A Nonprofit Wants Your DNA Data to Solve Crimes

THE 2018 ARREST of Joseph James DeAngelo, infamously known as the Golden State Killer, put genetic genealogy on the map. Investigators created a DNA profile of DeAngelo using crime scene evidence, and uploaded it to a public genealogy database people use to find relatives. From there, police were able to identify DeAngelo’s distant genetic connections and, using public records, build out a family tree to eventually zero in on him.

It was the first publicized instance of genetic genealogy being used to identify the perpetrator of a violent crime. By one estimate, more than 500 murders and rapes have been solved with the technique in the years since. And those are just the ones that have been announced by law enforcement agencies. Although it’s mainly been a tool for cracking years-old cold cases, genetic genealogy was recently used by police to arrest Bryan Kohberger for the November 2022 murders of four college students at the University of Idaho. (Kohberger has been charged but has not yet entered a plea.)

But the technique is controversial because it relies on commercial...