California police tracked down serial murder and rape suspect Joseph DeAngelo by comparing DNA from crime scenes with genetic profiles stored on genealogy websites, the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office said Thursday. 
 
 DeAngelo, a former cop himself, is thought to be the criminal known variously as the East Area Rapist, Golden State Killer and Visalia Ransacker. While most people are naturally glad the 72-year-old was eventually caught after allegedly killing 12 people and raping 50 between 1974 and 1986, the case does highlight how much can be revealed through consumer DNA tests—not only about the person having their DNA tested, but about their relatives too. 
 
 DeAngelo wasn’t caught because he sent his own DNA swab off to a genealogy site for analysis, but because someone related to him did. 
 
 The investigators took a DNA sample from one of his many suspected crime scenes, and compared it with the information stored on genealogy sites, many of which offer DNA testing as part of their portfolio of services. 
 
 We all share genes with our relatives, in diminishing amounts as the relationship gets more distant—you share around half your genes with each parent and sibling, 12.5% with your first cousin, and so on. 
 
 So, when the investigators found a match between the sample they had and a user of the genealogy site, they then searched the user’s family tree for people who might be potential suspects, based on clues in the case. Once they established DeAngelo as a firm suspect, an investigator got his DNA from something he discarded while under surveillance, tested it against the DNA from the crime scene, and found what Sacramento district attorney Anne Marie Schubert told reporters was “overwhelming evidence that it was him.” 
 
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 The Federal Trade Commission warned consumers several months ago that the increasing popularity of DNA testing kits comes with privacy implications. “The data can be very enlightening personally, but a major concern for consumers should be who else could have access to information about your heritage and your health,” the FTC said. “If you’re thinking about buying an at-home DNA test kit, you owe it to yourself–and to family members who could be affected–to investigate the options thoroughly.” 
 
 The Sacramento DA’s office did not identify the site or sites involved in the case, but 23andMe and Ancestry, two of the most popular consumer DNA-testing services, told Mashable it wasn’t them. 
 
 23andMe said it would resist law enforcement inquiries in order to protect privacy, and has never shared genetic investigation with the cops. Ancestry, which has in the past helped investigators in a murder and rape case in Idaho, said it would only share information with investigators that follow “valid legal process.” ||||| John Lopes, a crime scene investigator for the Sacramento Sheriff's office, carries boxes of evidence taken from the home of murder suspect Joseph DeAngelo to a sheriff's vehicle Thursday, April 26, 2018,... (Associated Press) 
 
 John Lopes, a crime scene investigator for the Sacramento Sheriff's office, carries boxes of evidence taken from the home of murder suspect Joseph DeAngelo to a sheriff's vehicle Thursday, April 26, 2018, in Citrus Heights, Calif. DeAngelo, 72, was taken into custody Tuesday on suspicion of committing... (Associated Press) 
 
 SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Investigators who used a genealogical website to find the ex-policeman they believe is a shadowy serial killer and rapist who terrified California decades ago call the technique ground-breaking. 
 
 But others say it raises troubling legal and privacy concerns for the millions of people who submit their DNA to such sites to discover their heritage. 
 
 There aren't strong privacy laws to keep police from trolling ancestry site databases, said Steve Mercer, the chief attorney for the forensic division of the Maryland Office of the Public Defender. 
 
 "People who submit DNA for ancestors testing are unwittingly becoming genetic informants on their innocent family," Mercer said, adding that they "have fewer privacy protections than convicted offenders whose DNA is contained in regulated databanks." 
 
 Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, was arrested Tuesday after investigators matched crime-scene DNA with genetic material stored by a distant relative on an online site. From there, they narrowed it down to the Sacramento-area grandfather using DNA obtained from material he'd discarded, Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert said. 
 
 Authorities declined to name the online site. However, two of the largest, Ancestry.com and 23andMe, said Thursday that they weren't involved in the case. 
 
