WP:‘Golden State Killer’ suspect, a former police officer, arrested after DNA match, officials say

[Dan T.]

Here's a clear mug shot.  What's going on right on the top of his head?  It looks like a bandage. And he's got a scrape over his left eye.

 

 

Also, a stain (dried blood?) on his right shoulder...

[Lombardi's_kid_brother]

He's old.

 

My dad is 72. He always has a random scratch or something. Skin is not as tough at that age.

[PeterMP]

1 hour ago, Lombardi's_kid_brother said:

If that's the case, it's actually somewhat terrifying that they can extract DNA from anything you've ever touched. That's a brave new world for sure, and one I'm not exactly on board with.

 

Read the article I posted back on page 1.  Your DNA actually travels.  If you touch something and somebody else then touches it, they can pick up your DNA and transfer it to something else.

 

Parts of men's sperm and DNA will transfer to other laundry in the wash and enough can survive a dryer for identification using today's technology.

[Dan T.]

From the Sacramento Bee:

 

Sacramento investigators tracked down East Area Rapist suspect Joseph James DeAngelo using genealogical websites that contained genetic information from a relative, the Sacramento County District Attorney's Office confirmed Thursday.

 

The effort was part of a painstaking process that began by using DNA from one of the crime scenes from years ago and comparing it to genetic profiles available online through various websites that cater to individuals wanting to know more about their family backgrounds by accepting DNA samples from them, said Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Grippi.

 

The investigation was conducted over a long period of time as officials in Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert's office and crime lab explored online family trees that appeared to have matches to DNA samples from the East Area Rapist's crimes, Grippi said. They then followed clues to individuals in the family trees to determine whether they were potential suspects.

 

The process finally came to fruition last Thursday, when the investigation focused on the possibility that DeAngelo might be a suspect, a suspicion that was bolstered by the fact that he had lived in areas where the attacks occurred and was in the right age range, Grippi said.

 

http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/crime/article209913514.html

[Dan T.]

So this is chilling and, I assume, just an eerie coincidence...

 

Jason Calhoon worked alongside Joseph Deangelo at a warehouse job in Roseville, California for 27 years, and was shocked at the news that his coworker was arrested.  One of Deangelo's suspected rape victims, 42 years ago, was a teenage girl in Rancho Cordova.

 

That teenager was a babysitter for Jason Calhoon.

 

http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/crime/article209872419.html

[Kilmer17]

Holy cow

[LadySkinsFan]

Wow, small world.

[Lombardi's_kid_brother]

That's terrifying, but the guy had nearly 50 rape victims. You create a pool that large, and there is bound to be some connections.

[tshile]

So, I’m learning about all of this just today. It’s a lot to take in. Causes a wide range of emotions. This whole thing I crazy

 

 

[visionary]

 

[visionary]

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

In regards to an earlier point, I had never heard of this guy until the other day.  Definitely heard of the big boogeymen like Dahmer, Gacy, BTK, Ramirez, etc. but...how come this guy wasn't nationally known?

[The Evil Genius]

East coast bias.

 

Really though...who knows. Heck, I've lived here (NorCal)for 20 years now and hadn't heard of him. Cold case I guess?

 

As an aside..I know some people are going to have a hard problem with how they caught this guy (relatives dna on a geneology site Mae then examine past suspects which left them to him, they then got full dna from discarded trash???)...but Im glad this sob was caught.

 

Even if how is a little unsettling.

[Dan T.]

1 hour ago, Spaceman Spiff said:

In regards to an earlier point, I had never heard of this guy until the other day.  Definitely heard of the big boogeymen like Dahmer, Gacy, BTK, Ramirez, etc. but...how come this guy wasn't nationally known?

 

That is a bit of a quirk.  I guess part of it is the time period - his crimes were pre-Internet -  and he went quiet pre-Internet.  My sense though is that the case was long infamous and well known in California and had long term ramifications for the area, much like the Lyon sisters disappearance affected everyone here in the DC area back in the 70s.

