Genetic Genealogy Update...

Feel like I should do some sort of update on genetic genealogy, in general… so much has been happening.

I’ll skip all the (many and fascinating) cold cases that appear to have been solved by the new technique, though they have yet to go to trial, and the legal/ethical/privacy issues remain, and just note two things:

1)  Again, the majority of cases being worked on (though not entirely) seem to be very old 30-45-year-old unsolved crimes finally being brought to resolution. So I don’t know how much, if any work, has been done on Faith’s 7-year-old murder. :(

2)  But worse or more pertinent, is that because of privacy concerns, GEDmatch (one of the main databases used in this work) has recently altered their policy so that a participant must now OPT IN to allowing crime fighters to access their data — previously, police could by default, use their data, but now the default mode is inaccessibility by law enforcement. Even though all indications are that people WANT their data used to help solve violent crimes, the simple fact is that individuals tend, in general, not to bother with manually changing default settings, which now they must do to permit investigators access.

So far ~50,000 users have opted IN for the use of their data, but that is out of over 1.2 million in the database, causing CeCe Moore, one of the most prominent genetic genealogists out there, to comment, “It’s basically useless now. Our work on any new cases is significantly stalled.” This is sad to hear, even if it turns out to be a temporary setback.

I suspect over time, and perhaps some court cases, such databases will again be widely useable for such crime-solving, but the immediate near-term is murky.

ADDENDUM:  there are multiple companies doing genetic genealogy but Parabon is certainly the most widely-known and publicized, and they recently mentioned that they were limiting themselves to "cold cases" since there is SO MUCH work out there to do and they must set up criteria... SO, that too is worrisome since Chapel Hill Police continue to deny that Faith's murder is a cold case, perhaps therefore removing it from Parabon's interest.

I suspect we can assume at this point there will be no news come the 7th anniversary in September. Ughhhh!

Here, by the way, is one interview with CeCe explaining a lot about the technique: