Golden State Killer suspect arrested in forty year old case (UP: Pleading guilty)

[MacReady13]

I think I'm going with this one. I prefer the Aussie accent and it got 5 stars from thousands of reviewers. The other one isn't shabby by any means at 4.5 stars.

Having listened for 30 mins, it's unfortunate they didnt put 2 and 2 together when a cop was fired for stealing a hammer and dog repellant given that they knew the suspect was almost definitely military and probably also a cop since the tools and tactics he used were similar to those of a cop.

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Download the interviews with the cops and some survivors as well. They are the bonus episodes. Chilling stuff. The stuff he says in the house is just fucked up. He cries. Paces back and forth. Talks to himself. He is insane. And then the story when they have a town meeting, and a guy stands up complaining the cops aren't protecting the women of the neighborhood. He says he'd protect his wife no matter what....... just scary what happens next.
The Casefile podcast details it perfectly. It's so frustrating to hear how this guy kept getting away with it.

 

[chrisPjelly]

This is fucking crazy, if this is finally the right guy, then I hope he dies a very slow painful rest of his life in prison. Also, the set of circumstances leading up to this and seeing all the pieces sliding in place is amazing.

 

[Damaniel]

Apparently investigators used a familial DNA match from an online genealogy database combined with investigating family trees to track down the person most likely to be the killer. They then used DNA samples from something discarded by DeAngelo to make a definitive match.

Relative's DNA from genealogy websites cracked East Area Rapist case, DA's office says
http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/crime/article209913514.html

 

[Solo]

Here's a chilling thought I just had.

He committed most of the rapes while a police officer. What if he was using his position to mark his targets? Like, he could pull over a woman he "liked" for speeding or whatever reason, ask for her license and bam, he has her address.

Scary stuff.

 

[John Dunbar]

Here's a chilling thought I just had.

He committed most of the rapes while a police officer. What if he was using his position to mark his targets? Like, he could pull over a woman he "liked" for speeding or whatever reason, ask for her license and bam, he has her address.

Scary stuff.

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while a cop could definitely think of ways to abuse their power, that example sounds only marginally easier than following the victim.

 

[Nabs]

Apparently investigators used a familial DNA match from an online genealogy database combined with investigating family trees to track down the person most likely to be the killer. They then used DNA samples from something discarded by DeAngelo to make a definitive match.

Relative's DNA from genealogy websites cracked East Area Rapist case, DA's office says
http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/crime/article209913514.html

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Unbelievable.

 

[shiba5]

Apparently investigators used a familial DNA match from an online genealogy database combined with investigating family trees to track down the person most likely to be the killer. They then used DNA samples from something discarded by DeAngelo to make a definitive match.

Relative's DNA from genealogy websites cracked East Area Rapist case, DA's office says
http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/crime/article209913514.html

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Yikes, aren't there huge privacy issues? Like, if I sent in my DNA to Ancestry I wouldn't expect the police to be able to access it. I even remember one of the detectives on the case talking about the privacy implications of using those registries.

 

[cubanb]

I am glad they caught him, but this is pretty gross and bad for privacy.

 

[alr1ght]

Is that even legal?

 

[cubanb]

I remember there being a lot of people online talking about how 23andme and other sites own your DNA after you submit and can give it away to 3rd parties (insurance companies?) or the police without a subpoena. This seems to confirm those worries.

 

[cartographer]

Here's a chilling thought I just had.

He committed most of the rapes while a police officer. What if he was using his position to mark his targets? Like, he could pull over a woman he "liked" for speeding or whatever reason, ask for her license and bam, he has her address.

Scary stuff.

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Holtzclaw did stuff like this, so not all that out there.

 

[StrykerIsland]

How amazing/horrible would it be if he got off because they broke the law in collecting the DNA?

 

[CountAntonio]

Yikes, aren't there huge privacy issues? Like, if I sent in my DNA to Ancestry I wouldn't expect the police to be able to access it. I even remember one of the detectives on the case talking about the privacy implications of using those registries.

