases using DNA and genetic genealogy. In May 2020, she began appearing in a prime time ABC television series called The Genetic Detective in which each episode recounts a cold case she helped solve. In addition to her television work, she is known for pioneering the genetic genealogy methodologies used by adoptees and others of unknown origin for identifying biological family.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Investigative genetic genealogy</span> Application of genealogy in a legal setting

Investigative genetic genealogy, also known as forensic genetic genealogy, is the emerging practice of utilizing genetic information from direct-to-consumer companies for identifying suspects or victims in criminal cases. As of December 2023, the use of this technology has solved a total of 651 criminal cases, including 318 individual perpetrators who were brought to light. There have also been 464 decedents identified, as well as 4 living Does. The investigative power of genetic genealogy revolves around the use of publicly accessible genealogy databases such as GEDMatch and FamilyTreeDNA. On GEDMatch, users are able to upload their genetic data from any direct-to-consumer company in an effort to identify relatives that have tested at companies other than their own.

Parabon NanoLabs, Inc. is a company based in Reston, Virginia, that develops nanopharmaceuticals and provides DNA phenotyping services for law enforcement organizations.

Jay Roland Cook and Tanya Van Cuylenborg were a Canadian couple from Saanich, British Columbia who were murdered while on a trip to Seattle, Washington in November 1987.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of April Tinsley</span> 1988 kidnapping and murder in Indiana

April Marie Tinsley was an eight-year-old girl from Fort Wayne, Indiana, United States, who was kidnapped, raped, and murdered in 1988. Her killer left several anonymous messages and notes in the Fort Wayne area between 1990 and 2004, openly boasting about April's murder and threatening to kill again.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">DNA Doe Project</span> American organization formed to identify deceased persons using forensic genealogy

DNA Doe Project is an American nonprofit volunteer organization formed to identify unidentified deceased persons using forensic genealogy. Volunteers identify victims of automobile accidents, homicide, and unusual circumstances and persons who committed suicide under an alias. The group was founded in 2017 by Colleen M. Fitzpatrick and Margaret Press.

Barbara Rae-Venter is a New Zealand-born American genetic genealogist, biologist, and retired patent attorney best known for her work helping police and investigators identify Joseph James DeAngelo as the Golden State Killer. Born in New Zealand, she earned a doctorate at the University of California at San Diego and later completed law school at the University of Texas at Austin. After retirement from her law career, Rae-Venter started researching her family history as a hobby in an attempt to help a family member find his biological family. As part of this work, she was asked to help identify a woman who had been abducted as a child. Her efforts in this case eventually identified Terry Peder Rasmussen as the suspect in the Bear Brook murders in New Hampshire. In 2019 she was included in the Time 100 list of most influential people and in 2018 was recognized in Nature's 10, a list of "people who mattered" in science by the journal Nature. Barbara authored the book I Know Who You Are: How an amatueur DNA sleuth unmasked the Golden State Killer and changed crime fighting forever in 2023.

Gerald "Jerry" Walter McFadden, known as The Animal, was an American serial killer and sex offender who was executed in 1999.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Mary Silvani</span> American murder case

Mary Edith Silvani, known as "Sheep's Flat Jane Doe" and "Washoe County Jane Doe" while unidentified, was an American woman found shot to death near Lake Tahoe in Washoe County, Nevada in July 1982. She was unidentified for 37 years, the investigation becoming a cold case. The Washoe County Sheriff's Office announced her identity on May 7, 2019. Silvani was identified through DNA analysis and genetic genealogy with assistance from the DNA Doe Project and utilizing the public genealogy database GEDmatch.

The rape and murder of Angie Dodge occurred in Idaho Falls, Idaho on June 13, 1996. However, the true perpetrator was not apprehended until May 2019.

Steven Alexander "Stevie" Crawford was a formerly unidentified toddler whose body was found in a reservoir in Ashland, Oregon, on July 11, 1963. He was identified in 2021 using GEDmatch.

