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How They Caught The Golden State Killer

Veritasium · 10.1M views · 2021-09-30 · 27:12

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Overview

Veritasium explains how investigators caught the Golden State Killer using forensic genealogy, matching crime scene DNA to distant relatives in public genealogy databases. It also covers the privacy implications of DNA databases.

On Hacker News

HN points to it as the go-to explanation of how police can identify anyone through relatives' DNA tests, in privacy and genetics threads.

Recommended by 1 HN people across 1 months · HN mentions 2021–2023

Topics

Privacy, surveillance & cybercrimeEvolution & geneticsLaw, policing & justice
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golden state killerdnagenetic privacygedmatchveritasium

What people said

falcolas · 2022-02 · Strong recommendation

DNA is a genie that's flown far and free from their bottle. Even if you are not in the system directly (from, say, 23&me, rape kits, arrests, etc), someone within 2-3 degrees of separation on your family tree is. It's enough for you to be identified in most cases. If you haven't watched the video Veritasium did about the Golden State Killer, I highly recommend it. It details quite nicely how if anybody has your DNA sample, the police have access to it. [VIDEO] Bonus points for noticing how many of these company reps who tout "nothing to hide" like protecting their own privacy.

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rocho · 2023-12 · Reference

> Even my brother and I share only ~50% DNA. This is completely false. Any two random humans have more than 99% overlap by virtue of being the same species. It's even higher for brothers. We also share around 90% DNA with cats, dogs and elephants. [LINK] > I'm not too worried about it because it's never a 100% overlap. This doesn't make sense. If they were equal, you'd be the same person except for environmental differences. Many applications don't need equal DNAs. E.g. [VIDEO] > About insurance companies, they're legally forbidden to use such data. This is a very weak argument. There's a long history of companies doing illegal things, and even if it's illegal today it doesn't mean it'll be illegal tomorrow.

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morebortplates · 2023-06 · Reference

That's exactly how the so called Golden State Killer was caught. [LINK] Video by Veritassium about the case: [VIDEO]

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Sources

Video by Veritasium, played through YouTube.

Data and selection notes

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