 

 

Here's another quirky little thing.  The Save Mart Distribution Center warehouse where he worked for 27 years is just across the street from the FBI's Sacramento Field Office.

 

[The Evil Genius]

What's the source of that Dan T? I don't recall that being accurate and I'm wondering if someone got the addresses mixed up.

 

 

Edit..nevermind. that's the new field office they opened in 2015, I think.

[Dan T.]

Here's an explanation of how a genealogical Web site was used to track the killer.  Turns out it's an open source web site where people can voluntarily share their DNA profiles for free.  So issues of privacy or the need for warrants seem minimized.

 

Here’s the ‘open-source’ genealogy DNA website that helped crack the Golden State Killer case

by Martin Gafni, East Bay Times

 

The bulk of the DNA grunt work investigators used to help capture the suspected Golden State Killer, the notorious rapist and killer who eluded law enforcement for four decades, came on a no-frills, “open-source” genealogy website that allows users to share their genetic profiles for free.

Lead investigator Paul Holes, a cold case expert and retired Contra Costa County District Attorney inspector, said his team’s biggest tool was GEDmatch, a Florida-based website that pools raw genetic profiles that people share publicly. No court order was needed to access that site’s large database of genetic blueprints. Other major private DNA ancestral sites said they were not approached by police for this case.

 

...

it was GEDmatch, a database mostly used by people curious about missing relatives or patching together family trees, that provided the large pool of profiles that investigators needed, Holes said. Over the years, investigators had collected DNA profiles of the Golden State Killer, but they got no hits on criminal DNA databases, so they needed another bank of profiles to compare to.

Major companies, such as 23andMe and Ancestry, do not allow law enforcement to access their DNA profiles unless they get a court order. So, investigators went to the free, open source website where people knowingly share their raw DNA profiles, often obtained from the larger companies to broaden their searches.

 

https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2018/04/26/ancestry-23andme-deny-assisting-law-enforcement-in-east-area-rapist-case/

[The Evil Genius]

I could see open source sharing of DNA could be problematic for some. Especially when familial matches can made (by 5-0) using that data.

 

 

[Lombardi's_kid_brother]

4 hours ago, Spaceman Spiff said:

In regards to an earlier point, I had never heard of this guy until the other day.  Definitely heard of the big boogeymen like Dahmer, Gacy, BTK, Ramirez, etc. but...how come this guy wasn't nationally known?

 

I honestly think Michelle nailed why he wasn't well known - he had something like five names (assuming he was the Visalia ransacker) and three distinct periods. There is nothing to hang your hat on here in order to get the full picture.

 

To make things worse from an attention standpoint is that the East Area Rapist crimes were not truly tied to the Original Night Stalker crimes until about a decade ago. Up to that point, it was assumed it was the same person but there was no proof. The Visalia Ransacker crimes were truly connected until this week, and I was definitely on the "not the same person" side of that debate (which was only a debate in the deep true crime world).

 

The website I lurk on refers to him as EAR/ONS/GSK which is ludicrous and a pain in the ass to write.

 

Zodiac

Son of Sam

BTK

Hillside Strangler

The Night Stalker

Boston Strangler

 

Those are the titles of movies.

 

Even Long Island Serial Killer and Colonial Parkway Killer at least have some specificity to them.

 

Where the hell is the East Area?

 

And Original Night Stalker makes him sound like a copycat even though he's "original," because Ramirez was way way way more famous (and had the whole Satanist angle).

 

The EAR/ONS/GSK/TVR (you try it) did the stuff that should get you attention. He had several consistent traits. He taunted the media and police. He taunted victims. But he always used the name the media gave him when he did that.

 

By the way, the next one I really want to see solved - excluding Maura Murray which may ultimately be the story of a drunk girl with a concussion dying in the woods - is the Colonial Parkway Murders.

