Could Having Your DNA Tested Land You in Court?
        
            By Claire Maldarelli, 
                Popular Science
             | 10. 16. 2015
        
                    
                                    
                    
                                                                                                                                    
                                                                            
                              
    
  
  
    
  
          
  
      
    
             
  Untitled Document 
  
The story of filmmaker Michael Usry’s arrest seems like it could have come straight from an episode of CSI.   A New Orleans-based filmmaker known for his violent, murder-centered   films, he was suspected of the 1996 murder of a young woman in Idaho   Falls, Idaho. In early 2015, using DNA his father submitted to a private   genetics company owned by Ancestry.com,   police narrowed down on the filmmaker. Usry submitted his DNA to   authorities and when it didn't match, he was found innocent. However, as Wired reports in an article today, the method the cops used to narrow down on   Usry--employing private genetics companies' databases to find a   suspect--brings to the forefront the already heightened concerns over   the use and privacy laws of commercial DNA testing through companies   such as Ancestry and 23andMe.
 
  Back in 1996, a suspect was convicted of the   murder soon after it took place. However, amid concerns that the wrong   man was convicted, the police turned to a controversial technique known   as familial searching,   which searches a DNA database to look for close...
 
 
  
 
    
    
  
   
                        
                                                                                
                 
                                                    
                            
                                  
    
  
  
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