Your DNA… do you help the police with it?

Back of the stamps have long been considered source of saliva in the zodiac case.

 

There's suspected DNA in that case, although 1) evidence has been mishandled practically from the jump in that case and 2) some theories of the crime attribute the murders to multiple people or copycats.

 

If you got nothing to hide, etc … right??

 

Is that still viable after 50+ years?

 

It's funny - if I didn't do something, and my DNA would help the police move on, remove doubt that may come up in a trial? Absolutely. But then if it remains on file, is used for other things? Court-related? Maybe not court-related? With this Supreme Court? It does give you pause. You shouldn't be viewed as forfeiting your 5th Amendment rights in an unrelated matter.

 

The GSK was actually ID'd from DNA found on an Australian relative. So they knew it wasn't that person, but started looking into their publicly-available family trees to look for suspects that would match location, dates, etc. They really do their due diligence in these genetic genealogy cases to make sure they have the right person. And once they nailed down the best possible person, they got his trash (once your trash is at the curb for collection, it's fair game) and did another DNA test to absolutely make sure that it was him.

The genetic genealogy is really just to narrow the pool of suspects down from everyone in the world. Then the real work starts to figure out the most likely suspect and to develop evidence around that person.

BTK was actually caught because once they had nailed Dennis Rader down, they contacted his daughter's college health center (I do love seeing my alma mater on the news for this) and got her DNA from the annual well woman's visits she did. And when they sat him down in an interrogation room and he was still denying it, they said, "Well, we don't have your DNA, but we can state with certainty that the father of your daughter is BTK." So they've been using unusual forms of DNA identification for years.

As for me, I'd absolutely be ok if I had DNA in a genetic genealogy database out there and it caught a killer or rapist. Get those people off the streets. I'd rather have those victims have a semblance of peace rather than feel guilty because I got a family member arrested.

 

My personal answer is NO! But my mother was all about genealogy and one year, so, so many years ago, I gave her a NatGeo kit to see if we were Cro-Magnan or Neanderthal. I believe it was the first DNA kit available. WooHoo. I gave one also to my Dad. I have their kit numbers which don't seem to point anywhere. Yet. I'm not sure NatGeo archived their data.

 

Don't go spraying your DNA whenever a stiff wind blows and you got nothin' to worry about.

 

I had a friend in high school (who was actually our center on the football team) who I am convinced was the closest thing to a confluence of all the Neanderthal genes out there. He's not alive anymore but I'd like to see a contest of "World's Most Neanderthal." Maybe we can bring the breed back like Jurassic Park.