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Genealogy site had no idea it was used to find Golden State Killer

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By MICHAEL BALSAMO and JONATHAN J. COOPER, Associated Press

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The genealogy website used to find the man accused of being California’s Golden State Killer had no idea its database was tapped in pursuit of a suspect who eluded law enforcement for four decades, the site’s co-founder said Friday.

The revelation came as former police officer Joseph DeAngelo made his first court appearance. Handcuffed to a wheelchair in orange jail scrubs, he looked dazed and spoke in a faint voice to acknowledge he was represented by a public defender. He did not enter a plea.

An arrest had been made in the case of a man responsible for at least 12 killings and 50 rapes throughout California in the 1970s and 80s.

Authorities never approached Florida-based GEDmatch about the investigation that led to DeAngelo, and co-founder Curtis Rogers said law enforcement’s use of the site raised privacy concerns that were echoed by civil liberties groups.

The free genealogy website, which pools DNA profiles that people upload and share publicly to find relatives, said it has always informed users its database can be used for other purposes. But Rogers said the company does not “hand out data.”

“This was done without our knowledge, and it’s been overwhelming,” he told The Associated Press.

For the team of investigators tracking the attacker suspected of killing 13 people and raping nearly 50 women during the 1970s and ’80s, GEDmatch was one of the best tools, lead investigator Paul Holes told the Mercury News in San Jose.

This undated photo released by the FBI shows artist renderings of a serial killer and rapist, also known as the “East Area Rapist” and “Golden State Killer” from 1976 to 1986. A California sheriff said Joseph James DeAngelo, a former police officer accused of being a serial killer and rapist, was taken by surprise when deputies swooped in and arrested him Tuesday, April 24, 2018, as he stepped out of his home. (FBI via AP)

Officials did not need a court order to access GEDMatch’s large database of genetic blueprints, Holes said. Major commercial DNA companies say they do not give law enforcement access to their genetic data without a court order.

DeAngelo, 72, was arrested Tuesday after investigators matched crime-scene DNA with genetic material stored online by a distant relative. From there, they narrowed the search down to the Sacramento-area grandfather using DNA obtained from an item he discarded, Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert said.

This undated photo released by the FBI shows a home invasion ransacking by an attacker who became known as the “East Area Rapist” at an unknown location in California. Authorities said the attacker ransacked the home and took coins, jewelry and identification. Joseph James DeAngelo, once sworn to protect the public from crime, was accused Wednesday, April 25, 2018, of living a double life terrorizing suburban neighborhoods at night, becoming one of California’s most feared serial killers and rapists in the 1970s and ’80s before leaving a cold trail that baffled investigators for more than three decades. (FBI via AP)

Civil libertarians said the practice raises legal and privacy concerns for the millions of people who submit their DNA to such sites to discover their heritage.

There are not strong privacy laws to keep police from accessing ancestry site databases, said Steve Mercer, the chief attorney for the forensic division of the Maryland Office of the Public Defender.

“People who submit DNA for ancestors testing are unwittingly becoming genetic informants on their innocent family,” Mercer said, adding that they “have fewer privacy protections than convicted offenders whose DNA is contained in regulated databanks.”

While people may not realize police can use public genealogy websites to solve crimes, it is probably legal, said Erin Murphy, a DNA expert and professor at New York University School of Law.

“It seems crazy to say a police officer investigating a very serious crime can’t do something your cousin can do on a Tuesday,” Murphy said. “If an ordinary person can do this, why can’t a cop? On the other hand, if an ordinary person had done this, we might think they shouldn’t.”

While most consumers would have to get a genetic profile from a commercial company such as Ancestry.com and 23andMe, the police may have obtained the DNA profile in their crime lab before uploading it to GEDmatch, she said.

DNA was just coming into use as a criminal investigative tool in 1986 when the predator also known as the East Area Rapist apparently ended his decade-long wave of attacks.

As a former police officer, DeAngelo probably would have known about the new method, experts said.