Othram is an American corporation specializing in forensic genetic genealogy to resolve unsolved murders, disappearances, and identification of unidentified decedents or murder victims. The company also offers law enforcement agencies tools and programs to infer kinship among individuals, both closely and distantly related, through a combination of short tandem repeat and single nucleotide polymorphism testing, as well as forensic genome sequencing of DNA.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Shirley Soosay</span>

Shirley Ann Soosay, formerly known as Kern County Jane Doe, is a formerly unidentified decedent found in an almond orchard in Delano, California on 14 July 1980. A member of the Samson Cree Nation, Soosay grew up in Maskwacis, in Alberta. For most of her adult life, Soosay lived in Edmonton and then later Vancouver, though she remained in regular contact with her family until 1979, when cards from her stopped coming. The last time she had been seen in person by her family, Shirley had given indication that she might visit Seattle, and so beginning in 1980, Shirley's niece Violet Soosay-Wolf began to search Seattle and British Columbia for Shirley. On 14 July 1980, Soosay's body was found deep into an almond orchard in Delano. Soosay had been raped and stabbed 29 times before being dumped at the site. Local police investigation into the victim's identity included following leads from her autopsy and opening tip lines to the public, but local authorities were unable to make significant progress. In 2012, DNA analysis of another unidentified woman who was murdered in Ventura County, California several days after Soosay's murder showed the crimes to be committed by the same perpetrator. In 2018, though both victims remained unidentified, Wilson Chouest was convicted of both murders. In 2018, investigators from Kern County reached out to the DNA Doe Project (DDP) for assistance identifying their victim. In February 2020, DDP volunteers were unable to proceed genealogical investigation because of a lack of Indigenous DNA in DNA databases. The DDP made a Facebook post appealing for help, which was quickly seen by Violet Soosay-Wolf. Soosay-Wolf submitted her DNA for comparison, and in February 2020 Kern County Jane Doe was confirmed as Shirley Soosay. Soosay's case is held up as one of the earliest examples of unidentified Indigenous American remains to be identified through investigative genetic genealogy.

