Solved by a Family Tree

In 2018, investigators used a genealogy website to name the Golden State Killer after four decades of silence. Since then, genetic genealogy has turned hundreds of unsolved murders and unidentified remains into named victims and named suspects. Solved by a Family Tree explains how a crime scene sample becomes a family tree, and how a tree becomes an arrest. You will meet the genetic detectives and lab scientists who built the method, the companies that opened or closed their databases to police, and the families who finally got an answer. You will also see the other side: a wrongly accused man in Oregon, a DNA company that went bankrupt with millions of profiles, and the lawmakers still deciding where the lines belong. Built on court records, published research and careful reporting, this book is a clear, balanced account of the most powerful new tool in cold case work and the privacy questions that come with it.