In the past year alone, the 52-year-old unsolved murder of a Vermont woman, Rita Curran, was solved using genetic genealogy. Stats suggest the number of crimes solved worldwide using genetic genealogy exceeds 400 (almost exclusively in the United States), and 120 of these have been attributed to GEDmatch. The database goes beyond the services offered by genealogy sites because it’s public, and it allows people to compare DNA from multiple databases, not just the service they’re subscribed to. Overnight, this single case thrust genetic genealogy and GEDmatch into the global spotlight.įounded in 2010 by genealogy hobbyists Curtis Rogers and John Olson, GEDmatch allows users of at-home DNA test kits to upload their results and find matches. He was arrested and charged with multiple counts of murder. This ultimately led them to Joseph DeAngelo (pictured), a former police officer, whose DNA was matched to the samples recovered from the crime scenes. That was until investigators ran the DNA through a public database called GEDmatch. Law enforcement had his DNA, but without a match on their internal databases, the killer’s identity remained a mystery for decades. The so-called Golden State Killer was responsible for at least 13 murders, 50 rapes and more than 100 burglaries in California during the 1970s and ’80s. In 2018, one of the most notorious serial killers in recent history was caught using genetic genealogy. It was only a matter of time, then, until the idea of identifying modern remains, and catching criminals using genetic genealogical techniques, would pique the interest of law-enforcement bodies. When a body, believed to be King Richard III, was found under a car park in Leicester, researchers compared DNA from the remains to someone believed to be Richard’s distant nephew to confirm his identity. Outside of the consumer use cases, increased understanding and access to DNA has allowed researchers to trace ancient lineages and identify remains. As they have evolved, the tests have unlocked more actionable insights, to the point where today they reveal which genetic markers are responsible for your eye and hair colour, or your predisposition to health conditions –everything from the genetic likelihood of you having excess ear wax to your cancer risk.Īs the number of people taking these tests has risen, it’s now possible to compare your results to millions of others to find relatives, plot shared ancestors, and fill in gaps on family trees. The early tests revealed interesting but not particularly useful information about a person’s geographical heritage. Since the first at-home DNA kits hit the market in 2007, more than 26 million people have uploaded their DNA online. It’s been both lauded a success and had its legality called into question, and as officials decide its fate, we look at where the battle lines have been drawn. There is a relatively nascent technology that has potential to reverse such trends, called forensic or investigative genetic genealogy (IGG). At the same time, Home Office figures show sex offences hit a record high, homicides were up 25 per cent, and 2.4 million cases were closed due to “evidential difficulties”, without police ever identifying a suspect. As of March 2022, the last full year for which we have statistics, only 5.6 per cent of crimes in the UK secured a conviction. Visit any police website across the UK and you will be met with rows of faces – each one belonging to the victim of a crime that has yet to be solved.
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