Using genealogy site to find serial killer raises concerns

“This was done without our knowledge, and it’s been overwhelming.”

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The genealogy website used to find the man accused of being California’s Golden State Killer had no idea its database was tapped in pursuit of a suspect who eluded law enforcement for four decades, the site’s cofounder said Friday.

The revelation came as former police officer Joseph DeAngelo made his first court appearance. Handcuffed to a wheelchair in orange jail scrubs, he looked dazed and spoke in a faint voice to acknowledge he was represented by a public defender. He did not enter a plea.

Authorities never approached Florida-based GEDmatch about the investigation that led to DeAngelo, and co-founder Curtis Rogers said law enforcement’s use of the site raised privacy concerns that were echoed by civil liberties groups.

The free genealogy website, which pools DNA profiles Curtis Rogers, co-founder of GEDmatch, a Florida-based genealogy site

that people upload and share publicly to find relatives, said it has always informed users its database can be used for other purposes. But Rogers said the company does not “hand out data.”

“This was done without our knowledge, and it’s been overwhelming,” he said.

For the team of investigators tracking the attacker suspected of killing 13 people and raping nearly 50 women during the 1970s and ‘80s, GEDmatch was one of the best tools, lead investigator Paul Holes said.

Major commercial DNA companies say they do not give law enforcement access to their genetic data without a court order.

But there are not strong privacy laws to keep police from accessing ancestry site databases, said Steve Mercer, the chief attorney for the forensic division of the Maryland Office of the Public Defender.

While people may not realize police can use public genealogy websites to solve crimes, it is probably legal, said Erin Murphy, a DNA expert and professor at New York University School of Law.

“If an ordinary person can do this, why can’t a cop?” Murphy said.