This undated photo released by the FBI shows a sketch and details of a stolen ring the attacker who became known as the East Area Rapist took from one of his victims. Authorities said the attacker ransacked homes and took coins, jewelry and identification. Joseph James DeAngelo, once sworn to protect the public from crime, was accused Wednesday, April 25, 2018, of living a double life terrorizing suburban neighborhoods at night, becoming one of California’s most feared serial killers and rapists in the 1970s and ’80s before leaving a cold trail that baffled investigators for more than three decades. (FBI via AP)
CORRECTS NAME TO SACRAMENTO SHERIFF SCOTT JONES-In this undated photo released by the FBI shows East Area Rapist Ski Masks in Sacramento, Calif. A California sheriff says a former police officer accused of being a serial killer and rapist was taken by surprise when deputies swooped in and arrested him as he stepped out of his home. Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones said deputies planned to arrest Joseph DeAngelo when he left his home on Tuesday, April 24, 2018. (FBI via AP)

Police at the time suspected they were chasing a fellow cop or armed services member because he was so methodical and meticulous, said Wendell Phillips, a former Sacramento deputy who joined the hunt for the rapist who terrorized the suburbs east of the state capital.

In fact, officers assigned to a special task force were required to submit saliva samples to exclude anyone who shared a genetic trait, Phillips said. About 85 percent of people secrete their blood type in saliva and body fluids, but the rape suspect was in the roughly 15 percent who didn’t.

“Obviously, you didn’t want the East Area Rapist on the team,” Phillips said. “That turned out to be a pretty good concern.”

No one who knew DeAngelo over the decades connected him with the string of crimes throughout California from 1976 to 1986.

DeAngelo worked nearly three decades in a Sacramento-area supermarket warehouse as a truck mechanic, retiring last year. He was known by neighbors in suburban Citrus Heights for keeping his lawn manicured and cussing loudly.

This undated photo released by the FBI shows part of East Area Rapist Crime reports at the Sheriff’s department evidence room in Sacramento, Calif. Volumes of reports about the murder investigation are contained in the evidence room at the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department. A California sheriff said Joseph James DeAngelo, a former police officer accused of being a serial killer and rapist, was taken by surprise when deputies swooped in and arrested him Tuesday, April 24, 2018, as he stepped out of his home. (FBI via AP)
T. Abbott, left, and John Lopes, right, from the Sacramento County Sheriff’s crime scene investigation office, conference about boxes of evidence gathered from the home of murder suspect Joseph DeAngelo, Thursday, April 26, 2018, in Citrus Heights, Calif. DeAngelo, 72, was taken into custod Tuesday on suspicion of committing multiple homicides and rapes in the 1970s and 1980s in California. Authorities spent the day going through the home for evidence. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)
John Lopes, a crime scene investigator for the Sacramento Sheriff’s office picks up bags of evidence taken from the home of murder suspect Joseph DeAngelo to be placed in a sheriff’s vehicle Thursday, April 26, 2018, in Citrus Heights, Calif. DeAngelo, 72, was taken into custody, Tuesday, on suspicion of committing multiple homicides and rapes in the 1970’s and 1980’s in California. Authorities spent the day going through the home for evidence. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

Investigators are removing virtually everything from DeAngelo’s home in search of mementos such as class rings, earrings and photos taken from crime scenes as well as weapons, Jones said.

DeAngelo, who has been charged with eight counts of murder, is on suicide watch in the psychiatric ward of the county jail and has been muttering to himself, said Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones. Authorities said more charges are likely to be filed later.

Police in the central California city of Visalia said Thursday that DeAngelo is now a suspect in a 13th killing and about 100 burglaries that occurred while he was a police officer in the neighboring farm town of Exeter from 1973 to 1976.

In 1975, community college teacher Claude Snelling was shot while trying to stop a masked intruder from kidnapping his 16-year-old daughter from his home.

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Balsamo reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press writers Brian Melley in Los Angeles, Paul Elias in San Francisco and Matt O’Brien in Providence, Rhode Island, contributed to this report.