References

  1. ↑ Zhang, Sarah (May 19, 2018). "The Coming Wave of Murders Solved by Genealogy". The Atlantic . Archived from the original on May 22, 2018. Retrieved May 23, 2018.
  2. ↑ "GEDmatch Partners with Genomics Firm" (Press release). Verogen. Archived from the original on December 20, 2019. Retrieved December 12, 2019.
  3. ↑ "Qiagen acquires DNA-biometrics firm Verogen in $150 MLN deal". Reuters. January 9, 2023.
  4. 1 2 Murphy, Heather (October 15, 2018). "How an Unlikely Family History Website Transformed Cold Case Investigations". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331. Archived from the original on December 5, 2018. Retrieved December 4, 2018.
  5. ↑ Paluska, Michael (April 27, 2018). "Florida open source DNA company helped break 'Golden State Killer' case". ABC Action News. WFTS-TV. Archived from the original on May 23, 2018. Retrieved May 23, 2018.
  6. ↑ Emerson, Sarah (April 27, 2018). "Public DNA Database Cracked the Golden State Killer Case, Police Say". Motherboard . Archived from the original on May 23, 2018. Retrieved May 23, 2018.
  7. 1 2 Farivar, Cyrus (April 27, 2018). "GEDmatch, a tiny DNA analysis firm, was key for Golden State Killer case". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on May 23, 2018. Retrieved May 22, 2018.
  8. ↑ Russell, Judy G. (August 12, 2012). "Gedmatch: a DNA geek's dream site". The Legal Genealogist. Archived from the original on April 18, 2018. Retrieved July 2, 2018.
  9. ↑ Creet, Julia (April 30, 2018). "How cops used a public genealogy database in the Golden State Killer case". The Conversation . Archived from the original on May 24, 2018. Retrieved May 23, 2018.
  10. 1 2 3 Russell, Judy G. (March 26, 2017). "Updated look at Gedmatch". The Legal Genealogist. Archived from the original on May 26, 2018. Retrieved July 2, 2018.
  11. ↑ Sills, Jennifer; Greytak, Ellen M.; Kaye, David H.; Budowle, Bruce; Moore, CeCe; Armentrout, Steven L. (August 30, 2018). "Privacy and genetic genealogy data". Science. 361 (6405): 857. Bibcode:2018Sci...361Q.857G. doi:10.1126/science.aav0330. PMID   30166479. S2CID   52134679.
  12. ↑ D., D. (August 16, 2016). "DNA Triangulation on GEDmatch". Find My Family Magazine. Archived from the original on July 15, 2018. Retrieved July 2, 2018.
  13. ↑ Brown, Kristen V. (May 29, 2018). "DNA Website Had Unwitting Role in Golden State Manhunt". Bloomberg. Archived from the original on June 1, 2018. Retrieved May 31, 2018.
  14. 1 2 Zhang, Sarah (June 1, 2018). "How a Tiny Website Became the Police's Go-To Genealogy Database". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on October 27, 2018. Retrieved October 26, 2018.
  15. 1 2 3 Milian, Jorge (November 30, 2018). "Cold-case murders, rapes cracked by Lake Worth genealogy website". The Palm Beach Post. Archived from the original on December 5, 2018. Retrieved December 4, 2018.
  16. ↑ Russell, Judy G. (May 15, 2019). "Withdrawing a recommendation". The Legal Genealogist. Archived from the original on December 10, 2019. Retrieved December 12, 2019.
  17. 1 2 Zhang, Sarah (October 1, 2019). "The Messy Consequences of the Golden State Killer Case". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on November 18, 2019. Retrieved November 16, 2019.
  18. ↑ "New federal rules limit police searches of family tree DNA databases". Science | AAAS. September 25, 2019. Archived from the original on October 21, 2019. Retrieved October 22, 2019.
  19. ↑ Hill, Kashmir; Murphy, Heather (November 5, 2019). "Your DNA Profile is Private? A Florida Judge Just Said Otherwise". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331. Archived from the original on November 16, 2019. Retrieved November 16, 2019.
  20. ↑ Russell, Judy G. (December 10, 2019). "GEDmatch acquired by forensic firm". The Legal Genealogist. Archived from the original on December 12, 2019. Retrieved December 12, 2019.
  21. ↑ Vaughan, Adam. "DNA site GEDmatch sold to firm helping US police solve crime". New Scientist. Archived from the original on December 11, 2019. Retrieved December 12, 2019.
  22. ↑ Rogers, Curtis. "To our valued users". www.gedmatch.com. Archived from the original on December 12, 2019. Retrieved December 12, 2019.
  23. ↑ "Mule Creek State Prison".
  24. ↑ Gearty, Robert (December 18, 2018). "DNA, genetic genealogy made 2018 the year of the cold case: 'Biggest crime-fighting breakthrough in decades'". Fox News. Archived from the original on December 19, 2018. Retrieved December 21, 2018.
  25. ↑ Greytak, Ellen M.; Moore, CeCe; Armentrout, Steven L. (June 1, 2019). "Genetic genealogy for cold case and active investigations". Forensic Science International. 299: 103–113. doi:10.1016/j.forsciint.2019.03.039. PMID   30991209. S2CID   109110359.
  26. ↑ Regalado, Antonio (February 1, 2019). "A consumer DNA testing company has given the FBI access to its two million profiles". MIT Technology Review. Archived from the original on February 13, 2019. Retrieved February 11, 2019.
