Sky News
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How your family tree could solve a murder
Posted
August 1, 2019
Views
7,330
Likes
116
Comments
16
Engagement
1.80%
August 1, 2019
7,330
116
16
1.80%
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13:07Now PlayingPolice are using the DNA uploaded to family history websites to solve murder cases that have remained unsolved for decades.
For decades, the photograph of Linda O'Keefe remained pinned to the wall of the detectives' office at Newport Beach Police Department in California.
The smiling face of the 11-year-old girl was a daily reminder of a murder that had horrified the upmarket seaside city - and one that had since become the coldest of cold cases.
A few months ago, 46 years after Linda was murdered, they took that photo down.
The arrest of a 72-year-old man - hundreds of miles from the California coast - represented not only a breakthrough in Linda's case but another striking landmark in a seismic shift in cold case investigations.
James Alan Neal - who denies Linda's murder - is one of more than 50 people who have been arrested after being identified through the new forensic technique of genetic genealogy.
Analysts and genealogists have been using DNA uploaded to a public family history website called GEDmatch to try to find matches for decades-old crime scene samples.
The technology provides an investigative lead, like a witness or a clue, pointing detectives towards a likely suspect.
The arrest rate has been astounding - raising hopes of cracking hundreds of thousands of unsolved murders and rapes and potentially changing the landscape of crime and society forever.
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