That's fucking crazy. Finding serial killers through their relatives is impressive.Frustrated by their inability to find the notorious killer known as the Grim Sleeper, whose DNA was not in a law enforcement database, Los Angeles police this spring asked the state to look for a DNA profile similar enough to be a possible relative of the killer.
In April, state computers produced a list of 200 genetic profiles of people in the database who might be related to the alleged serial killer. Among the top five ranked as the most likely relatives was a profile that shared a common genetic marker with the crime-scene DNA at each of 15 locations that the crime lab examined.
Scientists knew that a profile with that sort of matching pattern indicated a parent-child relationship.
To winnow the candidates further, and knowing that their suspect had to be a man, they tested the DNA of the 200 offenders whose profiles resembled the crime-scene DNA to determine if any appeared to share the Y chromosome, which boys inherit from their fathers.
There was one match, and it was the same profile that had shared all 15 markers on the first round of testing.
Excitement swept the room at the state DNA laboratory in Richmond where the match was made. Jill Spriggs, chief of the state's Bureau of Forensic Services, recalls a feeling of "amazement" when she learned of the breakthrough: The two rounds of tests almost certainly had located a son of the suspect -- the first high-profile U.S. case cracked by a technique known as familial DNA searching.
If this method existed years ago, the BTK killer would have gotten caught in no time. Still wouldn't have caught Gacy or Dahmer who disposed of their victims properly.
Anyway hell of a breakthrough.