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yes there is. I've had people telling me don't ever use those things cause that's very personal data they basically own. Glad it caught this guy but it's kind of scary.

 

[CountAntonio]

How amazing/horrible would it be if he got off because they broke the law in collecting the DNA?

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I don't think they did anything illegal. Those companies are incredibly shady.
What DNA companies terrifying policies actually mean

"By submitting DNA to AncestryDNA, you grant AncestryDNA and the Ancestry Group Companies a royalty-free, worldwide, sublicensable, transferable license to host, transfer, process, analyze, distribute, and communicate your Genetic Information for the purposes of providing you products and services, conducting Ancestry's research and product development, enhancing Ancestry's user experience, and making and offering personalized products and services."

 

[F34R]

Yikes, aren't there huge privacy issues? Like, if I sent in my DNA to Ancestry I wouldn't expect the police to be able to access it. I even remember one of the detectives on the case talking about the privacy implications of using those registries.

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Yes, there are privacy issues, and as far as I know, none of the dna online places have given the info requested by police. I know they can use CODIS and search for matches, and do familial searches within that as well for biological relatives. That's most likely how the match was made.

 

[Spiritual_Chaos]

How amazing/horrible would it be if he got off because they broke the law in collecting the DNA?

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[shiba5]

That's one hell of a slippery slope.

 

[Zulith]

I'm so glad they caught him, but ugh... I can't help but feel like this is going to open up a huge can of worms...

 

[Rayne]

Yep and that's folks is why you don't send your DNA to shady people.

It might be used for good this time but some asshole is gonna plant an innocent person's blood/whatever a crime scene and this shit will be used to justify locking them up.

 

[F34R]

They didn't do anything illegal. Those companies are incredibly shady.
What DNA companies terrifying policies actually mean

"By submitting DNA to AncestryDNA, you grant AncestryDNA and the Ancestry Group Companies a royalty-free, worldwide, sublicensable, transferable license to host, transfer, process, analyze, distribute, and communicate your Genetic Information for the purposes of providing you products and services, conducting Ancestry's research and product development, enhancing Ancestry's user experience, and making and offering personalized products and services."

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Wouldn't really matter. They don't use the same genotyping tech to even compare with the CODIS database. I also doubt the police would be able to get a search warrant so broad that the company would have to allow the agency to have access to all their clients.

 

[F34R]

That's one hell of a slippery slope.

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What is?

 

[Solo]

Wait, so he was brought down by Ancestry?

 

[Mcfrank]

What a wild way to catch the guy. I don't really have a problem with it. His family members willingly uploaded their data to the sites and he has no right to privacy on what he left behind in the commission of his crimes.

 

[shiba5]

What is?

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Police searching Ancestry for familial DNA. I doubt anyone who sends in their DNA thinks the government and police will be allowed to search those registries. Even the lead forensics guy from Contra Costa was wary of the privacy implications.

 

[Deleted member 25600]

Is that even legal?

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If it's publically available, probably?

 

[Eldy]

Doing a bit of poking around to try to make sense of this, it seems that you don't even need to be police for Ancestry to point you in the direction of biological relatives, so if the police just sent in a DNA sample from the GSK they would have gotten a limited amount of information about any of his relatives who participated, or at least the fact that they had used the service.

https://support.ancestry.com/s/article/US-AncestryDNA-for-Adoptees-Search-Strategies

DNA testing can be useful for people searching for members of their birth families.

To find a relative using DNA, you both need to have taken a DNA test. This is where you have to get a bit lucky. The good news is that DNA testing is becoming increasingly popular; there are currently 7 million people (and counting) in the AncestryDNA database.

If you're hoping to find biological family members, we recommend the following strategies.

...

