Arrest of Suspected Golden State Killer Through Genealogy Opens ‘Pandora’s Box’
By Lizzie Johnson and Trisha Thadani
For more than 40 years, the Golden State Killer eluded authorities. As police scrambled to solve the cold case, Joseph James DeAngelo — now suspected to be the serial burglar, rapist and murderer who terrorized the state in the 1970s and ’80s — lived a quiet life in a Sacramento suburb.
Meanwhile, genetic samples taken from crime scenes sat in an evidence closet. There were no matches. They appeared useless — until an investigator plugged the DNA into a little-known genealogical website.
The capture last week of DeAngelo, 72, was a stunning breakthrough for law enforcement. Sacramento County officials charged him with two counts of murder, and other counties soon followed. But investigators’ use of an open-source online genealogical service bearing similarities to 23andMe and Ancestry — companies that have sparked controversy for selling sensitive user information to third parties — has far-reaching privacy implications.
“A lot of people weren’t aware that others could get into these sites,” said Arthur Caplan, director of the Division of Medical Ethics at New York University’s School of Medicine. “It’s a reminder that these companies not only have third parties and legal authorities coming in, but…