 DNA potentially may have played an earlier role in the case. It was just coming into use as a criminal investigative tool in 1986 when the predator variously known as the East Area Rapist and the Golden State Killer apparently ended his decade-long wave of attacks. 
 
 DeAngelo, a former police officer, probably would have known about the new method, experts said. 
 
 "He knew police techniques," said John Jay College of Criminal Justice professor Louis Schlesinger. "He was smart." 
 
 No one who knew DeAngelo over the decades connected him with the string of at least a dozen murders, 50 rapes and dozens of burglaries from 1976 to 1986 throughout the state. 
 
 After he was identified as the suspect, however, prosecutors rushed to charge him with eight killings. 
 
 In addition, police in the central California farming town of Visalia said Thursday that DeAngelo is a suspect in a 13th killing and about 100 burglaries in the area. 
 
 In 1975, of community college teacher Claude Snelling was shot while trying to stop a masked intruder from kidnapping his 16-year-old daughter from his home. 
 
 Investigators lacked DNA evidence so Snelling's death and the burglaries weren't included in the tally of Golden State Killer crimes but fingerprints and shoe tracks will be reviewed for matches to DeAngelo, Visalia Police Chief Jason Salazar said. 
 
 Investigators searched DeAngelo's home on Thursday, looking for class rings, earrings, dishes and other items that were taken from crime scenes as well as weapons. 
 
 Meanwhile, DeAngelo's neighbors, relatives and former acquaintances all say they had no inkling that he could be a serial killer. He worked nearly three decades in a Sacramento-area supermarket warehouse as a truck mechanic, retiring last year. As a neighbor, he was known for taking meticulous care of his lawn in suburban Citrus Heights. 
 
 DeAngelo worked as a police officer in the farming town of Exeter, not far from Visalia, from 1973 to 1976. 
 
 DeAngelo was a "black sheep" who didn't joke around with other officers, said Farrel Ward, 75, who served on the force with DeAngelo. 
 
 Ward said it's possible that DeAngelo helped with the search for Snelling's killer and the elusive burglar but he doesn't recall DeAngelo directly investigating the killing. 
 
 "I've been thinking, but there's no indication whatsoever that anything was wrong," Ward said. "How could you just go out and kill somebody and go back and go to work? I don't understand that." 
 
 Later, DeAngelo joined the Auburn Police Department outside of Sacramento but was fired in 1979 after he was caught shoplifting a hammer and dog repellant. 
 
 Investigators say they have linked DeAngelo to 11 killings that occurred after he was fired. 
 
 James Huddle said he always hoped police would catch the killer whose attacks prompted him to buy a pistol. 
 
 But he was stunned to find out the man arrested was DeAngelo, his former brother-in-law. 
 
 Huddle said it was "still just going crazy in my mind." 
 
 ___ 
 
 Balsamo reported from Los Angeles. AP Writer Paul Elias contributed to this story from San Francisco. ||||| Comparing decades-old crime scene DNA to profiles on genealogy websites led investigators to relatives of the suspected Golden State Killer — and from them, to the suspect himself, the Sacramento Bee reported. The police used a genealogy website called GEDmatch to crack the case, the Mercury News reported. 
 
 The website is a place where people share their full genetic information — entirely in public — so there are no legal hurdles for investigators trying to track someone down. By contrast, private DNA sites like Ancestry and 23andMe tend to be choosier when it comes to complying with police requests. 
 
 In a statement to The Verge, GEDmatch said it was not aware of the investigation. “Although we were not approached by law enforcement or anyone else about this case or about the DNA, it has always been GEDmatch’s policy to inform users that the database could be used for other uses, as set forth in the Site Policy,” the statement reads. “While the database was created for genealogical research, it is important that GEDmatch participants understand the possible uses of their DNA, including identification of relatives that have committed crimes or were victims of crimes.” 
 
 Also known as the Original Night Stalker and the East Area Rapist, the Golden State Killer is suspected of committing 51 rapes and 12 murders in California between 1974 and 1986. On Tuesday, officers arrested 72-year old Joseph James DeAngelo in Citrus Heights, California in connection with the crimes. The team found him by making a fake profile on a genealogy website, using DNA collected from a Ventura County murder scene 37 years ago, according to the New York Times. 
 
