US: Notorious ‘Golden State Killer’ suspect caught using DNA from genealogy website

Police are confident that they have finally apprehended a notorious criminal known variously as the Golden State Killer, East Area Rapist or Original Night Stalker, who committed 12 murders and 50 rapes in the 1970s and 1980s.

The Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office said they tracked the killer down by comparing DNA samples from his crime scenes with genetic profiles hosted by a genealogy website.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Grippi said this process led them to a likely relative of the killer, and they then traced this relative’s family tree back to find suspect Joseph James DeAngelo.

They subsequently obtained DeAngelo’s DNA from something he discarded and made a DNA comparison, which resulted in a match.

DeAngelo was arrested outside his home on Tuesday afternoon and faces arraignment in Sacramento Superior Court today.

He is expected to be charged with all twelve murders.

Steve Cooley, a former Los Angeles County District Attorney, warned NBC News that the investigative approach was likely to upset “various self-appointed civil libertarian types and groups”.

He added: “This is a brave new world in terms of the use of DNA information collected and stored by private entities, and will inevitably be a brave new world in terms of future litigation.”