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DNA, re: Ancestry searches. How do police get access?

Posted on 12/28/22 at 4:35 pm
Posted by geauxkoo
Member since Oct 2021
1349 posts
Posted on 12/28/22 at 4:35 pm
I started a thread earlier about polygraph and that led me to this question...

The Golden State Killer was captured because a relative did a DNA Ancestry search and the killers DNA matched crime scenes. This process has been used by other law enforcement agencies as well.

If you do an Ancestry search, does it then become public because you give them permission to compare your DNA to others DNA?
Posted by Fat and Happy
Baton Rouge
Member since Jan 2013
16991 posts
Posted on 12/28/22 at 4:36 pm to
Because the case went to higher courts and the courts passed it allowing law enforcement to have access
Posted by td1
Baton Rouge
Member since Oct 2015
2834 posts
Posted on 12/28/22 at 4:37 pm to
Read Unmasked by Paul Holes. He explains how they started doing that.
Posted by geauxkoo
Member since Oct 2021
1349 posts
Posted on 12/28/22 at 4:39 pm to
Is that just for this one case or all unsolved cases?

Does law enforcement have to have a court ruling for each individual case?
Posted by Abraham H Parnassis
Member since Jul 2020
2552 posts
Posted on 12/28/22 at 4:41 pm to
quote:

How do police get access?
As with many other methods of evidence collection: warrants, subpoenas, etc.

They don't just go in and start digging around.
This post was edited on 12/28/22 at 4:42 pm
Posted by LSUGrrrl
Frisco, TX
Member since Jul 2007
32879 posts
Posted on 12/28/22 at 4:43 pm to
They simply upload the dna sample from their suspect and relatives are matched just like they would be if you uploaded your dna yourself.
Posted by geauxkoo
Member since Oct 2021
1349 posts
Posted on 12/28/22 at 4:44 pm to
quote:

They don't just go in and start digging around.


The Golden State Killer would not have been caught without it. How did they know where to look?

He wasn't a suspect.
Posted by Vols&Shaft83
Throbbing Member
Member since Dec 2012
69902 posts
Posted on 12/28/22 at 4:46 pm to
quote:

Is that just for this one case or all unsolved cases?

Does law enforcement have to have a court ruling for each individual case?



Where were you on November 13th between the hours of 3 and 4?


This post was edited on 12/28/22 at 4:47 pm
Posted by Funky Tide 8
Tittleman's Crest
Member since Feb 2009
52684 posts
Posted on 12/28/22 at 4:53 pm to
quote:

Before officially connecting the Original Night Stalker to the East Area Rapist in 2001, some law-enforcement officials (particularly from the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department) sought to link the Goleta cases as well.[167] The links were primarily due to similarities in modus operandi. One of the already-linked Original Night Stalker double murders occurred in Ventura, 40 miles (64 km) southeast of Goleta; and the remaining murders were committed in Orange County, an additional 90 miles (140 km) southeast. In 2001, several rapes in Contra Costa County believed to have been committed by the East Area Rapist were linked by DNA to the Smith, Harrington, Witthuhn, and Cruz murders. A decade later, DNA evidence indicated that the Domingo–Sanchez murders were also committed by the East Area Rapist (also identified as the Golden State Killer).[2][16][168]

On June 15, 2016, the FBI released further information related to the crimes, including new composite sketches and crime details;[134] a $50,000 reward was also announced.[169] The initiative included a national database to support law enforcement's investigating of the crimes and to handle tips and information.[170] Eventually, "through the use of genetic genealogy searching on GEDmatch, investigators identified distant relatives of DeAngelo—including family members directly related to his great-great-great-great grandfather dating back to the 1800s. Based on this information, investigators built about 25 different family trees. The tree that eventually linked to [DeAngelo] alone contained approximately 1,000 people. Over the course of a few months, investigators used other clues like age, sex, and place of residence to rule out suspects populating these trees, eliminating suspects one by one until only DeAngelo remained."[16]

Identification of DeAngelo began in December 2017 when officials, led by detective Paul Holes and FBI lawyer Steve Kramer, uploaded the killer's DNA profile from a Ventura County rape kit to the personal genomics website GEDmatch.[171] The website identified ten to twenty people who had the same great-great-great grandparents as the Golden State Killer; a team of five investigators working with genealogist Barbara Rae-Venter used this list to construct a large family tree.[172] From this tree, they established two suspects; one was ruled out by a relative's DNA test, leaving DeAngelo the main suspect.[173]

On April 18 2018, a DNA sample was surreptitiously collected from the door handle of DeAngelo's car;[60] another sample was later collected from a tissue found in DeAngelo's curbside garbage can.[174] Both were matched to samples associated with Golden State Killer crimes.[19] Since DeAngelo's arrest, some commentators have raised concerns about the ethics of the secondary use of personally identifiable information.[175][16]
Posted by Abraham H Parnassis
Member since Jul 2020
2552 posts
Posted on 12/28/22 at 4:53 pm to
quote:

The Golden State Killer would not have been caught without it. How did they know where to look?