Your test results have two parts: an ethnicity estimate and DNA matches. While your ethnicity estimate may provide clues about your distant ancestry, your matches are where you'll want to focus. Click VIEW ALL DNA MATCHES to see your biological relatives in our DNA database.

Parent/Child, Immediate Family, Close Family, 1st Cousin, 2nd Cousin, and so on.

Matches at the 2nd cousin level or closer are most helpful, but don't despair if you don't have one yet. AncestryDNA is the fastest-growing consumer DNA database in the world, and your matches list is updated continually.

Start with the closest match to you and click VIEW MATCH to review.

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Once they have a link, they can get a warrant to compel the service to turn over more information about the matches, which apparently happened in a case in 2014.

https://mashable.com/2016/03/26/law-enforcement-dna-databases/

In the summer of 2014, court documents show, the Idaho Falls Police Department obtained a warrant to seize genetic information from Ancestry.com in connection with the 1996 rape and murder of Angie Dodge.

In 1998, Christopher Tapp was sentenced to life in prison for Dodge's murder and rape, but he's appealing his conviction saying his confession was coerced. Police are still working the case at the insistence of Dodge's mother and others because the only DNA found on her body was not Tapp's and investigators believe another suspect also was involved.

Idaho Falls police sent the DNA sample to Ancestry.com in 2014 to process. Ancestry emailed the results to the police without naming anyone in the company's database, which was only partially accessible to the public.

The results, however, established a close, though not exact, match. Believing the killer could be a relative of the DNA donor, police obtained a warrant to compel the company to turn over the donor's name.

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[Luchashaq]

I am glad they caught him, but this is pretty gross and bad for privacy.

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It's why mine is rotting in a drawer after I got it as a gift.

Privacy, not because I know a family member had been doing heinous shit.

 

[F34R]

Police searching Ancestry for familial DNA. I doubt anyone who sends in their DNA thinks the government and police will be allowed to search those registries. Even the lead forensics guy from Contra Costa was wary of the privacy implications.

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They have plenty of privacy information on their website. It tells you plain as day that if you opt in for matches, your matches can find you to a degree. Also, they don't necessarily search the registry. They provided a sample, and were given the results that were allowed to be shared.

 

[Kermit]

I can't wait for the entire investigative timeline to be released. I want to learn every meticulous detail of how they got him. Hopefully the SacBee gets it soon but I presume we'll have to wait for the inevitable book.

 

[ZAKU-RED]

I first learned of this case several years ago while browsing through some unsolved murder cases. I think what seriously scared me the most about this case was not just the crimes he did and how he did them, is how he manage to evade capture and justice for as long as he did.

Someone out there was the ONS/EARS, no one had a real clue on who he was and where he is. He could have fled the country or possibly even be dead or even been that guy who you lived next door to you all your life and it never occurred to you that he could possibly be him.

It shocked me when I woke up to learn they finally caught a man who is very likely ONS/EARs. He ended up being what I said above, just a old grumpy dude who lived in a rather quiet area with his Daughter and Granddaughter, who just retired from his job a couple of weeks ago and living the last 30 years like a regular person that no one would have expected he committed such heinous crimes.

 

[Agent Icebeezy]

While I am in line with a large number of people who have grave concerns about the privacy of individuals doing this, I can't help but think that this is amazing stuff. Like outside of the box way of thinking. Reminds me of Encyclopedia Brown. Showing my age with that one.

 

[Kermit]

He looked so drugged up in the court appearance.

http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/crime/article209999469.html

Maybe he was sedated? I can imagine it would be quite a shock to his system and he'd be quite distressed. It must be something like that because the detectives said they watched him bombing it down the highway on his motorbike and building a table in his garage last week.

 

[Lonewulfeus]

I remember there being a lot of people online talking about how 23andme and other sites own your DNA after you submit and can give it away to 3rd parties (insurance companies?) or the police without a subpoena. This seems to confirm those worries.

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Yup, when I brought up the fact that voluntarily giving your dna was a crazy idea in the past I got shat all over for being a tin foil hat wearing nut. How's that looking now folks?

