Law enforcement officials have again used genetic genealogy to track down a suspect in a cold case, the Associated Press reports.
Police in Fayetteville, North Carolina have arrested and charged Darold Wayne Bowden in the "Ramsey Street Rapist" case, the Washington Post adds. Beginning in 2006 and ending in 2008, there were a series of attacks on women, totaling six in all, but police were unable to track down a suspect and DNA samples yielded no matches, it adds.
Lieutenant John Somerindyke of the Fayetteville Police Department tells the AP that it enlisted the services of Parabon NanoLabs in the case. Using genetic genealogy techniques, the company homed in on Bowden. Similar approaches have recently led to arrests in the Golden State Killer case as well as in the deaths of two Canadian tourists in Washington State and a 1986 rape and murder case, also in Washington.
"It's bringing all our cold cases to life," Somerindyke says of the technique to the AP.
The method has also raised privacy concerns, as people who take genetic tests and upload their data are caught in the mix and as there's little oversight of the process.