Barbara Rae-Venter, J.D., Ph.D. SOLVED

BarbaraRae-Venter,J.D.,Ph.D.SOLVED

COLDCASESSOLVED

Disclaimer

This Keynote* and presentation are the opinion of the presenter and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the

Department of Justice or Bureau of Justice Assistance.

*Apple counterpart of PowerPoint

Barbara Rae-Venter, J.D. Ph.D. www.GenealogyConsult.com

831 718 7994

http://www.GenealogyConsult.com

Full Disclosure

I am the Director of Investigative Genetic Genealogy at

Gene by Gene, the parent company of FamilyTreeDNA.


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On April 25 1953, James Watson and Francis Crick published their

seminal paper on the structure of DNA in the journal Nature.

On that day, the world changed forever for the biological sciences.


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On April 25 2018, it was announced that Joseph James DeAngelo

had been arrested the day before on suspicion that

he is the Golden State Killer.

On that day, the world changed forever for criminals

who have left their DNA at a crime scene.


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65 years later……


Barbara Rae-Venter, J.D. Ph.D. [email protected]

831 718 7994


Sentencing August 21, 2020

Members of the Golden State Killer Team

Paul Holes (Retired) DA’s Office, Contra Costa County Stephen S Kramer FBI, Los Angeles Melissa A Parisot, FBI, Los Angeles

Monica Czajkowski, DA’s Office, Sacramento County Kirk Campbell, DA’s Office, Sacramento County

Barbara Rae-Venter, Investigative Genetic Genealogist


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The Power of Investigative Genetic Genealogy

•Paul Holes had worked on the GSK case for 22 years

•The GSK Team identified a suspect in 63 Days from upload to GEDmatch

CurtisRogers


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24 April 2018

Over 60 cases have identified suspects with genealogy searching since the Golden

State Killer case arrest

Case Publicity Creates a Cold Case Arrest Phenomenon Across

the United States

Over 200 cases have been solved since GSK’s arrest using IGG


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My team and I have assisted in solving about 45 cases

since the arrest of the GSK

•We currently have about 50 pending cases


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COLDCASESSOLVED


www.DNAadoption.orgwww.DNAAdoption.orgBarbara Rae-Venter, J.D. Ph.D.

[email protected] 831 718 7994



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u •Visalia Ransacker (1974 to 1975) u •East Area Rapist (1976 to 1979) u •Original Night Stalker (1979 to 1986) u •Golden State Killer (1974 to 1986)



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TheVisaliaRansacker:onemurderand100+burglaries

September11,1975:VisaliaClaudeSnelling

UsedwithpermissionStephenKramer,FBI



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TheEastAreaRapist(EAR)50Rapesand2Murders



OriginalNightStalker(ONS):10murdersand4rapes


Identifying suspects in or victims of violent crimes:

Sources of DNA

•Blood

•Semen

•Hair

•Rootless

•Bones and teeth (victims)

•Genetic relatives identified in

•GEDmatch

•FamilyTreeDNA (FTDNA)

Barbara Rae-Venter, J.D. Ph.D.



•DNA was extracted from a semen sample recovered from Ventura County 1980 rape/homicide victim using standard lab techniques

•Ventura County ME took and froze two samples; onewas used for running tests; the remaining sample was pristine—it had never been thawed—but it was 38 years old

Crime Scene DNA

BennettGreenspan

Peter Speth

•SNP profile was prepared and uploaded to FTDNA and GEDmatch

BennettGreenspan

CurtisRogers

SNP (Single Nucleotide Polymorphism): a mutation that occurs in at least 1% of the population; profile includes 700K-800K SNPs

•The SNP profile obtained using the extracted atDNA is compared in the GEDmatch and FTDNA databases against the atDNA raw data files of other people in each of the databases.

•Matches, people who share DNA with the crime scene DNA, are identified by each company’s matching algorithm. There is no search by LE.

Voluntary upload of SNP Profile to GEDmatch •No DNA is transferred •Disease related SNPs are removed •GEDmatch does no testing •GEDmatch is a public database

OtherDTCTestingCompanies ForensicTestingCompanies


831 718 7994WhatisGEDmatch


52% North Atlantic and Baltic 31% East and West Mediterranean

•Born in 1956 or earlier •Lived in California, probably Northern CA •Blue eyes

Profile of Suspect

Investigative Genetic Genealogy (IGG)*:

•the application of genetic genealogy to solving violent

crimes and identifying unidentified human remains

*also called Forensic

Genetic Genealogy (FGG)

or G

or Barbara Rae-Venter, J.D. Ph.D. [email protected]

831 718 7994


GEDmatch matches with GSK SNP Profile

www.DNAPainter.comBarbara Rae-Venter, J.D. Ph.D.



ASpeculativefamilytreefortheGSKisbuiltbasedonthefamilytreeforthelargestmatchidentifiedon

GedmatchorFTDNA.

Tothistreeareaddedmatcheswhosharethesameancestry.

AMostRecentCommonAncestor(MRCA)isidentifiedforthesematches.

BuildSpeculativeTreeandIdentifyMRCA

MRCA is Ada Seely

Build down from the MRCA to identify all descendants

Run Kinship Reports to identify descendant of the correct relationship

KinshipreportsruntoidentifymenwhoarethecorrectrelationshiptobothMatchAandMatchB

Consensual Testing of Woman Closely Related to One of the Nine Men

•Second Cousin match •X chromosome match

Ada Seely is in one of GSK’s maternal lines

X match eliminated three men; down to six candidates

52% North Atlantic and Baltic 31% East and West Mediterranean

•Born in 1956 or earlier •Lived in California, probably Northern CA •Blue eyes

Profile of Suspect

Eye Color from CA DMV Records

DeAngelo’s Family Tree

Summary of Steps •Build trees for matches; combine to form speculative tree

Combine trees for three matches with shared ancestry to identify MRCA. The Perpetrator is amongst the descendants of the MRCA.

•Apply profile information to candidates to identify Perpetrator Profile for GSK included: •Born in 1956 or earlier •lived in California, probably Northern CA •Blue eyes

No candidate other than DeAngelo was both a descendant of the MRCA and fit the profile information

SummaryofStepsinGSKColdCase

Type of Testing for IGG is limited to autosomal DNA

•Only atDNA can be uploaded to GEDmatch •Y DNA can be used as an adjunct only to provide possible surnames for male offenders or victims •Not appropriate to refer to Y DNA testing alone as IGG

•Can lead to false identification

GG uses all three tests. IGG uses atDNA; can be augmented with Y DNA or mtDNA


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831 718 7994UsedwithpermissionStephenKramer,FBI








Bobby Whitt and Myoung Hwa ChoBarbara Rae-Venter, J.D. Ph.D. www.GenealogyConsult.com

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Probably could not give Bobby and his mom their names and justice today

Help me and others who work on IGG cases speak for the victims

of violent crime

Set an example for others

•Do DNA testing at one of the DTC companies

•Encourage your family and friends to test

•Upload your data GEDmatch and Opt In

•Upload your data to/test at FTDNA


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QUESTIONS?

BarbaraRae-Venter

www.GenealogyConsult.com

8317187994

HelpCatchACriminal,UploadToGEDmatchandFamilyTreeDNAandOptIn!


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Barbara Rae-Venter, J.D., Ph.D. SOLVED