 

[wenis]

He looked so drugged up in the court appearance.

http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/crime/article209999469.html

Maybe he was sedated? I can imagine it would be quite a shock to his system and he'd be quite distressed. It must be something like that because the detectives said they watched him bombing it down the highway on his motorbike and building a table in his garage last week.

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He's been a suicide risk since he was caught. He's definitely on sedatives until they can get him locked up and properly monitored in a protective cell.

 

[arecibo]

Investigators seeking Golden State Killer misidentified Oregon man as a possible suspect

Investigators trying to hunt down the so-called Golden State Killer used information from genetic websites a year ago and misidentified an elderly Oregon man as a possible suspect.

Court records obtained by The Associated Press show that in March 2017 investigators in Clackamas County convinced a judge to order the 73-year-old man to provide a DNA sample.

The documents said they used a genetic profile based off DNA from crime scenes linked to the serial killer and compared it to information from genealogical websites. They created a family tree and used public records to identify the Oregon man.

Investigators also cited a rare genetic marker, which the Oregon man shared with the killer, to get the judge to issue the order.

Earlier this week, police say they arrested the right man for a dozen killings and 50 rapes from 1976 to 1986. He is Joseph DeAngelo, a 72-year-old former police officer who lived in the Sacramento area.

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Oops...

 

[Bee.Cups]

Investigators seeking Golden State Killer misidentified Oregon man as a possible suspect



Oops...

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Uh. . . They getting sued.
If he's innocent I feel for the poor guy.

 

[deepFlaw]

Uh. . . They getting sued.
If he's innocent I feel for the poor guy.

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This is about someone from a year ago; even with this in mind the current suspect would not be innocent.

Or at least, they better have been sure this time.

 

[Zulith]

People still don't believe they got the right guy? just take a look at where he lived/worked during those periods. In addition to the DNA... how could they find a more perfect match.

Courtesy of the /r/EARONS/ subreddit

 

[Gaius Cassius]

I first learned of this case several years ago while browsing through some unsolved murder cases. I think what seriously scared me the most about this case was not just the crimes he did and how he did them, is how he manage to evade capture and justice for as long as he did.

Someone out there was the ONS/EARS, no one had a real clue on who he was and where he is. He could have fled the country or possibly even be dead or even been that guy who you lived next door to you all your life and it never occurred to you that he could possibly be him.

It shocked me when I woke up to learn they finally caught a man who is very likely ONS/EARs. He ended up being what I said above, just a old grumpy dude who lived in a rather quiet area with his Daughter and Granddaughter, who just retired from his job a couple of weeks ago and living the last 30 years like a regular person that no one would have expected he committed such heinous crimes.

Click to shrink...

I learned about the case in a similar way, I believe it may have been featured on Unsolved Mysteries at some point? I could be wrong. Like many others have said, this guy has been a legendary monster in the Unsolved crimes/serial killer discussion circles, with websites devoted to him as if he were an urban legend.

Some posted the fucking phone calls this dude made to his victims (he would steal their ID during his attacks and would keep tabs, victims confirmed it was the same voice as their attacker). He would call up victims, even ones that had moved away, decades later, 1990s was the last I heard. The calls are on websites and it is the creepiest shit I've ever heard. The fact that he was a cop, makes you wonder if he used that position to get their phone numbers (or from fellow cops even?). The tapes will no doubt be played at trial and compared to his voice. I hope they execute the sick bastard.

 

[Eldy]

I remember there being a lot of people online talking about how 23andme and other sites own your DNA after you submit and can give it away to 3rd parties (insurance companies?) or the police without a subpoena. This seems to confirm those worries.

Click to shrink...

Yup, when I brought up the fact that voluntarily giving your dna was a crazy idea in the past I got shat all over for being a tin foil hat wearing nut. How's that looking now folks?

