The last thing you’d ever imagine when doing an at-home DNA test to find your family history is that it might lead to one of your relatives being sent to prison.
But it could happen.
For the first time in New South Wales, police have used genetic information stored on public databases to arrest a 77-year-old man. He has been charged over the alleged rape of two underage girls and a young woman in 1991, 1996 and 2002, respectively.
Detectives used the same tool that led police in the United States to capture the “Golden State Killer” Joseph James DeAngelo, who raped and murdered dozens of people.
The technology is called “forensic investigative genetic genealogy” – better known as “FIGG” – and it compares DNA against genealogy databases GEDmatch PRO and FamilyTreeDNA, which can be accessed by law enforcement if the user consents when sharing their genetic information.
In this case, officers uploaded the unknown male DNA from the crime scenes and found a link to a close relative, then eventually to the now-accused man.
Police say they hope to crack more unsolved cases of sexual assault and homicide using the same technology.
Watch more from 10 News+ at 10.com.au
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