About this episode
In late April, police arrested a 72-year-old Joseph James DeAngelo for a series of rapes and murders committed in the 1970s and 1980s. Dangelo (a.k.a. the Golden State Killer) was apprehended when a surreptitiously obtained DNA sample matched the DNA of relative on the other side of the country who had registered with a website and service that enables users to trace their family heritage. In this podcast segment, Jim and Doug discuss the ever-increasing role of DNA evidence — as well as the rapidly growing use of publicly available DNA databases — in police investigations.