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The remarkable sleuthing method that tracked down the Golden State Killer was not a one-off. A company in Virginia is now working with several law enforcement agencies to solve cases using the same “genetic genealogy” approach that led investigators in California to arrest Joseph James DeAngelo.

The company, Parabon NanoLabs, has already loaded DNA data from about 100 crime scenes into a public genealogy database called GEDmatch. And in about 20 of these cases, the company says, it has found matches with people estimated to be the suspect’s third cousins or even closer relatives.

“We were actually pretty surprised,” Ellen Greytak, Parabon’s director of bioinformatics, told BuzzFeed News. With those known genetic connections, she said, investigators have a good chance of using genealogical research to draw family trees and identify possible suspects. Some arrests could come quickly, she suggested. “I think there is going to be press around this very soon.”

The method made headlines last month when it snared DeAngelo some four decades after his first suspected crime. Investigators discovered partial matches between DNA left at a...