Community Chat

[LoriLori]

This is an excerpt from a long-ish article in the Mercury News in which Paul Holes -- lead investigator on the case who retired but has continued working the case every day of his life since -- talks about how they finally got him. 

The details are amazing and remember, that DNA was uploaded voluntarily to GEDMATCH by the relative.

"The hits on DeAngelo came from third and fourth cousins, Holes said. Family members directly related to DeAngelo’s great, great, great, great grandfather dating back to the 1800s when families would often have 15 kids. Holes and his team built out more than 25 different family trees. The tree that eventually linked to the Golden State Killer was so large, it contained about 1,000 people, he said.

“I’m not familiar with any other case used to capture someone like this,” Holes said.

California law limits such “familial searching” using the state’s criminal DNA database. And major companies, such as 23andMe and Ancestry.com, require a court order for law enforcement to access DNA files stored in their databases."

If anyone wants more here's a link to the whole article:

https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/04/26/ancestry-23andme-deny-assisting-law-enforcement-in-east-area-...

[MarieIG]

I find it hard to put my feelings about this into words. I am grateful that this monster has been arrested. No, I will not read the book. As it involves real victims being tortured, it would be too upsetting for me.