  27. ↑ Hautala, Laura (July 2, 2019). "Sharing your DNA may help with cold cases". CNET. Archived from the original on August 10, 2019. Retrieved July 31, 2019.
  28. ↑ Archived April 26, 2019, at the Wayback Machine , KCRA
  29. ↑ O'Neill, Marnie (December 12, 2019). "DNA twist in kidnapped jogger case". News.com.au. Archived from the original on December 12, 2019. Retrieved December 12, 2019.
  30. ↑ "How an N.J. pathologist may have helped solve the 'Golden State Killer' case". NJ.com – NJ Advance Media. April 26, 2018. Archived from the original on May 4, 2018. Retrieved May 22, 2018.
  31. 1 2 Arango, Tim; Goldman, Adam; Fuller, Thomas (April 27, 2018). "To Catch a Killer: A Fake Profile on a DNA Site and a Pristine Sample". The New York Times. Archived from the original on April 29, 2018. Retrieved May 22, 2018.
  32. ↑ "'Open-source' genealogy site provided missing DNA link to East Area Rapist, investigator says". Archived from the original on April 2, 2019. Retrieved July 30, 2019– via Sacramento Bee.
  33. ↑ Murphy, Heather (August 29, 2018). "She Helped Crack the Golden State Killer Case. Here's What She's Going to Do Next". The New York Times. Archived from the original on September 4, 2018. Retrieved September 18, 2018.
  34. ↑ Jouvenal, Justin (April 30, 2018). "To find alleged Golden State Killer, investigators first found his great-great-great-grandparents". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on May 1, 2018. Retrieved May 22, 2018.
  35. ↑ Keith Allen, Jason Hanna and Cheri Mossburg (April 26, 2018). "Police used free genealogy database to track Golden State Killer suspect, investigator says". CNN. Archived from the original on May 15, 2018. Retrieved May 22, 2018.
  36. ↑ Barry, Dan; Arango, Tim; Oppel, Richard A. Jr. (April 28, 2018). "The Golden State Killer Left a Trail of Horror With Taunts and Guile". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 28, 2018. Retrieved May 22, 2018.
  37. ↑ "NorCal Rapist suspect arrested. He's a 58-year-old safety specialist at UC Berkeley". Archived from the original on December 31, 2018. Retrieved September 21, 2018– via Sacramento Bee.
  38. ↑ Ashley Collman. "Suspected serial 'NorCal rapist' arrested in California thanks to a DNA match on a genealogy website –just like the Golden State Killer". Business Insider. Archived from the original on January 3, 2019. Retrieved July 30, 2019.
  39. ↑ "NorCal Rapist suspect faces 28 new charges in Sacramento court". Archived from the original on February 2, 2019. Retrieved January 8, 2019– via Sacramento Bee.
  40. ↑ Bridges, Virginia; Grubb, Tammy (May 13, 2019). "Father charged with cold-case murder of boy found under billboard". The News & Observer. Archived from the original on October 11, 2020. Retrieved May 13, 2019.
  41. 1 2 3 4 Grubb, Tammy (February 5, 2019). "A dogged investigator made sure the 'Boy under the Billboard' was not forgotten". The News & Observer. Archived from the original on December 28, 2020. Retrieved May 13, 2019.
  42. ↑ "Inmate Locator–Register Number: 19945-057". www.bop.gov. Archived from the original on January 29, 2014. Retrieved May 13, 2019.
  43. ↑ Freeze, Colin; White, Patrick (October 23, 2020). "Genetic genealogy generates heated debate over privacy while helping to crack cold cases". The Globe and Mail. Archived from the original on October 25, 2020. Retrieved October 24, 2020– via www.theglobeandmail.com.
  44. ↑ Michaeli, Yarden (November 16, 2018). "To Solve Cold Cases, All It Takes Is Crime Scene DNA, a Genealogy Site and High-speed Internet". Haaretz. Archived from the original on December 6, 2018. Retrieved December 4, 2018.
  45. ↑ Aldhous, Peter (May 17, 2018). "DNA Data From 100 Crime Scenes Has Been Uploaded To A Genealogy Website – Just Like The Golden State Killer". BuzzFeed News . Archived from the original on May 23, 2018. Retrieved May 23, 2018.
  46. ↑ Gross, Daniel J. (May 8, 2019). "How family tree forensics solved cold cases in Greenville, across the US". The Greenville News. Archived from the original on November 6, 2021. Retrieved May 13, 2019.
  47. ↑ Augenstein, Seth (April 16, 2018). "'Buck Skin Girl' Case Break Is Success of New DNA Doe Project". Forensic Magazine. Archived from the original on September 11, 2018. Retrieved July 2, 2018.
  48. ↑ Swenson, Kyle (June 22, 2018). "He stole the identity of a dead 8-year-old. Police want to know what he was hiding from". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on July 17, 2019. Retrieved June 25, 2018.
  49. 1 2 3 Augenstein, Seth (January 10, 2019). "DNA Doe Project Names 3 More, Notes Case Patterns". Forensic Magazine. Archived from the original on January 10, 2019. Retrieved January 11, 2019.
