When the man accused of being the Golden State Killer was arrested in Sacramento, Calif., late last month, worldwide attention was drawn to the enterprising use of DNA technology that helped solve the decades-old case.Among those watching were detectives in Toronto police’s cold case unit.“We were on the phone the next week, trying to contact the investigators,” said Det. Sgt. Stacy Gallant. “I wanted to ask them: how did you do it? What did you need? I wanted to find out the exact process that they took.”Read more:Golden State Killer search led investigators to wrong man in 2017DNA brings arrest in Golden State Killer crimes from ’70s and ’80sFour more murder counts filed in Golden State Killer caseIn what Gallant thinks may be a law enforcement first, California police — including an investigator who’d been working the case for 20 years — used a free public genealogy site called GEDmatch to identify 72-year-old Joseph James DeAngelo as the suspect in a spree of murders dating to the 1970s.According to U.S. media reports, police used a newly discovered, well-preserved DNA sample believed to be that of the Golden State Killer and submitted the genetic profile to the genealogy database. Police created a fake profile and pretended to be conducting family history research — a typical use of genetic testing services such as GEDmatch or more prominent commercial sites such as 23andMe.com. A few months later, the DNA produced a match with a distant relative of DeAngelo, eventually leading to his arrest.The new technique has been celebrated for its potential to unlock cold cases, but it raises pressing privacy concerns. Among them, the question of whether those submitting their DNA to genealogy sites to find lost relatives or learn about hereditary risks understand that their genetic code could one day be mined by law enforcement — with consequences for relatives or future generations. In a stateme ...
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