Earlier this year, as a Father's Day gift, my wife surprised me with an Ancestry DNA kit. I've always had an interest in my Irish heritage, so I was pretty excited at the prospect of learning more about my families' origins.
So, a few weeks after receiving the kit, I offered up a genetic fingerprint by mailing in a collection tube filled with my saliva in hopes of tracking down long-lost relatives that match my DNA.
As it turns out, my spit-filled tube might actually be tracking down long-lost criminals.
According to the International Society of Genetic Genealogy, over 17.5 million people have sent their DNA into a genealogy website. Over 7 million people contributed their DNA in 2017 alone.
The soaring popularity of commercial DNA testing, in turn, has sparked a revolution within the genetic genealogy field that has transformed law enforcements ability to crack cold cases.
Genetic genealogy is the use of DNA testing in combination with traditional genealogical methods to infer relationships between individuals and find ancestors. This application of genetics became popular with family historians in the 21st century. But, with companies like Ancestry.com and 23andMecompeting to squeeze more and more information out of each DNA sample, the industry has enabled the science and technology to reach new heights.
By harnessing the new technology, genetic genealogists can now take an unknown killer's DNA from a crime scene and identify them through his or her family members, who voluntarily submitted their DNA to a genealogy database.
The science involves a search for third cousins. To identify a person through a DNA sample, an investigator uploads a previously analyzed genetic sequence to a database. The goal is to find someone who shares enough DNA to place them in the third cousin or closer range. According to the ISOGG, most of us have at least 800 people out there, somewhere in the world, who fall into this category. So long as one of these people is in the database, a skilled genetic genealogist can use public records and other publicly accessible information to start building a family tree and figure out the person's actual identity.
Authorities across the United States have cracked 15 cold cases using genetic genealogy since April of this year. Perhaps the most notable use of genetic genealogy was in the arrest of the suspected "Golden State Killer," Joseph James DeAngelo, a cold case that stumped California law enforcement for decades.
While commercial DNA tests, along with genetic genealogy, have proven to be both positive and powerful tools for law enforcement, the public availability of DNA records have raised a plethora of privacy issues.
If you happen to get an Ancestry DNA kit from Santa Clause this year, you might want to think twice before mailing it in!!
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