They finally caught the East Area Rapist.

[Tobra]

AKA-Golden State Killer. Very prolific serial burglar, rapist and murderer.

Was a very big deal when I was a lad. Around here, he would break in while people were home, tie them up, put plates and other breakable stuff on top of the husband, and sexually assault the wife.

East Area Rapist Caught

[legion]

It was a cop!? I'm shocked.

[vash]

i was just reading this!!

what an amazing turn of events.

[dad911]

Caught with DNA data from genealogy website.......

[HardDrive]

I want to know why the crimes stopped abruptly in 1986.

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by dad911

Caught with DNA data from genealogy website.......

Those sites make it sound interesting. I always wondered about the real privacy of the data. Evidently not that much.

[GG Allin]

I must be living under a rock, never heard of him.

[widebody911]

What I thought was interesting and clever was how they sent the DNA samples they had in to some of the online DNA/genealogy sites which led them to relatives of his, and ultimately to him.

[legion]

Originally Posted by widebody911

What I thought was interesting and clever was how they sent the DNA samples they had in to some of the online DNA/genealogy sites which led them to relatives of his, and ultimately to him.

This is exactly why I won't send my DNA to those sites.

[Steve Carlton]

Because?...

[legion]

Originally Posted by Steve Carlton

Because?...

It can be used against me or anyone I'm related to at any point in the future. Maybe for things that aren't even crimes now. Maybe for more nefarious purposes. Either way, once my DNA is "out there", I have no way to get it back.

Also, police have recently reversed the long-standing practice of seeing if companies' (particularly those that operate primarily online) have material that matches evidence. Now they ask for all material and see if they have any crimes that match, or ask for all information on individuals and see if they can find crimes. These last two are a clear violation of the Fourth Amendment and amount to the police searching your house to make sure you aren't guilty of anything.

[legion]

https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/dna-serial-killer-probe-sparks-privacy-concerns-54772519

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."

[vash]

Personally i’m Glad he got busted. Anyway anyhow

[sjf911]

Looks like he may be the Visalia Ransacker as well who terrorized my wife's neighborhood near College of the Sequoias when she was in high school including burglarizing their house.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by legion

It was a cop!? I'm shocked.

did you have a reason to believe it was a cop, or do you just think that all cops are murderers and rapists?

Cops, Drs, Clergy, govt officials, ice cream men, garbage men, school teachers, etc... are all people and any of them can be evil. I'm not sure that any one particular occupation tends to attract more evil people than another.

[ossiblue]

Originally Posted by legion

This is exactly why I won't send my DNA to those sites.

The problem is, you don't need to send your DNA into anywhere to be traced. This case, and others, was based on familial DNA analysis which only requires that someone related to you has their DNA in a database. Though DeAngelo was traced through a private ancestry company, he could have just as easily have been traced through familial DNA from a relative who had their DNA in a police database from a crime they had committed.

The "Grim Sleeper" killer in Los Angeles comes to mind. His DNA, found at the scenes of the crimes, was not in any government database, but the police would re-scan the database over the years and recheck. His son's DNA eventually wound up in the database due to his arrest on criminal charges. A routine re-scan resulted in a familial hit with the serial killer's DNA, and, with some investigation, it was linked to Lonnie Franklin, Jr.

In short, you can protect your DNA only so far but if someone to whom you are closely related "releases" their DNA, your privacy is compromised.

[dan88911]

This POS is 72 yrs. old.
What will they do with now?
Profilers will probably want him alive in protected custody to interview and study him.

[cmccuist]

Originally Posted by HardDrive

I want to know why the crimes stopped abruptly in 1986.

That's my question as well. Typically, the only reason these guys quit is they get caught, are put in jail for unrelated crimes, or die!

So what - he just got tired of raping and killing?

[Tobra]

Maybe got too old

The reason they suspected he had LEO background was because he was so good at not leaving any clues, almost like he knew how and for what they would be looking.

[varmint]

Originally Posted by legion

It can be used against me or anyone I'm related to at any point in the future. Maybe for things that aren't even crimes now. Maybe for more nefarious purposes. Either way, once my DNA is "out there", I have no way to get it back.

Also, police have recently reversed the long-standing practice of seeing if companies' (particularly those that operate primarily online) have material that matches evidence. Now they ask for all material and see if they have any crimes that match, or ask for all information on individuals and see if they can find crimes. These last two are a clear violation of the Fourth Amendment and amount to the police searching your house to make sure you aren't guilty of anything.

Imagine if they tried that approach with quicken or TurboTax.