Posts

Showing posts from November, 2018

How do you feel about your DNA being used by the police? - the results of a survey

Image
Background In April 2018, US police finally identified a murder victim (known as " Buckskin Girl ") whose identity had remained a mystery for 37 years. Despite everything that they threw at the case, Forensic Science could not come up with the answer. But Genetic Genealogy did, and in doing so, made history. The Buckskin Girl case was solved in 4 hours once the kit had been processed by Gedmatch The excitement generated by the case did not have a chance to die down because two weeks later, the prime suspect in the  Golden State Killer case  was arrested, causing a media storm. Once again, genetic genealogy techniques had helped identify the most likely candidates for the killer, and (using routine police work) officers had followed these leads and gathered the evidence necessary to bring charges against a single individual. Since then  over 11 people  have been arrested and charged with rape or murder, thanks to the application of the new technique by Law Enforcement...