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He didn't submit his DNA to ancestry.com like originally thought. Authorities narrowed down who he was by matching the DNA they had from crime scenes to the data ancestry.com had of his relatives. So they basically narrowed down who it could be using online DNA data. Pretty interesting shit. Some people are talking about privacy concerns but in this case I'd day it's worth it.
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Sacramento authorities confirmed Thursday that they used DNA profiles from ancestry websites to help them catch the Golden State Killer, also known as the East Area Rapist and the Original Night Stalker (EARONS).
The suspect, 72-year-old Joseph James DeAngelo Jr., was arrested earlier this week in connection with the famously unsolved serial rape and murder case, which included as many as 50 confirmed rapes and 12 murders over a 10-county area in California between 1974 and 1986. DeAngelo worked as a police officer for a six-year period during the most active part of the investigation.
A Wednesday press conference announcing the arrest focused heavily on DNA evidence linking DeAngelo to the crimes, but authorities didn’t specify how that DNA was obtained. Thursday, the Sacramento district attorney’s office confirmed to the Sacramento Bee that authorities had submitted EARONS’s DNA, collected from a 1978 crime scene, to online websites like Ancestry.com and 23andme.com. These websites allow individuals to look up information about their genetic background by matching their DNA against publicly available DNA profiles. Lead investigator Paul Holes said his team used the website GEDmatch, which creates profiles based on voluntarily shared, publicly available genetic info.
Investigators searched family trees generated through the public profiles, looking for plausible leads. After “a long period of time,” a break in the case finally came together incredibly swiftly — beginning last Thursday, April 19, when investigators pinpointed DeAngelo as a plausible suspect. They then placed him under surveillance, collected a sample of his discarded DNA, and had a match by the following day, the evening of April 20. They then collected a second sample, confirmed that match by Monday night, and arrested DeAngelo the next day, the afternoon of April 24.
https://www.vox.com/2018/4/27/172902...-profile-match
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Sacramento authorities confirmed Thursday that they used DNA profiles from ancestry websites to help them catch the Golden State Killer, also known as the East Area Rapist and the Original Night Stalker (EARONS).
The suspect, 72-year-old Joseph James DeAngelo Jr., was arrested earlier this week in connection with the famously unsolved serial rape and murder case, which included as many as 50 confirmed rapes and 12 murders over a 10-county area in California between 1974 and 1986. DeAngelo worked as a police officer for a six-year period during the most active part of the investigation.
A Wednesday press conference announcing the arrest focused heavily on DNA evidence linking DeAngelo to the crimes, but authorities didn’t specify how that DNA was obtained. Thursday, the Sacramento district attorney’s office confirmed to the Sacramento Bee that authorities had submitted EARONS’s DNA, collected from a 1978 crime scene, to online websites like Ancestry.com and 23andme.com. These websites allow individuals to look up information about their genetic background by matching their DNA against publicly available DNA profiles. Lead investigator Paul Holes said his team used the website GEDmatch, which creates profiles based on voluntarily shared, publicly available genetic info.
Investigators searched family trees generated through the public profiles, looking for plausible leads. After “a long period of time,” a break in the case finally came together incredibly swiftly — beginning last Thursday, April 19, when investigators pinpointed DeAngelo as a plausible suspect. They then placed him under surveillance, collected a sample of his discarded DNA, and had a match by the following day, the evening of April 20. They then collected a second sample, confirmed that match by Monday night, and arrested DeAngelo the next day, the afternoon of April 24.
https://www.vox.com/2018/4/27/172902...-profile-match