Revelations that the man accused of being the Golden State Killer was tracked down by the use of familial DNA searching has electrified police and prosecution circles. Familial searching, or FS, is a means of putting cops on the trail of a perpetrator. It multiplies the chances of finding that person many times over conventional searches of criminal databases In the case of Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, police checked DNA extracted from a 30 or 40-year old crime scene sample against a DNA sample on a genealogy database. They found someone who seemed to be related to the killer. The last step was to get a tentative sample, probably by stealth, from DeAngelo. The method is apparently not in use in Canada but it holds enormous promise to solve crimes that have vexed police and burdened the community for decades. $50,000 reward offered in 1997 death of nursing assistant