  50. ↑ Bonvillian, Crystal (January 18, 2019). "Genealogy, forensics help California police ID murder victim after 31 years". My Dayton Daily News, Cox Media Group. Archived from the original on January 29, 2019. Retrieved January 29, 2019.
  51. ↑ "East Texas officials release identity of Lavender Doe". KLTV Texas. February 11, 2019. Archived from the original on February 12, 2019. Retrieved February 12, 2019.
  52. ↑ Hallmark, Bob (January 30, 2019). "DNA reveals identity of victim 'Lavender Doe'". KLTV. Archived from the original on November 29, 2020. Retrieved February 2, 2019.
  53. ↑ Austin, Montgomery (February 28, 2019). "Body found in 1995 tentatively identified". Beloit Daily News. Archived from the original on March 6, 2019. Retrieved March 9, 2019.
  54. ↑ Hanford-Ostman, Emily (March 7, 2019). "How West Chester 'Jane Doe' could help other missing persons". WCPO, Cincinnati. Archived from the original on March 9, 2019. Retrieved March 9, 2019.
  55. ↑ Franklin, Bruce (June 4, 2019). "Minden woman victim of serial killer". KBEF | KASO. Retrieved July 30, 2019.
  56. ↑ Zhang, Sarah (July 29, 2019). "She Was Found Strangled in a Well, and Now She Has a Name". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on July 30, 2019. Retrieved July 30, 2019.
  57. ↑ "Cold cases solved by FDLE's new genealogy department". Clay Today. October 16, 2019. Archived from the original on November 30, 2020. Retrieved November 16, 2019.
  58. ↑ Pace, Elizabeth (October 24, 2019). "Local law enforcement agencies use FDLE's genetic genealogy program to solve cold cases". WJAX CBS47 FOX30. Archived from the original on November 16, 2019. Retrieved November 16, 2019.
  59. ↑ Whyte, Chelsea (August 11, 2018). "Family-tree forensics". New Scientist. 239 (3190): 20–21. doi:10.1016/s0262-4079(18)31430-1. ISSN   0262-4079. S2CID   125371463.
  60. ↑ Gafni, Matthias (April 27, 2018). "Here's the 'open-source' genealogy DNA website that helped crack the Golden State Killer case". The Mercury News. Archived from the original on April 29, 2018. Retrieved May 22, 2018.
  61. ↑ Skwarecki, Beth (May 21, 2018). "Public DNA Databases Are Now Crawling With Law Enforcement and We Better Get Used to It". Lifehacker . Gawker Media. Archived from the original on May 26, 2018. Retrieved May 25, 2018.
  62. ↑ Aldhous, Peter (May 15, 2019). "A Teen Allegedly Assaulted An Elderly Woman. Cops Pursued Him Like The Golden State Killer". BuzzFeed News. Archived from the original on May 17, 2019. Retrieved May 18, 2019.
  63. ↑ Balsamo, Michael (April 27, 2018). "Genealogy site didn't know it was used to seek serial killer". Phys.org. Associated Press. Archived from the original on May 23, 2018. Retrieved May 22, 2018.
  64. ↑ Brown, Kirsten (April 12, 2019). "A Researcher Needed Three Hours to Identify Me From My DNA". Bloomberg Business Week. Archived from the original on April 13, 2019. Retrieved April 15, 2019.
  65. ↑ Guerrini, Christi J.; Robinson, Jill O.; Petersen, Devan; McGuire, Amy L. (October 2, 2018). "Should police have access to genetic genealogy databases? Capturing the Golden State Killer and other criminals using a controversial new forensic technique". PLOS Biology. 16 (10): e2006906. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.2006906 . ISSN   1545-7885. PMC   6168121 . PMID   30278047.
  66. ↑ Jones, Natalie (February 21, 2019). "MD Bill Seeks to Prohibit Using DNA Databases to Solve Crime". NBC4 Washington. Archived from the original on February 23, 2019. Retrieved March 9, 2019.
  67. ↑ Pauly, Madison (March 23, 2019). "Police are increasingly taking advantage of home DNA tests. There are not any regulations to stop it". Mother Jones. Archived from the original on March 31, 2019. Retrieved March 14, 2019.
  68. ↑ "DNA Databases Are Boon to Police But Menace to Privacy, Critics Say". pew.org. February 20, 2020. Archived from the original on November 6, 2021. Retrieved October 20, 2021.
  69. ↑ Aldhous, Peter (May 19, 2019). "This Genealogy Database Helped Solve Dozens Of Crimes. But Its New Privacy Rules Will Restrict Access By Cops". BuzzFeed News. Archived from the original on May 19, 2019. Retrieved May 20, 2019.
  70. ↑ "Police were cracking cold cases with a DNA website. Then the fine print changed". NBC News. Archived from the original on October 24, 2019. Retrieved October 24, 2019.
  71. ↑ Woodawood@journalinquirer.com, Alex (June 10, 2020). "DNA, genealogy led to arrest in series of rapes". Journal Inquirer. Archived from the original on June 12, 2020. Retrieved June 12, 2020.
  72. 1 2 Kashmir Hill; Heather Murphy (November 5, 2019). "Your DNA Profile is Private? A Florida Judge Just Said Otherwise". New York Times . Archived from the original on November 16, 2019. Retrieved November 16, 2019.
  73. ↑ "The GEDmatch Warrant". The DNA Geek. November 18, 2019. Archived from the original on January 3, 2020. Retrieved January 3, 2020.

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.