Parabon NanoLabs has been working with law enforcement agencies to solve crimes using "genetic genealogy". And the company from Virginia has uploaded DNA data from about 100 crime cases to a public genealogy database called GEDmatch.
In about 20 of these cases, the company says, it has found matches with people estimated to be the suspect's third cousins or even closer relatives.
"We were actually pretty surprised," said Ellen Greytak, Parabon's director of bioinformatics. With those known genetic connections, she said that investigators should have a good chance of using genealogical research to draw family trees and identify possible suspects.
Some arrests could come quickly, she suggested.
Parabon NanoLabs' method has made headlines when it helped the authorities arrest Joseph James DeAngelo after some four decades after his first suspected crime. Investigators discovered partial matches between the DNA left at a crime scene by the Golden State Killer and distant relatives in GEDmatch.
And by using public information such as Census records and local newspaper obituaries, the authorities have constructed family trees that led to DeAngelo and his arrest.
DeAngeloa is known as a serial killer, rapist, and burglar who committed at least 12 murders, more than 50 rapes, and over 100 burglaries in California from 1974 to 1986.
Before catching the Golden State Killer, Parabon had previously ran tests on DNA from more than 150 cold cases, mostly as part of its efforts to reconstruct the likely features of crime suspects. The company teamed up with CeCe Moore, a genetic genealogist, to help law enforcement investigate those DNA profiles with GEDmatch.
At first, she was worried that people would react badly to the idea of police scanning through public databases that genealogy enthusiasts use to research their family trees. But since the reaction to the Golden State Killer's arrest was mostly positive, she was convinced to get involved.
Anyone putting their genetic information into the database now knows that law enforcement can use it, she said.