[azkathy]

I was driving with my Mom yesterday and the top of the hour news came on. They were reporting on the story of the California rapist who was recently arrested. I heard them report that he was found due to his DNA being traced. I can’t remember how they said it, but it sounded like the “authorities” accessed something like 23 and Me to get his DNA. They also mentioned they had the wrong guy from Oregon at first. Have you heard anything about this? Did I hear that right?

[hoosiermama]

It was an obscure free company out of Florida
But they were able to trace the DNA from crime scene to various relatives who had DNA testing done

[liberalh8ter]

The database at GEDmatch was used. It’s really a shame because GEDmatch is instrumental in genealogy searches. It’s also a free service. While I’m happy they caught the guy, this is going to impact services such as GEDmatch.

[lilyramone]

The co-founder of 23and me is Anne Wojcicki, former wife of Google founder Sergey Brin. It is scary how connected all these people are that are woven into our lives.
This article sounds like an honorable way to utilize 23andme to research family diseases and help us but I think it is scary. The article says she wants 23andme to be the Google or DNA.

http://nymag.com/news/features/23andme-2014-4/

Google tracks what we do and look at online and controls that content, it is terrifying to think a DNA database can track us like that too, and who knows how they might utilize it. It is great it caught a killer, but that wasn’t the intention of the company...right?

[defconw]

Q says these people are stupid! There are a lot of stupid people running about! Send in your DNA, bug your own house, put a gadget in your car to report your driving, finger print your kids! What could possibly go wrong?

[grey_whiskers]

Correct about the wrong guy from Oregon; I didn't specifically hear "23 and me" but I did hear they had DNA from some of his blood relatives.

What is more scary is that the guy worked across the street from a law enforcement office (did I hear FBI?) for years, *and* attended law enforcement press conferences about the case, with no one the wiser.

[greeneyes]

Yes, that’s right. It was one of those type of ancestor type things.

[Swordmaker]

I was driving with my Mom yesterday and the top of the hour news came on. They were reporting on the story of the California rapist who was recently arrested. I heard them report that he was found due to his DNA being traced. I can’t remember how they said it, but it sounded like the “authorities” accessed something like 23 and Me to get his DNA. They also mentioned they had the wrong guy from Oregon at first. Have you heard anything about this? Did I hear that right?

They were using a technique called Familial DNA matching, looking for DNA which was close to the known DNA of the killer/rapist. They got a hit in a company called DNAmatch, a small company that is open source DNA genealogy research and publishes on-line the family trees of the testees. One of his children or grandchildren submitted their DNA and that allowed the authorities to figure out who to look at in the family by where the family members had lived and worked. BINGO: Joseph D'Angelo met all the criteria. The got a sample of his DNA from something he discarded in public, a drink container I think, and his DNA was a 100% match to the killer's.