The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
DNA site helps finger suspected serial killer
SACRAMENTO, CALIF. — A genealogy website that investigators used to find the former police officer they believe was one of California’s most terrifying serial killers had no idea its services were being used to pursue a suspect who eluded law enforcement for four decades.
Florida-based GEDmatch said it was never approached by authorities or anyone else about the case. The free genealogy website, which pools DNA profiles that people upload and share publicly, says that it has always informed users its database can be used for other purposes.
But the site’s co-founder said he has privacy concerns after learning that law enforcement used the site and insists that his company does not “hand out data.”
“This was done without our knowledge, and it’s been overwhelming,” Curtis Rogers told The Associated Press.
Lead investigator Paul Holes told the Mercury News in San Jose, California, that GEDmatch was one of his team’s biggest tools.
Holes said officials did not need a court order to access GEDMatch’s large database of genetic blueprints. Major commercial DNA companies say they do not give law enforcement access their genetic data without a court order.
Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, was arrested Tuesday after investigators matched crime-scene DNA with genetic material stored by a distant relative on an online site. From there, they narrowed it down to the Sacramento-area grandfather using DNA obtained from material he had discarded, Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert said.
Civil libertarians said the practice raises troubling legal and privacy concerns for the millions of people who submit their DNA to such sites to discover their heritage.
There are not strong privacy laws to keep police from trolling ancestry site databases, said Steve Mercer, the chief attorney for the forensic division of the Maryland Office of the Public Defender.
“People who submit DNA for ancestors testing are unwittingly becoming genetic informants on their innocent family,” Mercer said, adding that they “have fewer privacy protections than convicted offenders whose DNA is contained in regulated databanks.”
GEDMatch is a free site where users who have DNA profiles from commercial companies such as Ancestry.com and 23andMe can upload them to expand their search for relatives.