Investigative genetic genealogy, using DNA to find relatives of unidentified suspects and victims, is aiding police in solving cold cases. The technique helped identify the victim in a 1970s homicide in Ottawa and recently led to the arrest of a suspect in a 1996 stabbing.
Family tree enthusiasts are helping police solve decades-old homicides. And the former California district attorney who helped bring the technique to the world with the prosecution of the Golden State Killer back in 2018 says it has the potential to solve many more — as long as it's managed appropriately.Investigative genetic genealogy uses an unidentifed suspect or victim's DNA to find their relatives and start building out a family tree, which helps investigators narrow their search.
"With a lot of these old cases, it's about bringing a lot of what was done 30 years ago into the modern standard that's accepted for prosecutions in court today," O'Brien said.Ottawa police Sgt. Chris O'Brien, seen here in 2015, said the force continues to comb through its cold cases for other DNA samples of unknown suspects that could merit testing for investigative genetic genealogy.
For the Smith case, Ottawa police uploaded their unknown suspect's DNA profile to those two sites. With help from the Toronto police cold case unit, which has genetic genealogists on staff thanks to provincial funding, they started building out family trees to find relatives of their suspect. It can cost anywhere from $1,500 to $10,000 to do, she said, depending on the quality of the sample and the facts of the case. And moral and ethical concerns are still being hashed out.
Genetic Genealogy Cold Cases DNA Technology Criminal Investigation Homicide
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