Familial DNA could solve one of Scotland’s oldest murders in the same way it caught the Golden State Killer.
For almost four decades, the so-called “Golden State Killer” terrorised the West Coast, however on April 28, 2018, America’s most-infamous and longest-running murder investigations was finally brought to a close.
During the seventies and eighties, around a dozen murders, 50 rapes and countless break-ins were linked to the nameless suspect.
Eventually he was snared after a breakthrough came via familial DNA. Retired Californian police officer called Joseph James DeAngelo was arrested.
Now the same technique could provide the breakthrough in one of Scotland’s oldest and most infamous cold cases, the so-called Cheese Wire Murder of Scots taxi driver George Murdoch in Aberdeen, reports the Scottish Daily Express.
Scientists have established a DNA link to 200 people – one of whom could be related to the murderer who has gone undetected for more than 40 years. The technique known as “familial DNA” may finally be set to bring the case to a close.
It involves comparing a partial genetic match from an unknown suspect to samples taken from very close relatives such as parents, children or siblings. If any of them already have had their DNA submitted to the national database then similarities between their profile and that of the suspect will be flagged up.
The Golden State Killer was caught after a DNA profile was found at the scenes of one of his crimes – the home of Lyman and Charlene Smith who in 1980 were bludgeoned to death in Ventura County, California.
Around 38 years later, that sample uploaded into a genealogy website called GEDmatch from which it identified up to 20 people who had the same great-great-great-grandparents as DeAngelo. Investigators slowly whittled them down to two individuals before ruling one out through another DNA test.
That left DeAngelo, now 72, as the only suspect. Following this breakthrough, detectives put DeAngelo under surveillance and collected his rubbish which contained his DNA. Another sample was taken from the handle of his car.
Checking with GEDmatch, it directly linked him to multiple crime scenes associated with the Golden State Killer. On Tuesday, April 24, 2018, DeAngelo was arrested outside his Sacremento home. Speaking at a Press conference to announce the news, Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert said: “We found the needle in the haystack.”
In June 2020, DeAngelo pleaded guilty to 13 counts of first-degree murder including murder committed during burglaries and rapes and 13 counts of kidnapping. Due to Californaian’s statute of limitations, he could not be charged with any of the rapes or burglaries.
Three months later, DeAngelo received multiple consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole. Today, he remains in protective custody at the California State Prison in Corcoran.
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