There is the usual stuff one reads in these sort of cases that have been in the news like the Golden State Killer but there are some tidbits of information about how this company is different and how it is the same, plus the founder was a worker on the Human Genome project so that kind of helped lead to him forming his company, plus the complications from so much intermarriage in this specific case (they had to get samples from all the surviving members of family they could). It's a tragic case where one twin is murdered and we usually read about twins in the news having such similar lives that it seems to defy the odds. The detail about the criminal getting three years probation for his first rape (that he was caught at) feels outrageous.
> ...he was stopped and handcuffed by police officers. Foreman may have recognized the handcuffs. They had been sitting in an evidence room for nearly three decades, until Aaron and Bess received special approval to take them to Ohio. They were the same pair that had been found on Edwards in 1995.
I am surprised they did this. I imagine DNA evidence trumps the cuffs as evidence, but still.. That's just begging for the DA to make some bogus claim based on technicalities.
One would like to hope that the more clever aspiring rapist-murderers will clue in that their DNA will catch up to them and that their time on the loose will be shorter and shorter.
If they can use the DNA from picogrammes of DNA, ~15 cells, worth I suspect it would be hard to prevent leaking DNA during a crime; a bit of spittle, a cough droplet a tiny flake of dandruff could be enough I'd guess, if not now then soon.
DNA just says the person was present. Something that small could even come through an open window from miles away. You generally need the DNA source to be damning, like semen, skin under fingernails, etc. For it just to “be on the couch” might get you an interview with the police, but not a conviction by itself.
While this may seem technically promising, it's also likely that the growing volume of cases will include enough false convictions to cast doubt on the enterprise. Especially if more shady businesses get into the game.
I downloaded my 23andme file and uploaded my DNA to GEDmatch in the past. I wonder if I turned on “let law enforcement use it” and if I should turn it on now. I need to think about it. I like catching bad guys as much as the next guy. It does make me uncomfortable that it could be used wrongly or even against me if I did nothing wrong. Maybe those are unreasonable fears, I don’t know.
Why on earth would you ever do that. And by "that" I mean every step. 1. Send your DNA to a for-profit company. 2. Upload the DNA results to yet another for-profit company. 3. Consider then giving law enforcement access to said DNA results.
Each and every step you've outlined is utterly insane to me.
Say what you will, but these companies provide a service that many people are willing to pay for.
And just like social media, it doesn’t matter if you refuse to play. All it takes is any of your friends to allow them to scrape their address book and bingo, you are now a part of the social graph, like it or not.
Law enforcement doesn’t need your DNA. They just need the DNA of anyone related to you, which according to this article can include any one of thousands of people.
>Each and every step you've outlined is utterly insane to me.
Absolutely agreed; however, all it takes it that one "doesn't care why should you?!" -brother / genetic relative... to get your partial genetic information into the hands of profiteering geneticists / admen.
I uploaded my DNA results to GEDmatch and a couple other places for the explicit purpose of giving both researchers and law enforcement access to them.
Of course, I live in the real world and not a delusional paranoiac realm of fearmongering so I realize that the tangible realizable benefits far outweigh any, even hypothetical, risks.
Researchers are today, right now, this very second downloading genetic information from those databases and using it to understand and develop cures for diseases. The vast libraries of information, coupled with health and demographic data, are changing the way science is done.
There is also a chance, however small, that a genealogical genetic match to me will lead to one of my trashy drug-addicted relatives going to jail for rape.
>literally being falsely imprisoned or executed is an actual, real world risk, that people have actually experienced
The article you yourself linked to, which I read every word of, contains no examples of people "literally being falsely imprisoned or executed".
Eyewitness testimony can lead to false imprisonment-- is the solution to ban eyewitness testimony?
Finding a suspect's fingerprint at a scene can lead to false imprisonment-- is the solution to ban fingerprints?
DNA evidence is only a single link in a long chain and has all of the benefits and drawbacks of fingerprints, eyewitness testimony, and all other forms of evidence. It is no different, despite what crime shows might have you think.
Every time you're feeling stressed out about the jackbooted gubmint thugz locking you up if they find your DNA somewhere just repeat to yourself "it's the exact same thing as them finding a fingerprint or CCTV still, just newer".
"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury we found the suspect's fingerprints and DNA at the scene, have a CCTV image of him buying the hammer that has his fingerprints and DNA on it, and have three eyewitnesses who saw him enter the scene of the crime right before the murder"
"Throw it all out, it's a conspiracy, a violation of the defendant's rights. That's all faulty evidence fraught with peril and allowing it will destroy democracy and freedom as we know it."
> Every time you're feeling stressed out about the jackbooted gubmint thugz
You sure are putting a whole lot of words in my mouth. I’m going to assume you are no longer engaging in good faith. Enjoy your impending future data leak.
I have already actually and literally given it away. You yourself can download it.
And I don't need to lie about what an article contains to try and scare people.
Like you did.
You stopped acting in good faith the moment you lied.
You lied about the content of the link you posted, probably thinking that I wouldn't read it. But I did read it, the link YOU YOURSELF posted, and I discovered you lying about what it contained.
Because you are a liar.
And I respond to liars with ridicule.
edit: note to the civility police-- none of the above statements are personal attacks, they are statements of fact based on evidence posted directly by the person being responded to of his or her own free will, available for public observation on a website designed to allow for responses. The person I am responding to is irrefutably and unquestionably a liar who lied about the content of a link he or she posted. It was not a mistake, omission, misinterpretation, or anything else-- it was a lie.
do you understand that sensationalizing and snarkifying your comments so intensely doesn’t actually make you sound more convincingly rational and judicious?
You would have to be an absolute moron to willingly submit your DNA to law enforcement. How does this possibly help anyone? Like if someone you were genetically related to committed a crime? All I can see is severe potential negatives for you and no positives.
This also helps identify people who slip and fall while cliff diving (usually not carrying ID) or get hit in a hit-and-run while walking their dog, or burn up in a friend’s house fire.
I have a friend who volunteers to go through dental records for kidnapped children, trying to locate the records for the body of the found child. These are the types of things people don’t usually think about. And if you’re curious, yes, sometimes kidnappers even destroy the teeth to try and prevent the identification of the children.
These aren’t just to solve crimes, but locate family members of the deceased John/Jane Does.
If someone is missing a family member it’s much more prudent to do a specific DNA test then, not advocate for carte Blanche providing your genetic data to the government.
> According to the case file, Foreman, then a 21-year-old Nabisco salesman, had been driving through Beaumont when he saw a young woman who’d had car trouble. Foreman stopped to offer her a ride, claiming to be a cop. He drove the woman to a secluded area, threatened to cut her throat with a knife, tied her hands behind her back with a belt, and raped her. About two weeks later, the traumatized woman went to the police. Foreman readily confessed, explaining that he had “been out drinking and just got carried away.” In exchange for pleading guilty to aggravated assault, he received three years of probation. Aaron soon learned that Foreman and Edwards were three years apart at Forest Park High School. Edwards and her twin sister, Allison, had even been bridesmaids at Foreman’s 1982 wedding.