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The company didn't hand over any information to the police. The cops made a profile under a fake name, submitted DNA from the killer after they found an un-degraded sample, and followed the same process as any other user. NYT has some of the details:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/27/us/golden-state-killer-case-joseph-deangelo.html

Uh. . . They getting sued.
If he's innocent I feel for the poor guy.

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I'm not sure how much of a case the Oregon guy would have if he wanted to sue. There's precedent for search warrants being issued for DNA if the police have probable cause, and that doesn't necessarily mean they're certain that a particular suspect is guilty (much less that he or she actually is), just that they--and the judge issuing the warrant--think there's a "fair probability" the search will result in usable evidence.

The fact that he was a cop, makes you wonder if he used that position to get their phone numbers (or from fellow cops even?).

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He also could have just looked them up in public phone books of the sort that used to be literally left on people's doorsteps.

 

[Shlice]

Wired article

https://www.wired.com/story/detectives-cracked-the-golden-state-killer-case-using-genetics/

 

[Lonewulfeus]

The company didn't hand over any information to the police. The cops made a profile under a fake name, submitted DNA from the killer after they found an un-degraded sample, and followed the same process as any other user. NYT has some of the details:

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It was still exploited by the government whether the company was willing or not.

 

[sangreal]

It was still exploited by the government whether the company was willing or not.

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So? I've used these services and I am deeply concerned about their use by law enforcement. The services are probably shitting themselves that this news got out. But this isn't a case where the sites handed data over to law enforcement to fish through. It's an opt-in feature where you volunteer to be revealed to people who match your dna. Anyone on the street could do it, so it would be silly to prevent LE from doing it. This particular case doesn't demonstrate why you shouldn't use the services if you are worried about this because you can just turn it off. You can also just have them delete your data after using the service (at least with 23andme and Ancestry)

Also, this didn't even cause any trouble for the user of the site. It was a problem for their relative, so your advice would have to be to stop everyone related to you from using the sites. The police matched the BTK killer's DNA by taking it from his daughter's pap smear. If they want it bad enough, they will find a way

 

[Deleted member 19003]

Really glad they caught him. I don't care how old he is either, he deserves to rot for whatever remaining years he has left in jail.

 

[sangreal]

Uh. . . They getting sued.
If he's innocent I feel for the poor guy.

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They're not getting sued for getting a warrant for a dna sample

 

[Lord Brady]

It's frustrating listening to the podcast about the rapes. The cops could have prevented a bunch of them if they hadn't refused to inform the public there was a serial rapist on the loose.

 

[sangreal]

It's frustrating listening to the podcast about the rapes. The cops could have prevented a bunch of them if they hadn't refused to inform the public there was a serial rapist on the loose.

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There were like 5 serial rapists on the loose in the same area too. The early bird rapist, the early morning rapist, etc. etc.

When I read Shelby's book I came away with the belief that everything about the investigation back then was bungled... and he was in charge of it. But hey, at least he convinced everyone that EAR/ONS has a small "slick willy" (if you haven't read the book, this is what Shelby actually calls it. On every other page.)

 

[Lord Brady]

There were like 5 serial rapists on the loose in the same area too. The early bird rapist, the early morning rapist, etc. etc.

When I read Shelby's book I came away with the belief that everything about the investigation back then was bungled... and he was in charge of it. But hey, at least he convinced everyone that EAR/ONS has a small "slick willy" (if you haven't read the book, this is what Shelby actually calls it. On every other page.)

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That comes through on the podcast too as a distinguishing characteristic. I felt so bad for the women who were raped who would have all acted differently if they had been told what to watch for. Namely the phone calls. I get that profiling was in its infancy, but they still fucked a lot of shit up by not communicating with the public or with each other.

 

[foxuzamaki]

This guy may have murdered my friend's wife. Amazing news.

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Are you saying he was still out here murdering in his 70s?

 

[Dook's Revenge]

Are you saying he was still out here murdering in his 70s?

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No.