I'm just dumb former cop spitballing here, but if I had GSK's profile I would have it submitted to one or more genealogy databases.

I suppose you get a court order to allow the submitted sample to be checked, anonymously, against all samples in the database(s).

Database X gives me a call and says "you won't believe it, but we got a match."

I say "cool, don't say anything else."

I write a subpoena (probably a duces tecum) for that record to be presented.

But again, just a dumb former cop.
This post was edited on 12/28/22 at 4:55 pm
Posted by Proximo
Member since Aug 2011
15551 posts
Posted on 12/28/22 at 4:54 pm to
quote:

As with many other methods of evidence collection: warrants, subpoenas, etc. They don't just go in and start digging around.

You don’t need a warrant to search a public database
Posted by Abraham H Parnassis
Member since Jul 2020
2552 posts
Posted on 12/28/22 at 4:56 pm to
quote:

You don’t need a warrant to search a public database

I assumed they wouldn't be public. I can't imagine the lack of awareness one must have to make that information available to the public.

But in that case, if the database is public then I suppose you wouldn't need one.

People's stupidity knows no bounds I suppose.
This post was edited on 12/28/22 at 4:57 pm
Posted by dbbuilder79
Overton NV
Member since Dec 2010
4149 posts
Posted on 12/28/22 at 4:58 pm to
It's too late now, buddy.

You better confess before things get worse.
Posted by keakar
Member since Jan 2017
29995 posts
Posted on 12/28/22 at 5:04 pm to
quote:

Does law enforcement have to have a court ruling for each individual case?



nope, you freely give up your rights to it when you do the ancestry search, read the fine print and the extra fine print in lawyer speak.

they dont spell out they will be giving it to the cops for the asking, but they do say you give them the right to share it with anyone and make it part of their shared database. thats how the whole ancestry thing works, it doesnt work if they dont share it with anyone and everyone
This post was edited on 12/28/22 at 6:04 pm
Posted by Cymry Teigr
Member since Sep 2012
2101 posts
Posted on 12/28/22 at 5:05 pm to
quote:

People's stupidity knows no bounds I suppose.


Why? Most people aren’t criminals and would you really care if your DNA on a genealogy site assisted law enforcement in narrowing down a suspect? What exactly is someone going to do with access to your DNA that you feel makes it something so private?
Posted by CaliforniaTiger
The Land of Fruits and Nuts
Member since Dec 2007
5303 posts
Posted on 12/28/22 at 5:06 pm to
they use GEDmatch
Posted by CaliforniaTiger
The Land of Fruits and Nuts
Member since Dec 2007
5303 posts
Posted on 12/28/22 at 5:12 pm to
The Golden State killer lived within a mile of my house. His daughter worked in the ER of the hospital I worked at too.
Posted by Abraham H Parnassis
Member since Jul 2020
2552 posts
Posted on 12/28/22 at 5:16 pm to
quote:

Why?
Probably just general distrust of others who are not family or very close friends.
quote:

Most people aren’t criminals and would you really care if your DNA on a genealogy site assisted law enforcement in narrowing down a suspect?
I would not speak to police in any capacity (other than providing ID on a traffic stop or so forth) without an attorney present even if only to "narrow down a suspect." I would take a similar approach here.
quote:

What exactly is someone going to do with access to your DNA that you feel makes it something so private?
Beats me, but it's my private information. Even though nothing is truly private anymore, I'll not feel the need to make it any easier for anyone to have it.

In short, there is no need for my DNA profile to be in any database. Period.

During my LE career one of the states I worked in had an initiative to collect officers' DNA for exclusionary purposes.

If they want it, they can get a court to order it.
This post was edited on 12/28/22 at 5:17 pm
Posted by Amon
Member since Jun 2020
300 posts
Posted on 12/28/22 at 5:25 pm to
I one cousin is on the database. You’re caught.
Posted by Cymry Teigr
Member since Sep 2012
2101 posts
Posted on 12/28/22 at 5:34 pm to
But that’s not exactly how it works. Yes you have to trust the company acting as custodian of your DNA records and with GEDmatch that would indeed be an issue, but in general the only way someone is going to use it is someone who has also uploaded their DNA. It’s not like you can go online and browse the results of some 3rd party at will. I understand the hesitancy to an extent but in all honesty I’d be pretty surprised if the vast majority of people’s DNA hasn’t been sequenced already.
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