[Lombardi's_kid_brother]

2 hours ago, The Evil Genius said:

I could see open source sharing of DNA could be problematic for some. Especially when familial matches can made (by 5-0) using that data.

 

 

 

This is something that needs to be addressed by legislation at some point, possibly after review by some kind of ethics board/panel of experts.

 

On the one hand, you can probably solve dozens if not hundreds if not thousands of cold cases this way. I know the manpower needed to locate all people in the family tree is significant and cost prohibitive, but how expensive is it to interview dozens of witnesses and clear suspects and everything else?

 

On the other had, even if it was given voluntarily, there is something not kosher about the government using your DNA without your knowledge or approval. I can see it being maddening, but maybe there needs to be a lever where the match is done blindly and then the middleman has to notify the match and receive permission to be revealed (assuming it's not the criminal himself or herself). A lot of this is going to be distant cousins who aren't going to care about some fourth cousin they never met.

 

I don't know the solution, but we are getting into sci-fi territory here, and it's always scary to me when technology overruns the law's preparedness.

[tshile]

I'm not sure where I stand on the DNA thing.

 

The possible good vs possible bad creates some conflicts for me.

 

If I could trade DNA and fingerprinting for stopping the internet eavesdropping i'd do that in a heartbeat.

 

[The Evil Genius]

Lots of fascinating info at the link.

 

 

https://www.sfgate.com/business/technology/article/Use-of-DNA-in-serial-killer-probe-sparks-privacy-12868330.php
 

Genealogy site didn't know it was used to seek serial killer

[AlvinWaltonIsMyBoy]

I was familiar with this case, mostly because I have done a lot of research on these kinds of things over the years.  Chilling stuff.

 

Saw some of his neighbors talking about some ‘angry’ encounters they had with him. Those accounts are really creepy.

 

Glad that some of these families can get closure. Hoping they find a lot of things to link him to victims of crimes where there was no DNA. 

[tshile]

I wonder, is it closure at this point?

 

Or is it something being brought up that was put in a box and tucked away as best it could be?

 

I'm sure it just depends on which ones you ask...

 

 

[Lombardi's_kid_brother]

He sounds like the neighborhood asshole/busybody.

 

You have one. I have one. I'm guessing @zoony is one. We may need Zoony's DNA is what I'm saying.

 

The street I grew up on had a guy who did nothing but mow his lawn and sweep his porch all day. He would also say things like, "I was looking at your chimney through my binoculars at 4:30 this morning, and you may have a brick loose."

 

He was also a football booster for the high school team even though he only had daughters that had graduated like 20 years earlier. He was in charge of the parking lot. We got big crowds because West Virginia small towns and he ran that parking lot with the intensity of Himmler.

 

2 minutes ago, tshile said:

I wonder, is it closure at this point?

 

Or is it something being brought up that was put in a box and tucked away as best it could be?

 

I'm sure it just depends on which ones you ask...

 

 

 

The victims in this case - by and large - have been extremely active.  The sister of Janelle Cruz (his last victim) has been a force in keeping this case alive for decades. A lot of them - including the one who was 13 when she was raped - have done interviews with tv shows or podcasts.

 

Jane Carson-Sandler was an Air Force nurse when she was victim 5 (I think). I believe she's worked with rape victims since then. She also was interviewed openly on the HLN show on this case.

 

[tshile]

Yeah there were what? over 40 rapes we know about and over 10 murders we know about? I would believe there are more we just don't know about, for whatever reasons. Maybe not, I know very little about this, it's just an assumption.

 

I don't know how I would be in that position. I know how I deal with other things, and it's usually to acknowledge them and then put them in a box and move on. Never been through something that traumatic though.

 

I'm just wondering if someone who this happened to when they were young, eventually married and had children, and never told them (for whatever reason.) And now is in a weird place where they get dragged back into it and have to now have everyone around them find out about it.