 While the investigators didn’t find a perfect hit, they did find close ones — the partial DNA matches of relatives. That eventually led investigators, working with genealogists, to DeAngelo, the Times reports. DeAngelo had lived in areas that matched the locations of the crimes, and when the investigators compared DNA collected from an item DeAngelo threw away to the crime scene DNA, they found a match. 
 
 Critics say the practice may violate civil rights 
 
 Tracking down suspects via a family member’s DNA is controversial enough when law enforcement does it through its own databases. The FBI’s national genetic database, for example, includes DNA from federal convicts and arrestees who haven’t been convicted, law experts Natalie Ram and Michael Seringhaus explain in Slate. But critics say the practice can expose citizens to additional scrutiny simply because a relative is in a DNA database, potentially posing a violation of their civil rights. 
 
 Familial searches have helped law enforcement track down notorious suspects before — like the so-called “Grim Sleeper” and the “Roaming Rapist” in California, according to the LA Times. But the technique has also led law enforcement to innocent people, too — like Michael Usry, who police tracked down through a genealogy study that had been made publicly available. The police later decided he was innocent, and apologized for the inconvenience, the LA Times says. 
 
 It wasn’t clear from the paper’s reporting if other DNA repositories were used in conjunction with GEDmatch. Direct-to-consumer genetic testing company 23andMe told The Verge that it didn’t help law enforcement with the case. “Broadly speaking, it’s our policy to resist law enforcement inquiries to protect customer privacy,” a spokesperson for 23andMe said in an emailed statement. “23andMe has never given customer information to law enforcement officials.” 
 
 Ancestry.com also denied being in contact with law enforcement about the case. “Ancestry advocates for its members’ privacy and will not share any information with law enforcement unless compelled to by valid legal process,” a company spokesperson said in a statement emailed to The Verge. The company publishes such requests in their yearly transparency reports. Helix and National Geographic did not immediately respond to requests for comment. 
 
 Asked whether law enforcement could have used 23andMe data that had been sold to another company, a 23andMe spokesperson answered, simply, “No.” 
 
 Additional reporting provided by Elizabeth Lopatto and Russell Brandom. 
 
 Update April 27th, 7:05PM ET: Added information from the New York Times about the DNA used in the investigation. 
 
 Update April 27th, 9:05AM ET: Added information from the Mercury News about which ancestry website investigators used, and with statement from GEDmatch. 
 
 Correction: An earlier version of this piece stated that open databases like WikiTree and YHRD could have been used to identify DeAngelo. In fact, neither project makes identifiable genetic data available to the public. The Verge regrets the error.
– A distant relative of Joseph James DeAngelo hoping to learn more about their family submitted a DNA sample to a genealogy website. They now know that they're related to a suspected serial killer. Police say they tracked the suspected Golden State Killer by comparing DNA from one of his many crime scenes to genetic information freely available online, the Sacramento Bee reports. They traced family trees for possible suspects and singled out DeAngelo, a 72-year-old ex-cop, last Thursday. Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert says DeAngelo was placed under surveillance, and DNA collected from discarded items provided "astronomical evidence" that he was the killer. Schubert tells the Bee that when she was informed of the DNA test results, "I probably used a few words I wouldn't put in a newspaper, but basically said, 'You'd better not be lying to me.'" She adds: "There were a lot of holy s--- moments." DeAngelo was arrested outside his home Tuesday. The San Jose Mercury News reports that investigators used the open-source genealogy website GEDMatch.com to search for the suspect who committed 12 murders and more than 50 rapes between 1974 and 1986. Other genealogy websites, including Ancestry.com and 23andMe, say they weren't contacted by police about the case and that they never provide customer information to law enforcement unless they're legally compelled to. (Neighbors describe DeAngelo as a "nice old grandpa" obsessed with lawn care.)