Forensic Genealogy...!

[Crossbreed]

Forensic genealogy was used to solve a cold case in California, USA

As they sought a breakthrough in the cold case of the man known as the Golden State Killer and the East Area Rapist, law enforcement officers pursued new avenues to find a DNA match. The man's last known crime was in 1986, when forensic use of DNA technology was just beginning.

On Tuesday, authorities arrested Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, a onetime cop.

His methodical tactics had suggested the killer might have law enforcement experience, a former deputy told The Associated Press. But in committing his terrifying crime spree, he left behind a lot of genetic material.

"He left his DNA all over the place," longtime Contra Costa County District Attorney investigator Paul Holes told Bay Area ABC affiliate KGO. Holes retired in March, after working the case for years.

The FBI operates a central DNA database, and police departments across the country have started compiling their own. Investigators used the DNA evidence to create a profile of the killer, Holes said, but it didn't match any of the samples in criminal DNA databases, the San Jose Mercury News reports.

So they turned to a no-frills site used by genealogists: GEDmatch.com.

"We were able to generate a DNA profile we uploaded into [a] ... database of other similar types of profiles," Holes told KGO. "And then from there, we get a match list of how much DNA these various other individuals share with the crime scene DNA. And the more DNA that they share the more closely related they are..." [snip]

 

[Mia]

Would now be reluctant to do anything related to DNA research with any type of national database. 23andme, ancestry.com and several other genealogy databases have denied participation in this case.
Having your DNA listed on a national database, might and could lead to all sorts of abuses, mistakes, and loss of privacy. It could be the determining factor in job offers, medical insurance and the like, even moving from one country to another. The fact that they caught the criminal, is a good thing, but it makes for all kinds of ethical concerns.

 

[Judge]

I was wondering when someone might post about this crime, considering the potential constitutional ramifications pertaining to search, seizure and privacy. But for the criminal himself, wow. I lived in this area in this guy's heyday when as many as four women were raped on my street alone. Lots of burglaries reported as well.

Back then in 1977 we locally referred to him as the "East Side Rapist". I even recall a few friends who were stopped by the cops where they literally interrogated them, asking them if they were the "East Side Rapist". The cops were really edgy about this one, and for good reason.

But no one at the time that I recall had ever connected his crimes to murder, let alone a crime spree up and down California rather than just in the Metropolitan Sacramento area along the American River. I recall how my roommate and I set up some precautions to keep any "second story" burglar from entering our apartment. Patently illegal booby-traps....stuff from the Vietnam War.

 

[Crossbreed]

I recall how my roommate and I set up some precautions to keep any "second story" burglar from entering our apartment. Patently illegal booby-traps....stuff from the Vietnam War.

I hope that you remembered that they were there when you were sleepy...!

 

[Judge]

I hope that you remembered that they were there when you were sleepy...!

Luckily we made a point of never going out on the balcony. Watch your step!

Lots of two by fours with sharpened nails turned upright. But the really nasty stuff were the rows of razor blades embedded into the balcony's wooden railings. If the landlord would have discovered it all we would have been evicted.

 

[Crossbreed]

Hope For New DNA Leads In Zodiac Killer Case...

 

[Crossbreed]

More DNA News...

After bone marrow transplant, man’s semen contains only donor’s DNA

 

[Mia]

After bone marrow transplant, man’s semen contains only donor’s DNA

It makes sense, in that myeloid lukemia causes bone marrow to produce only immature white blood cells called myeloblasts, and causes bone marrow to stop functioning properly. This makes a person with leukemia more prone to infections, with the inability of these immature white blood cells to fight infection. Replacing the bone marrow of someone with myeloid leukemia would lead to the new bone marrow producing white blood cells from that particular genetic material, not from the old bone marrow, which was not producing fully capable white blood cells.

Still, it makes for some questions in my mind as it relates to criminality. Could a criminal's original dna simply disappear with a bone marrow transplant? It would seem so, and so could a spy's. Making them very hard to find.

 

[Mia]

More on this that I've recently come across:

Bone Marrow Transplants & Blood Chimeras
One way in which a person's DNA can be changed (at least in their white blood cells) permanently is through a bone marrow transplant. Traditionally, bone marrow transplants have been performed as such. Surgeons remove all the bone marrow present in the patient. Then they replace the bone marrow with donor bone marrow. Since bone marrow is responsible for producing platelets as well as red and white blood cells. Donor bone marrow will produce blood cells containing the DNA of the original donor.

In the same breath, the cells in the rest of your body will continue to have your original DNA (the one you were born with). So just like some Frankenstein creation, you will have 2 sets of DNA for the rest of your life. The popularized name for this phenomenon is human chimerism. And as it turns out it is much more common than people realize. It can even occur naturally (without a bone marrow transplant). You can read more about blood chimerism and its effects in this link:
It's possible for one person to have two different sets of DNA — here's how it happens